Activities - A round with…Michael Buchan
A round with... Michael Buchan
Photos by Royal Dornoch Golf Club 8th Green, 9th Tee, of the Championship Course
The majesty of Royal Dornoch
M
ore than 130 years before 22 noblemen, academics and landowners got together to found the Society of St Andrews Golfers in 1754 the game, in some form at least, was being played on the links at Dornoch. Golf has been played on the lands
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around this Sutherland town and the links bordering the seashore since at least 1616 and maybe even earlier. There has been a community in this part of Scotland for a thousand years or more, long before the Vikings arrived on the shores of what they called ‘Suderland’ - the Southern Land.
As the native Pictish-Celtic people were driven inland, or integrated with the new arrivals, this coastal region fell under the Norse influence that can still be seen today in place names such as Skibo, Skelbo, Embo, Brora, Helmsdale, Wick and Thurso. The name ‘Dornoch’ comes from the Gaelic for ‘pebbly place’
