TERCENTENARY OF DORNOCH

Hokitika Guardian, 29 September 1928, Page 6

TERCENTENARY OF DORNOCH

DUCHESS AS VIKING LEADER. TINIEST COUNTY TOWN AS STAGE (From J. M. N. JEI'TRIES.) DORNOCH,' Sutherland shire, ... Aygust 9, Dornoch m Sutherland is to celebrate a tercentenary on August 29, when there will be a pageant and festivities, and the freedom of the burgh will be conferred upon the Duke of Sutherland and upoti Lord Rothermere, who is now resident in tins district. Though'the tercente.nt.ary will be attached officially to the anniversary of the grant of a charter of Incorporation to Nornoeh by King Charles 1., in the minds of the dwellers in this favoured countryside, it will most surely be connected with three events —-first with its charter, secondly with its links, which have been used at the very least for 800 years, and thirdly with Sir Robert Cordon, of the House of Sutherland. To describe the links and Sir Robert Gordon as events may seem a careless piece of phrasing at first sight. As far as the links are concerned, 'however, those who have played upon them will accept..the description, while as for Sii Robert- Gordon—oy as he wrote his name—he, for a man of lr times and his surroundings, was more than an event even: he was an astounding happening.

Incidentally it was he who after seven years’ toll (and much chaffing and meiTi£hqn®jit s ie Court} Ffiuspect about' land' ways of Dornoch) won the charter for it.which made it y s Burgh J Rdyali. Since" about the same time, in 1630, he gave a charter of appreciation to the links and to the town, writi i; ThiS‘ v :touif, albng: r the sea-coast, there are the fairest and largest linkes or green feilds of any pairt of Scotland, fitt (for archery, golfing, ryding, and all other exercise they do surpass the fields of Montrose or St. Andrews,” he . binds the whole tercentenary together. This will be recognised during the celebrations by the unveiling of a memorial tablet to him in the ancient cathedral which he did so much to save from ruin. There for the moment 1 shall ,j£.aye Jipn und .the surpassing Jinks winch he so justly praised; he and Dornoch as it .is,to-day -shall' he dealt with separately. What I thin? Dornocffirvycfujdi like to nfade known first is the pageant it is prepai’ing for its visitors.

BLESSING THE NETS-,,.. This wllf ffie liefd I 'Uppn' ; ’jtvhai; in’ land he ( 'the;.... lx)rough .green, an^lfow J of 1 the small town —it is the smallest county town m Great Britain—between the cathedral and the castle. There have been nffi% 'pligea4ltS 'of Sate in'all 'phrtff of thg.pCoTuvtry,,-.but Dornoch’s will, I should think, be the most northerly which ever has been held. That does not mean, as you may.misest. As I write this evening Dornoch is enveloped in persuasive sweet sunshine, and the air.is at once soft and invigorating, 1 a combination and recipe, so rare and be -known as -a$ VIP iwfhbcnl *' 4 r ' f Between the battlements and th° 'steeple will appear St. Barr (or St. Finbar, .as some call Jiim).-who was,Abbot of a JlSrhoch' in-the* sixth 'c #-M9lia<£ed filfiThis Vraontsb will present them* s selves to/kihvThegglng . him to bless* . their nets, which he will, in the old Gaelic tongue, blessing them from east to west, in the phrase of the day. The fishermen will have with them a skincovered coracle, the almost primeval craft of their period. There will be a- leap of five centuries to epispde, wherein the Battle of Emtio, so called fi;om a nearby hamlet, will he re-enacted. At least the climax of it will be shown, when William, Earl of Sutherland, ;s.lew- the leadcu;, of the^jpyadj-ug.Danes.,. KILLED WITH HORSE LEG.

The Viking must have had a singu.decease;., for> Earl William,' 'whose sword had broken, seized the leg of a horse, which was lying in a convenient, midden, ,or ashpit, and broke his skull with it. In this scene the role of the Danish leader is taken by the Duchess of Sutherland, who will then Vie at Dunrobin Castle with a number of friends who will take part in the pageant. In a later episode, representing the granting of the charter to Sir Robert Gordon by King Charles, Lord Chapjin will be the King. •Lady Londonderry lienrjettn Maria, and Lady Ednarh the beautiful Queen of Bohemia, the “Winter Queen,” who was the iusiprntion of the poets! df itlVo .day. ■ |another episode will be depicted the burning ol the cathedral in 1-570 by the wild Mackavs or McKays of Rcav, with women and children rushing for refuge,, as they did then, into cathedral and castle. In 1722 Dornoch, alas! burned a witch, the last occasion upon which this act was carried - out in the two kingdoms. A stqne by the 17tb -ihwid .on the links commemorates this event, and it will be represented, not too hotly, in the' pageant. “ A TRUE SUTHERLAND.”

The seventh episode—there will be eight in all—will stand out by reason of a coincidence, which indeed will take it rather beyond the realm of pageantry. It will represent the little girl who was to be the last of the line of the Qordons, Earls of Sutherland, being brought in the latter half of the 17th century to Dornoch on her way to Dunrobin Castle. The rumour of the time pretended that the child, who line, been brought up by kinsfolk, was a substitute for the heiress, who had really met an untimely death. When they" saw her, though, the people of Dornoch recognised her at once as of

the real stock and they shouted, “She’s a Sutherland ! She’s a Sutherland ! ” Ip due time she married a LevesonGower, who was created Duke of Sutherland . She was always ktibwn as the Duchess-Countess,,; as she jvas the countess "of the old earldo'm in hei own right. . This scene of her recognition 'oyV the ' people will' be re-enacted in more ways than ope upon the 29th, since the part of the Duchess-Countess will be taken by Miss Elizabeth Leve-son-Gower, the young daughter of the late Lord Elizabeth Leveson Gower, the young to the earldom and, like the ancestress she will represent, will in time be Countess of Sutlici land.