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The
Royal Burgh of Dornoch (Gaelic:
Dòrnach)
is a town and seaside resort in the Highlands of Scotland, on
the north shore of the Dornoch Firth, close to where it opens
into the Moray Firth to the east. Dornoch boasts the
thirteenth-century Dornoch Cathedral. It is also notable as the
last place a witch was burnt in Scotland. Her
name was Janet Horne; she was tried and condemned to death in
1727.
The
tune probably refers to the Royal Dornoch Golf Club, named the
5th best golf course outside the United States in
2005 by Golf Digest magazine.
Long
before a golf club was formed at Dornoch, the game of golf was
played on the town lands on the links along the seashore.
Sometimes it was frowned on by authority because presumably
there was a need for their subjects to practise more warlike
activities and good marksmen were needed more than good golfers.
The
first three golf links in Scotland of which there is written
record are: 1552, St Andrews; 1593, Leith; 1616, Dornoch.It was
in 1877 that the Dornoch Golf Club was founded as the successor
of the Sutherland Golfing Society whose members played at
Dornoch and Golspie. The course was then only 9 holes long. The
annual subscription to the club was 2/6 and the annual income
was £3 18s 6d. But changes were in store. The great Tom Morris
came up from St Andrews and laid out 9 proper golf holes. Three
years later another 9 holes were added and the fame of the
Dornoch course started to spread, even across the Atlantic to
America.
About
the turn of the century the great Sandy Herd first played with
the new rubber-cored ball and out of fashion went the old gutty.
John Sutherland, the Club’s Secretary who guided the fortunes of
the Club for over 50 years, and his committee, had to remodel
the course as a result of the faster ball and Dornoch became for
a time the 5th longest course in Britain.In 1906 through the
influence of Duchess Millicent of Sutherland the club was
granted the Royal Charter by King Edward the Seventh and Royal
Dornoch Golf Club was born.
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