Highland Adventures with Family
Dunrobin Castle was the first stop on Lilli and Violet”s welcome-to-Scotland tour on August 19. Dunrobin has all the elements of a true magical kingdom, set in the reality of the Highlands, rather than in the fantasy of Disney World: exquisite gardens, fascinating falconry, and room after beautiful room. Here’s a description in words:
Dunrobin Castle is the most northerly of Scotland’s great houses and the largest in the Northern Highlands with 189 rooms. Dunrobin Castle is also one of Britain’s oldest continuously inhabited houses dating back to the early 1300s, home to the Earls and later, the Dukes of Sutherland.
Here are photos to show you what we saw.
That afternoon we visited the Emigrants monument in Helmsdale, which my friends and I had seen two weeks before. I couldn’t wait to see it again, but it didn’t have the same dramatic impact on Steve and Lilli as it had had on me. Both viewings made me feel the family’s pain intensely. I observed that at least in the Clearances, the children had not been separated from their parents. The Scots were not that cruel. The River Cafe across the river in Helmsdale was very slow this time, but we enjoyed the exhibits at Timespan.
Lisa Craig hosted the first of three birthday parties for Steve that evening. Violet and Lilli fit right in with our friends. Here are five of us on Lisa’s sofa; that’s Keeter Len Sechrist, Allene’s newly-arrived cousin, on the left.
On Tuesday morning we walked on the Royal Dornoch Golf Course with Steve, Jim and Mike Sechrist as they played a round of golf. After four holes of learning about the challenges of this course, we walked back by the beach path in time for Lilli to have a massage at Coco Spa and for Violet and me to have some time at the HistoryLinks Museum.
The afternoon was equally delightful. Steve drove us across the Dornoch Firth and out the Tarbat Ness Peninsula to see a Lighthouse that we had visited in previous years. Violet was fearless on the craggy rocks and found interesting shells and stones. I tried to capture the beauty of the rugged flowers on that windswept coast. The lighthouse was designed by famous Scottish engineer Robert Stevenson and began operations in 1830. Its two red bands were added in 1915 as a daymark to distinguish it from other lighthouses. From a restaurant in Dornoch two nights later, we were able to see the lighthouse’s four flashes of light every 30 seconds .
On August 21, our family visited the same Falls of Shin that my friends and I had seen three weeks before. The mighty River Shin was still rushing, so the salmon couldn’t jump.
But this time we discovered a fun playground and a lovely forest walk.
On our last full day in Dornoch, we walked all around the town, found more playgrounds, and had our last lunch at the Club. When the sun came out, Lilli and Violet walked on the beach. In the evening we toasted Steve’s real birthday by crowding ten people into the Garden Conservatory. This year we spent more weeks in Dornoch than ever before, saw more of the countryside, made more friends, and enjoyed introducing this special place to Lilli and Violet. We hope to share it with more family members and friends in future years.
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