Dornoch is a beautiful, wee village and perhaps my favorite place on the planet, full of friendly, kind, welcoming people. To top that off it’s designated a Royal Burgh. I don’t know exactly what that means but it sure sounds cool. It’s a magical place where witches were once burned at the stake, Andrew Carnegie retired, and Madonna had her child christened.
I’ve been there at different times of the year, October, November and May but the many small businesses always seem to have plenty of patrons. There’s a beautiful cathedral, a jail (now an upscale shop with lots of branded merchandise), and a castle (now an upscale hotel and restaurant). The beach is spectacular and there’s an old quarry where stones for the many of the town’s old buildings were obtained.
It’s located about 45 miles north of Inverness, the traditional Highland Capital, an easy drive up the A9 highway. This place is almost at 58° north latitude, only a little more than 8° from the Arctic Circle. Therefore the winters are long and dark, but not that cold thanks to the Gulf Stream. In mid summer the sun barely sets but because of the northerly location the
temperatures are moderate to cool. The good news is that Dornoch gets only about 25 inches of rain annually, but I’ll still pack my waterproofs.
Dornoch is rich in history. The cathedral, founded by Bishop Gilbert, dates to the thirteenth century though it’s be sacked and rebuilt several times. In the year 1260 or thereabouts, William, Earl of Sutherland, lead an army against the Danes in the Battle of Embo contested on the linksland. The Danes were vanquished. Legend says that William slew the Dane’s leader when he bludgeoned him to death with the leg of a dead horse. The Royal Dornoch Golf Club commemorates this ignominious achievement with a horse shoe as part of the club’s crest. A large mound out on the fifteenth hole is said to hold the graves of the slain Danes.
Finally and more pertinent to our trip, is the Royal Dornoch Golf Club, always ranked among the top twenty in all the world. The remote location and relative lack of lodging prohibit it from ever hosting the Open. However if I could play but one course for the rest of my life, this is the one I would choose. It’s brilliant! The Scots have always know how great a course it is, yet it was largely unknown here until Herbert Warren Wind published his article “Northward to the Links of Dornoch” in the New Yorker Magazine in 1964. Since then it’s fame has grown steadily in America.
Required reading; A Season in Dornoch Golf and Life in the Scottish Highlands by Lorne Rubenstein.
ODL
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