Alltreoch & Strathardle
On our last weekend in Scotland, we discovered a part of the country that was new to us and quite delightful. Mary and Geoffrey Thomson, whose rental house we had occupied for 5-1/2 weeks in Dornoch, invited us to Alltreoch, their home three hours to the South, for the 139th annual Strathardle Highland Gathering. Allltreoch means “gray house.” Strathardle is the broad valley around the River Ardle, which arises in the Cairngorms near the southern boundary of the Highlands. Alltreoch House is about an hour northwest of Dundee. 
On our first night, Mary and Geoffrey treated us to delicious grilled salmon and fine wine for dinner. Previously, we had shared time together in Dornoch and at their croft nearby; it was good to see them in their home space. The “gray house” has beautiful green grass and trees, pens for chickens and pigs, and lovely spaces for outdoor entertaining.
Mary and Geoffrey raise beautiful, well-behaved miniature Dachshunds. Here is Beatle and her latest litter. What a joy to see a patient mother with six eager babies!
Thousands of people came together on Saturday, August 27, to compete for prizes in cooking, gardening, raising cattle and sheep, dancing and more. Mary and Geoffrey assembled a group of sixteen for a tailgate party: eating, drinking, and watching all afternoon.
Mary entered the morning “Home Industries” competition; her chocolate-orange mousse won Second Prize. To me, it was Absolutely Delicious.
Promptly at 12:30 the Grand Master Sir Michael Nairn led the Pipe Band Parade to begin the afternoon contests. These videos show only a small fraction of the sights and sounds we experienced that afternoon.
The Strathardle Highland Gathering was much more comprehensive than the Highland Games we’d seen three weeks before in Dornoch. This was Scotland at its best! But what about golf and the church activities that had filled our days in the north? On Sunday morning, Steve and Geoffrey took part in a fun “Broken Club” tournament at Blairgowrie Golf Club. Mary and I attended a Church of Scotland service in Kirkmichael, where I took photos of the River Ardle and the church where they got married in August, 2017.
In the afternoon Mary took me to a private arboretum near Bridge of Cally that I found quite different from arboretums I had visited in Dallas, Boston, and Washington DC. It was where the Ardle and the Black Water flow together to become the River Ericht. We were the only humans there on such a pretty day.
Mary is an interior designer known as Mary Leslie. During the pandemic, she finished this book about living in compact spaces, which I think will be of interest to many of my friends. That night we took our hosts out to dinner at Dalmore Restaurant to thank them for a splendid weekend. This post, I trust, expands our appreciation. Thank you, Mary and Geoffrey, for squeezing us in 😊 and introducing us to new and pleasurable aspects of Scotland’s rich cultural heritage.
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