We stop off at Burghead.
More later about this lovely town. Here is the beach.
Next watering hole is Nairn, an ancient fishing port and market town around sixteen miles east of Inverness. The town is now best known as a seaside resort, with award winning beaches, a community centre/mid-scale arts venue, a small theatre and one small museum, providing information on the local area and incorporating the collection of the former Fishertown museum.
King James VI visited the town in 1589 and is said to have later remarked that the High Street was so
long that the people at either end spoke different languages, Scots and Gaelic. The landward farmers
generally spoke Scots and the fishing families at the harbour end, Gaelic. Nairn, was a town of two
halves in other ways. The narrow-streeted fishertown surrounds a harbour built by Thomas Telford
It was not until the 1860s that Nairn became a respectable and popular holiday town. Dr. John Grigor
(a statue of whom is located at Viewfield) was gifted a house in this coastal town and spent his
retirement there. He valued its warm climate and advised his wealthy clients to holiday there.
Following the opening of the railway station in 1855, new houses and hotels were built in the elegant
West End. Originally this was the last stop on the line from London due to the inhospitable terrain on
what is now the main Dava branch line to Inverness.
Nairn has an expanse of sandy beaches that were used extensively in training exercises for the
Normandy landings during World War 2. Notably during this period two German spies who had been
dropped by a U-boat in the Moray Firth were arrested at the railway station attempting to board
a train to Inverness.
After a coffee we head for Dornoch.
After a coffee we head for Dornoch.
M has (more or less; he had a little help from friends) built his own (more or less) passive house. As of August 2010, there were approximately 25,000 such certified structures of all types in Europe, while in the United States there were only 13, with a few dozen more under construction. The vast majority of passive structures have been built in German-speaking countries and Scandinavia. The term passive house (Passivhaus in German) refers to a home where rigorous standards for energy efficiency have been applied thus reducing its ecological footprint.
Passive design is integrated with architectural design. Although it is mostly applied to
new buildings, it has also been used for refurbishments. Here is the view from M's house.
And from inside
And here is the house itself.
After a delicious lunch, we have a long coastal walk in heavy drizzle and investigate Dornoch on the way back. Dornoch is a town and seaside resort and former Royal Burgh in the Highlands. It lies on the north shore of the Dornoch Firth, near to where it opens into the Moray Firth to the east.
The town has a grass air strip suitable for small aircraft and helicopters.
The name 'Dornoch' is derived from the Gaelic for 'pebbly place', suggesting that the area contained pebbles the size of a fist (dorn) which could therefore be used as weapons. Dornoch has the thirteenth-century cathedral, the Old Town Jail, which is tall and imposing and the previous Bishop's Palace which is now the well-known hotel, Dornoch Castle. This has a notable golf course, which M overlooks and is the reason for his move to this location. It is also notable as the last place a witch was burnt in Scotland. Janet Horne was tried and condemned to death in 1727. There is a stone, the Witch's Stone, commemorating her death.
Dornoch used to be connected to the main railway network at The Mound via a light railway. The railway was opened on 2 June 1902 and the line closed on 13 June 1960. Guess who was involved?
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