Tuesday 25th April 93 miles travelled
Woke to flurry of snow showers at Dornoch beach and beautiful sunshine, but much too cold to walk in it ...
Dornoch has the distinction of burning the last witch/healer/wise woman in Scotland in 1722, an elderly woman who they coated in tar and rolled in a barrel through the streets to her pyre .
I'm amazed they want to advertise this fact. Also famed for its championship golf courses.
Took to the A9 road and drove to Dunrobin castle £9 admission for us, full of English Royal family connections and also of Germanic ancestry, (big coach party of German tourists from cruise ship moored overnight at nearby Invergordon ,) Dunrobin was the castle of the first Duke/Duchess of Sutherland (Viking word for South land) responsible for great suffering and the displacement of the largest number of crofters 50,000 from their living in the fertile and sheltered glens, relocating them to crofts on the cliffs to eke out an existence fishing in great poverty. (Possiby the fate of Andy's Scottish ancestors - the Ross clan - who emigrated to NZ to avoid starvation?) the castle was unheated and over priced for a quick tour of the hunting, shooting, fishing, and Grace and favour brigade, but it provided a welcome brief respite from the biting cold outside. The museum in the grounds was STUFFED with animal trophies, giraffes, lions, tigers, elephants' ivory tusks and hundreds of antlers.
The museum guide told us that if it moved, the Sinclairs shot it!
Golspie (the nearby town) had few appealing wild camping spots so we moved on to Helmsdale, heart of both the herring boom (fondly known as the silver darlings) and a mini gold rush in 1800s. Now a sleepy one street village bypassed by A9. Decided this was our next wild camping spot , as it had good views (by the river, as it enters the sea) and was a short walk to the Pub.
Went to the Timespan museum , which had a film of the last wolf shot in Scotland , and explained the massive negative difference to the habitat this made to Sutherland, with a music score by none other than Aiden O'Rourke fiddle player from Lau/Kan/A9.
Pleasant evening and warm welcome in the English run Bannockburn Inn, toasty, real wood burning fire, staple pub grub and sheep shaggers local ale for Andy. Bought an NC500 T shirt and a quiet night in the van
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