Paul McCartney spends time with Linda Eastman in Scotland

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The last session for the new double album “The Beatles” was on October 18, 1968. The Beatles went their own way till the end of the year and would restart working together on January 2, 1969, for the “Get Back” sessions.

From October 20 to 31, 1968, Paul McCartney, Linda Eastman and her daughter Heather went to New York to visit Linda’s family.

On November 5, the three of them travelled to Scotland to spend some time at High Park Farm, Paul’s farm.

Compared to London standards, the farmhouse was very rural and primitive. Furniture was sparse and littered round the place. Paul had made a couch from potato boxes and sacks, which was quite comfortable. But the house inside is a bit dingy and Paul felt he might make bigger windows. He might extend the building, too, as there is only a small sitting-room, a living room-kitchen, a bedroom and wc.

From New Musical Express – June 1, 1968 – see full article

Linda said, “We could do this place up!” And I’d never thought of that, I thought it just stayed how you bought it. I just wasn’t enterprising enough to actually think, We could clean this place up! Linda really turned me on to it. I quite liked it before, I liked its isolation and I liked the privacy and the end-of-the-world remoteness compared to a city.

Paul McCartney – from “Many Years From Now”, by Barry Miles, 1997

In “Many Years From Now” by Barry Miles (1997), it is stated that Paul wrote “Her Majesty” in Scotland. Tony Macarthur, Radio Luxembourg disc jockey, said Paul played him “Her Majesty” when he interviewed him on November 20, 1968. So it’s likely the song that would end up the “Abbey Road” album was written during that stay in Scotland.

Over the coming years, especially after the Beatles’ break-up, Paul, Linda and their family would spend significant time in High Park Farm.

Later in November 1968, McCartney was back in the studio to produce Mary Hopkin’s debut album, “Postcard”.

Last updated on January 2, 2022