Guisachan Happenings

GUISACHAN UPDATE Scottish Club Assumes Responsibility for Guisachan Lease and Statue

Doreen McGugan, chairman of the Golden Retriever Club of Scotland (left) shared a toast with Joy Viola, President of the Friends of Guisachan,(right) at the 2014 unveiling of the life-size bronze statue of a Golden on historic Guisachan land.

The Friends of Guisachan have signed over the long-term lease on historic Guisachan land and the Golden Retriever statue thereon to the Golden Retriever Club of Scotland.

The transfer required all manner of legal documents “in the Scottish format” to conclude the transfer, but with the signatures of the landlord, Nigel Fraser, The Chairman of the GRCS, Doreen McGugan, and the President and Treasurer of the Friends of Guisachan, Joy Viola and Patricia Lindquist, the transfer was concluded making the Scottish Club now responsible for the mandatory liability insurance and the maintenance of the statue and the small garden surrounding it.

An ancillary agreement between the Friends of Guisachan and the GRCS covered the transfer of the $10,000 statue endowment fund to cover costs for the immediate future. A bequest from a private donor will augment the fund in due time.

The statue was funded by the Friends of Guisachan and was unveiled in 2014. It has become a landmark for Golden Retriever visitors and other tourists to the area as well.

“The Friends of Guisachan are very proud to memorialize the original birthplace of the

Assumes Responsibility for Guisachan

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Golden Retriever with a statue in Tomich, Scotland. This is particularly exciting as we reached the 150th anniversary of our breed in 2018. We are grateful for our colleagues in the Golden Retriever Club of Scotland who have taken ownership of the statue and surrounding grounds and for the many supporters in this effort through recent years,” says John Cotter, Friends Chairman of the Board of Directors. “Worldwide,Golden Retriever lovers now know where and when our breed was established,” he added.

Permanent Stone Marker Delayed

The creation of a permanent stone marker at the site of the ruins has been held up because Scotland has been in a pretty tight lock-down from Covid-19. They couldn't even get a stone worker to check out the state of the ruins and the artist can't get the quarry to cut stone for the marker. It's so far behind now that our marker won't see the light of day until next spring.

Do you have a SEVA GRREAT dog? We would love to see what you are doing. Our alumni seem to be having very exciting lives. Share your pictures, including captions, by sending them to grreattimes@ adoptagolden.com. They will be featured in the next newsletter under Homecoming. And if you have a story to tell, we and the other Golden lovers would enjoy reading about it. So, send those stories with your photos also.