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Guisachan Gathering |
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 Golden Retriever Club of Scotland celebrated it's 60th Anniversary hosting a special weekend on 30th - 31st July 2006 at Guisachan House ruins and in the conservation village of Tomich. I am sure all Golden Retriever enthusiasts appreciated the significance of this location, being where the breed originated from. The history of this is written about in many Golden Retriever books.
Events on the Saturday afternoon included the photo shoot shown right with 188 Golden Retrievers being photographed. Haggis Hurlin, tug-o-war and scurry events were also enjoyed.
In the evening, an excellent dinner was served in the grounds of the Tomich Hotel, with 200+ people... of which, over 50 were overseas
visitors from as far away as Australia and the USA. The president of the club, Sir Robert Cameron Nairn & Jessie Harrow, grand-daughter of the head gamekeeper in Lord Tweedmouth's time were also present. Scottish country dancing was followed by a disco with many of us participating!
Sunday brought an entry of 188 Golden Retrievers, total 255 for our judge Mr Mervin Philpott on what was to be an extremely hot day at the show in the grounds of the hotel. Ptarmigan won 1st yearling bitch while Curlew won 1st yearling dog (see photos below). He beat his sister for best yearling in show, ably handled by Anne Wallis from Australia. |
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Many of us made it a short holiday. Our party was fortunate to book early and our accommodation was ast the head gamekeepers lodge, Guischan Lodge adjacent to 'The Kennels'. The properties are both owned by Jenny Stirling who lives in the kennels & invited us in to photograph the inside. Sadly when they bought the properties, everything was stripped from them and with all the renovation over the years, they bare little resemblance to their original state, especially in the kennels with floors and window recesses all being covered over. With lots of imagination from a magical weekend & Golden Retrievers in our lodge, we could 'fantasize' with some help from the book 'The Seeing Eye' - John Lister-Kaye & his recollections of living there in the 1970's.
Our days were spent exploring the area & the evenings enjoyed with good friends sharing barbeques & parties together and of course conversations about the Golden Retriever and how it would have been in Lord Tweedmouth's time.
Guisachan is a truly magical place, a bit eerie for us Golden Retriever people! It gave us such a fantastic & memorable weekend. Unbelievably, I was born and lived all my teenage years less than 2 hours drive away but never saw a Golden Retriever until I moved to England and visited Nortonwood Kennels in 1979. |
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Why not take a look at our photo album from the Guisachan Event. |
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