Dunrobin Castle

Today we played our scheduled round at Royal Dornoch Golf Club. Golf has been played here since as far back as 1616, when the first account is found in the public record at Dornoch. The course is very picturesque and is known as one of the more difficult courses in Scotland due to the gorse, plateau greens, and pot bunkers. We were paired with another single golfer and his caddy. As it turned out, he was born and raised in Fayetteville and Hinton, but now lives in Wilminton, NC. His caddy was a former club champion at Royal Dornoch named Hamish Sutherland. Both were extremely pleasant and we enjoyed the round with them.

After a late lunch at the clubhouse, we headed over to Golspie to Dunrobin Castle. The castle sits on a hill overlooking the Dornoch Firth and was largely constructed in the 16th and 17th centuries, with extensive renovations in 1845. The Sutherland clan had a castle on the site since sometime in the 1200's. We arrived too late for the tour, but did walk around the grounds and the gardens, which are very impressive. We will leave tomorrow morning (Friday) for a 3 1/2 hour trip down to Cruden Bay and a round of golf at the Cruden Bay Golf Club.

North to Dornoch

On Tuesday we left Campbeltown and headed north along the coast, with views over to Islay (pronounced Eye-la) and Gigha. This was a 6 hour drive north to the town of Dornoch in the Highlands region of Scotland. Another beautiful drive that took us up along the coast, along several lochs, including Loch Ness (above) and through the mountains. The mountains near Dornoch have snow on them still, even though they aren't quite as high as the mountains in West Virginia, testament to how cold it is up here. Upon arrival at Amalfi guest house, we put our golf bags on our shoulders and walked over the Royal Dornoch Golf Club, which is about 300 yards from Amalfi. We were able to get a 6:45 tee time on the Championship course for a twilight rate of $40 pounds. The course was full and we waited a little on the groups ahead, but finished right before dark at 10:45 PM. Royal Dornoch is a great course, very different from Machrihanish. Plateau greens with shaved sides are the norm here, including the great 14th hole "Foxy", which has a plateau which varies from 5 -10 feet, nearly straight up.

On Wednesday, we made the 20 minute drive north the Brora Golf Club in the town of Brora. Along the way, we passed a giant statue of the Duke of Sutherland that stands on top of Ben Bhraggie near the town of Golspie. The Duke is infamous in the Highlands for the Clearances, which moved nearly Fifteen thousand tenant farmers off of the lands in order to make room for sheep, which the Duke felt would be more profitable. Brora is a classic links course, with nine holes out along the sea and nine back on the inward side. The course also has electric fences around every green to keep out the sheep. The sheep help maintain the course by keeping the rough "mowed". They are there due to ancient grazing rights that allow access to this land, but fit in with the natural feel of the course. We really enjoyed the course and since the replay rate was only $10 pounds, we went around twice. We had on and off rain, with sleet mixed in a couple of times. During the rain showers, the wind would pick up and the temperature would plummet. However, after the rain, the sun would come back out and it would be fairly comfortable. The temperatures today reached a high of about 48*.

Today we are back to Royal Dornoch and then hopefully off to do a little sightseeing in the area.



Statue of Duke of Sutherland



Brora

Machrihanish and Dunaverty

This morning after a full Scottish breakfast, which consisted of a fried egg, bacon, sausage link, two small stewed tomatoes, mushrooms, hash brown, pork and beans, and blood pudding, we were off for a full day of golf. Before I start with the golf, I know some of you have a look of horror on your face - blood pudding? Yes, it really is made of blood, but it's fried like a sausage patty. Is it good? Umm, no, not really. However, we have eaten Haggis twice and we both like it quite well. I'll let you look up what Haggis is on your own, but it has to do with sheep guts. It's quite tasty when mixed with potatoes, chicken and gravy, etc. A quick word about bacon, it isn't the same in the UK, it's better. Kind of a cross between ham and bacon. Not crispy, but very substantial. Count us as fans of this type of bacon.


Enough about food, how about the golf? Today we played two courses, Machrihanish and Dunaverty. They are pronounced "Mack-ri-han-ish" and "Done-averty". Machrihanish was redesigned by Old Tom Morris in the late 1870's, although golf was played there earlier. I'll start by saying the Machrihanish is a world class golf course and the opening nine holes are simply amazing. The back nine is very, very good, but the opening holes are just spectacular. Derek and I both played relatively well today, so that always helps your enjoyment of the course. After lunch in the Machrihanish clubhouse, we drove about 20 minutes down to Southend to play at the Dunaverty Golf Club. Dunaverty is situated right at the end of the Kintyre peninsula and on a clear day like today, you can easily see Ireland about 12 miles away. Dunaverty is a fun course to play, relatively short at 4900 yards and a par of 66, but again the scenery is magnificent. Several holes play along the ocean and the sea is always in sight. Although the day was sunny and clear, it was cooler today and the wind built all afternoon and was a "four club" wind by the time we finished. After spending all day in the wind and sun, we were ready for dinner, a shower and bed!
A quick note along that line, it's 10:45 PM as I type this and it's almost dark. It gets light again around 4:00 AM. We haven't adjusted to the time yet and are up every morning by 5:00 AM.


Derek getting ready to play a shot from the "sand"


Ireland in the distance

Machrihanish Dunes

Today (Sunday), we started out by driving north from Blackwaterfoot along the single track road that runs along the coast of Arran up to Lochranza to catch the ferry across to Kintyre. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, more beautiful scenery along the way. We arrived in Lochranza, which is situate right along the coast with a backdrop of steep mountainsides.
Lochranza

After a short half hour ferry ride, we arrived on Kintyre and again "single tracked" down along the coast and across Kintyre to Campbeltown.

Kintyre

After a quick stop at the Redknowe House to drop off our bags, we headed for our course today, Machrihanish Dunes. Machrihanish Dunes is only about a year old, and was built on a site of Special Scientific Interest, which meant that they could only level the tee boxes and do a minimal amount of work to sculpt the greens. The fairways are just as they were when they started the project. The greens had a few elephants buried underneath them, but the course is right along a beautiful stretch of beach with high dunes and we again had a great time. After the round, the fog moved in and by the time we left, the visibility was down to a few hundred yards. The fog followed us back to town and although we had dinner right along the harbor in Campbeltown, we couldn't see much of the water. Tomorrow we play at Machrihanish, which was designed by Old Tom Morris in the mid-late 1800's.

Wow!

Our flight from Philadelphia to Glasgow went without a hitch and we arrived in Scotland with all of our luggage and most importantly, our golf clubs! After picking up the rental car and immediately getting in the wrong lane pulling out of the rental car company lot, we were on our way to Ardrossan to catch the Caledonian MacBrayne ferry across to the isle of Arran. The first couple of roundabouts and the first encounters with cars coming the other way on the “wrong side” were a bit nerve racking, but we survived in fine fashion and arrived in Ardrossan without any issues. After a quick stop at the grocery store to pick up water, snacks, etc., we pulled into the ferry terminal at 8:30 AM. I had some hot tea and Derek had coffee while we waited for the ferry to arrive. The ferry was quite the ship and held several hundred people along with numerous cars, bikes, golf clubs, backpacks etc. Arran is quite the recreational destination and the ferry is the only way to get there. Plus the weather was postcard perfect and it seemed that everyone wanted out of the city and onto Arran. The ferry arrives in the town of Brodick which is situated right on the water and is very picturesque. After discovering that the main road across the island to Blackwaterfoot was closed, we took the southern route down the coast through the spectacularly situated town of Lamlash (pictured above) and across a “single track” road that cut through the mountains and came out on the far coast near Blackwaterfoot.

Between Lamlash and Blackwaterfoot

A single track road essentially means that the road is wide enough for one car, with a passing spot carved out of the hillside every couple hundred yards or so. After a few stops to take pictures, we eventually arrived at the Blackwaterfoot Inn around 12:00 noon. They were gracious enough to quickly finish our room and allow us to drop off our bags and change clothes before heading over to Shiskine Golf Club. Let me take this time to say that I am not sure there are many if any more beautiful spots on earth than the isle of Arran. Now we were there on a perfect, calm sunny day, but the pictures that I took could never do justice to the unwaveringly stark beauty of the landscape here.

Shiskine is a twelve hole course laid out right along the water and was originally designed by Willie Park and Old Tom Morris.? There are several unique holes, including #3 Crows Nest, which requires a 130 yard carry to a green set 75 yards up the side of a steep hill. The next hole then plays down off the cliff to a green set against the rocks with the sea and the Kintyre peninsula in the background. It was a fun round in a beautiful setting. What a way to start the trip!

This is the view from the 4th hole at Shishkine.

Scotland!

Well, we're off to Scotland. Derek and I leave today for 10 days of fun (but not sun!). We're off to the home of golf. Scotland is where the game of golf originated about 500 years ago, and our goal for this trip is to experience a little bit of what golf was like in the beginning. To that end, we aren't playing all of the "name" courses, but we are trying to see a lot of the country and travel to some courses that are off the beaten path a little bit. Our first stop is going to be on Isle of Arran. We will ferry across from Ardrossan and stay at the Blackwaterfoot Lodge . If we aren't too pooped from traveling, we will play a round of golf at the 12 hole Shishkine Golf Club . Sunday we will ferry across to Kintyre and play at Machrihanish Dunes (picture above).


Hopefully we will have internet access everywhere and I will be able to keep this up to date as we travel.
























Shiskine Golf Club

Wintry Weather

This winter has thus far been fairly toothless. Some snow here and there, some cold nights, but generally a mild winter overall. Yesterday, however, we had a semi-rare ice storm. It started with sleet, turned to freezing raing and eventually ended up putting about a 1/4 to 3/8" layer of ice on everything. I always look forward to ice storms (as long as they aren't too bad) because of the breathtaking beauty that they leave behind. Here are a couple of my favorite ice storm pictures (both taken this winter).

The one on the left was taken December 16th. The rain had come down pretty hard during the night, and the morning had been cloudy and cold, but the sun suddenly popped out at around 11:oo, the wind picked up and the temperature shot up quickly. Most of the ice was gone within 15 minutes of this picture.

The second picture was taken today, and shows the amount of ice accretion on everything this morning. I'm not a great photographer, and don't usually take close-ups, but this one I kind of liked. I've always found it interesting how some photographs grab your attention that may not strike anyone else as interesting.

Speaking of weather, if you ever want to know what the weather is like at my house - below is the link to my weather page. It includes all of the data that is uploaded every 10 minutes from my Davis Vantage Pro weather station. I've had it in continuous use since 2002, with the exception of a month this past summer when I had to send it back to Davis to repair damage caused by a lightning strike.

I've always been a bit of a weather nut, and enjoy taking pictures of various weather, especially during the winter. There are a few more pictures linked from my weather page as well.



Here is the link to my weather page:
Maysville Weather