Where would you go when there is barely a cloud in the sky and you fancy a walk on a beach? Dornoch, obviously. There is also a link between this post and the previous post for the Cafe at the Carnegie Hall in Portmahomack because just up the road from Dornoch is Skibo Castle. It was once the home of philanthropist, Andrew Carnegie. Dornoch itself is famous for many things. The last witch in Scotland was burned here in 1727. The golf course is judged to be the 5th best outside the US. The thirteenth-century Cathedral and Pat’s first holiday destination when she was at school. Most famously of all, of course, Madonna had her son, Rocco, christened in the Cathedral before her marriage at Skibo!!

Buckets and spades

Having little  requirement for burning, golfing or christening, we headed for the beach .. and what a beach! Miles of beautiful sand stretching as far as you could see. Needless to say, in early April, it’s not quite warm enough for lazing around on. We had also forgotten our buckets and spades. It wasn’t too long before we thought that a scone wouldn’t go amiss. We knew that there were good scones at Gordon House because we reviewed them last year. In the interests of continuing research however, we thought we should try somewhere different. So here we are at Dornoch Castle Hotel, just across the road from the Cathedral.

Originally built as the Bishop’s Palace, it has been here quite a while and certainly retains some of its old-world charm. Eight foot thick stone walls and a big welcoming log fire. The hotel is a slightly odd mixture of old and new. The bar area, where we were, being quite characterful but the dining room at the rear of the hotel is very modern and seems strangely out of keeping. Never mind that though what about the scone testing. Well, once again the scones were okay, but nothing to write home about. So what exactly are we doing writing about them .. answers on a postcard? They were nicely presented with jam and a pot of whipped cream but the scones themselves were definitely not topscone material, though enjoyable enough.

End of an era

We had an Englishman with us so we had to post a photo of his effort at preparing a scone. These days we are nervous about not giving glowing reviews because, in the past week, we were given the devastating news that McEwens of Perth had suddenly closed down. Some disingenuous folk have suggesting that it was because we did not rate their scones highly enough. Joking aside this really is bad news because McEwens w

as one of our favourite shops. Family run, a bit quirky, a bit old fashioned, a bit of an institution. It’s passing is very sad, it will be sorely missed, especially by the 130 people who worked there. For Perthshire, it is the equivalent of Tata Steel closing down in Port Talbot but we don’t think there will be any similar governmental attempts at a rescue package. End of an era.

So, although Dornoch Castle Hotel did not get a topscone award either we really hope, in spite of that, it continues to prosper for many years to come.

IV25 3SD         tel: 01862 810216        Dornoch Castle Hotel