In Sutherland and Moray - 30 August
In the morning, we woke to a beautiful breakfast. Our hosts were absolutely charming and we’d recommend the hotel very highly. The venue was The Golf Links Hotel, Church Street, Golspie, Sutherland, Scotland KW10 6TT – www.golflinkshotel.co.uk.
We were told that the hotel used to be the manse for the church next door. Considering the size of the church next door
and the size of the hotel it was clear that there have been lots of additions and alterations to the hotel!!
It’s right on the beach and we decided to celebrate our first beautiful day by taking a quick walk along the sands.
After our walk, we headed for Dunrobin Castle after a long chat with the neighbours living to the right of the hotel, Dorothy McKay and her husband and daughter, Michelle, who gave us heaps of useful information.
We explored the gardens first
Before sitting in on a wonderful falconry demonstration with Cedar, the European Eagle Owl,
Ash, the Harris Hawk from Arizona,
And a Peregrine Falcon (whose name I’ve forgotten) seen here guarding the prey on his handlers glove.
There was also a Tawny Owl, a Blue Eagle and a Bengal Eagle Owl but we didn’t see these in action.
The demonstration over, we turned to the Castle with its 189 rooms.
Wow! We entered the Castle through the main front door, just as the Duke of Sutherland would have done after disembarking from his yacht in 1850 and coming up a steep hill from the shore in a coach and four. The earldom of Sutherland is one of the seven ancient earldoms of Scotland and the Sutherlands were one of the most powerful families in Britain with many matrimonial and territorial alliances.
Dunrobin is mentioned for the first time as a stronghold of the family in 1401 and its name may mean Robin’s Castle after Robert the 6th Earl of Sutherland whose wife was a daughter of the barbarous Alexander East of Buchan, a younger son of King Robert II and known as the Wolf of Badenoch. The present Castle dates from the late 13th Century and parts of the oldest portions can be seen from the corridor window.
The third Duke built, at his own expense, the Highland Railway which passes the gates of Dunrobin on the other side of the trunk road. Trains still stop at the charming little Victorian rustic station. Standing by the line and looking down the Castle Drive is a statue of the second Duke. It was the second Duke who commissioned Sir Charles Barry, architect of the Houses of Parliament, to transform Dunrobin from a traditional Scottish Castle into a vast Palace in Franco-Scots style. Barry encased the ancient parts and added all the main rooms now seen by the public.
During the Great War, Dunrobin was used as an auxiliary naval hospital but in 1915 a fire destroyed much of Barry’s work. When the war was over, the great Scottish architect Sir Robert Lorimer was called in to make good the ravages of the fire but he did more. He simplified Barry’s main tower and remodeled much of the interior.
As we explored some of the rooms in this beautiful castle, we had opportunities to look down on the gardens below.
When we finally managed to tear ourselves away from Dunrobin, we started our drive down to pass through Inverness, across the Firth of Cromartey, and up north again towards Moray. As always, the scenery was astounding and, at times, awesome.
We stopped briefly in Inverness, rather sad to see the ugly building which had been permitted to be built in front of the beautiful Inverness Castle and Law Courts
primarily to check out our Scottish ancestors and their insignia and tartan at the Highland House of Fraser. We’d searched high and low at every gift shop and information centre throughout Scotland but believed that, having finally arrived close to their ‘seat’ we might find what we were looking for - information about the MacDuff Clan. And we did! The Gaelic name is MacDhuibh and the Clan motto ‘Deus juvat’ – God assists. The Crest shows a demi-lion rampant, holding a sword. Naturally I immediately bought a brooch!
Returning to our car, we were charmed to find two ushers standing at the side of the road, waiting for their transport from the wedding to the reception. They very kindly allowed us to take their photograph! We thought they looked incredibly smart!
Leaving Inverness, we set off for our destination for the night, Lossiemouth. It was here that my grandparents spent their summer holidays and where we children joined them, along with many of our cousins. I wanted so much to take Suzi back to enjoy some of the family memories, but sadly too many years had passed by and I couldn’t recall anything – not at the Air Force Base, the Golf Course or even the house which my grandparents rented each summer. In the end, we decided not to stay there but to drive a few miles to the west and we found another wonderful Bed and Breakfast at Burnside House, just north of Duffus (where we had a lovely dinner at the Duffus Inn).
Home from dinner we settled in to our beautiful room which was totally decorated with the Black Watch tartan.
The Black Watch regiment is considered by many to be the most distinguished in the British Army. The Black Watch tartan is perhaps the oldest indisputably authentic tartan, although no-one is certain how the sett and colours came to be decided.
We were told that there is some similarity to the Campbell tartan, and certain earlier commanders were Campbells, but it's apparently unlikely that the Black Watch tartan can have derived from the Campbell, more likely the reverse.