Shin Falls and Sir John A.

I had intended to have a picture for you of the Duke of Sutherland’s monument taken from the top of Ben Bhraiggie, but when we realized we had to do a vertical climb of 7 kilometres in order to get the shot, we opted for fish and chips in the village instead. They were delicious! Maybe another day...

We took Jessie and Alec for a drive to Shin Falls yesterday. On the way, we paid homage to the spot where Sir John's grandparents had their farm. You can see the cairn (dedicated by Diefenbaker in 1968)marking the spot:



Shin Fall, about 40 minutes from Dornoch, is is a tourist spot where the salmon jump upstream over the falls in order to spawn. Unfortunately, the salmon were nowhere in site, but the falls were lovely and the gift shop amazing considering it was in the middle of nowhere. It’s owned by Mohammad Fyad, father of Dodi and until recently owner of Harrods in London. Fyad bought a castle in Ross-shire, and is, in effect, chief of the Ross clan. There’s a Madame Tussaud’s wax statue of him in a kilt as you walk in the store! Inside are lots of high-priced items from Harrods in London. There’s also a restaurant with gourmet food. After an amazing lunch (beef stroganoff, prawn cocktail, lamb with rosemary), we returned to Dornoch where we met our landlords who made an interesting request.

Don’s job, tonight at dusk, is to put Nigel the duck to bed. This involves catching him and taking him to his little house. Sally gave us a demonstration. Apparently, Nigel loves to give little ankle bites, so while Don attempts to round him up tonight, I will be standing at a safe distance snapping photos for Friday’s blog. No blog tomorrow because the library is closed on Thursday.

I forgot to post my seals photo. Here you go.