Dornoch 2025

Dornoch is a treasure trove of delights for me: playing piano in the Cathedral, singing in the choir, walking in the woods, visiting Historylinks Museum, seeing friends Marion, Ian and Claire. But this year I missed seeing people I loved being with in prior years:  Allene, Jim, Lisa, and Charlie!. And I saw Maxann, Jay, and Kerensa only briefly.

Thank goodness we had lots of visitors! Steve had been alone in our rented house for eight days until grandson Stephen arrived from Austin on July 31, followed by son David from Miami on August 2. All three enjoyed quality time with Maxann and Jay before I got to Dornoch. A fierce storm named Floris delayed my arrival from a Baltic cruise until August 6, but I did get to see my son and grandson for two days before they departed on August 8. Steve and I walked with them to the beach, introduced them to Historylinks Museum and shared two hearty dinners.

On Saturday, August 9, we picked up Florentine Friedrich at the Tain train station and had dinner at the station’s Platform 1864 restaurant. Florentine is the daughter of the Bea and Jūrgen Friedrich, whom we saw in Berlin three years ago, not long after we had seen Florentine in Paris, where she was studying at the Sorbonne. Now she is studying and teaching at the London School of Economics. Though we missed the Dornoch Pipe Band that Saturday evening, we climbed all the way to the top of the Dornoch Cathedral tower and got an overview of the town-with-no-stoplight that we love.

The next day we attended the Cathedral’s morning worship service, had lunch at Luigi, and took in the Highland Games at Tain. On Monday, she and I hiked through the woods, viewed the golf course, and visited Historylinks. A visit to Dunrobin Castle with Marion McAuley was a special treat on Tuesday, August 12: Marion made sure we had front row seats for the Falconry exhibit there.

Before Florentine caught the train back to London on Wednesday at noon, Steve took us to the Portmahomack peninsula to see the Lighthouse. Scotland was new to Florentine. She loved the cool, clean air; I loved her interest and curiosity. She reminded me of her mother’s eagerness to learn when she was an exchange student with us in August 1979.

Over the next few days, I enjoyed getting more thoroughly acquainted with Doris and Gus Gusler from Raleigh NC. They, too, come almost every year and stay near the Cathedral. Doris listened to me play the piano there and was sensitive to how, when the clouds permit, the light shines through the Cathedral windows in interesting ways. We also loved sharing delicious hot chocolate at nearby Cocoa Mountain.

Our next visitors arrived on Sunday afternoon, August 10:  Rebecca and Paul Richards and Justin Muir, fellow members of Secession Golf Club with whom Steve and Jim Cooley play golf in South Carolina and southern England. Again, we missed Allene and Jim, but the guys managed to have four full days of golf, while I had the pleasure of introducing Rebecca to the glories of the Highlands. The weather was lovely when we hiked the Earl’s Cross trail and learned some of the thousand-year history of Dornoch. We joined Marion at Dornoch Club for lunch, then  found our way to the Cathedral and to Historylinks.

Rebecca drove to Dunrobin Castle the next day, where we got to see the Falconry and the glorious gardens that lead the eye to the North Sea..

Rebecca seemed quite interested in Scottish history and readily agreed to drive another 30 minutes north to Helmsdale to see the TimeSpan Museum. Here we saw a documentary about the Herring Boom in the early 19th century. That was when men and women cleared from the Highlands in favor of sheep became part of a growing fish production industry. Here you can see a typical room from that period (what you can’t see is the bunk bed in the room).

Ian McAuley had lent me a fascinating book, Lest We Forget by Tessa Dunlop about 100 events to remember about WW II in the UK. On Wednesday, Marian and Ian took us to Dunbeath to see a museum that documented an aircrash in 1942 near that town, that killed the Duke of Kent, the King’s brother. Besides that story, we learned more about what it is like to live along the Northern Coast, as you can see in this Dunbeath Album.

On their last day in Dornoch, Rebecca drove me to Tain to visit the Tain museum and have lunch at Green’s.

We had had so much fun together that it was sad to see Rebecca and Paul depart Friday morning. Friday afternoon, Steve and I drove three hours south to Alltreoch, home of Mary and Geoffrey Thomson, friends whose home we rent in Dornoch. Check out what fun we had in Perthshire!

Reflecting a week later on this year’s stay in Dornoch, I want to include two musical experiences I had at the Cathedral. Both involved learning about newer compositions inspired by pieces I played. One day, I played  Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring, which I recorded in 2020.

Robert Boyce, one of the people at the welcome table, observed that it sounded like Lady Lynda by the Beach Boys. Surprised, I checked it out and sure enough they, too, like Myra Hess during WW II, admired Bach’s choral prelude.

Another day, I played Erik Satie’s Gymnopedie No. 1 and got a good reaction from one listener.

Then I checked that day’s Listener’s Club, a classical music appreciation blog, and found that that composition had inspired two more recent composers. Here is Stephan Koncz’ “A New Satiesfaction” (Gymnopedie No. 1): A Melancholic Musette After Satie.

Another composer inspired by Satie was John Cage, whose composition, “In a Landscape” was another homage to Satie that I learned about on The Listener’s Club blog. It features pianist Stephen Drury.

I love learning more about the wonderful world of music!