G is for Golspie

The end of the first week of the A to Z blogging challenge and we're up to the letter G and so far I'm coping remarkably well.

Golspie lies on the east coast of the area of the highlands called Sutherland and is 64 miles away from our home. It's a really lovely drive through beautiful countryside.

Just north of the town is Dunrobin castle which has been home to the Dukes and Earls of Sutherland since the 13th century. You can go through the castle and the gardens, and there is of course the obligatory shop and a cafe.

We just went into the cafe but got to see a little bit of the castle to get to it - very impressive doors.

Very large stuffed stag in the castle.

We then went into Golspie and it has a wonderful long beach. We walked out onto the little pier to take this picture back along the town front.

The water around the pier was incredibly clear - almost like we were somewhere tropical.

Above the village on top of Ben Bhraggie (a Ben is a mountain in Scotland) is a statue of the first Duke of Sutherland that is 100 feet high. It was built in the 1800's and can be seen for miles. The Duke of Sutherland was heavily involved in the highland clearances where people were forcibly moved off their lands so that the wealthy landowners could make more money by grazing sheep - click HERE if you'd like to read more about this.

As we walked through the town we came across the war memorial which is a Celtic cross with brass plaques attached to it - it's lovely.

Here's a picture of the two of us enjoying the sun - it was a gloriously sunny spring day.

In the park there is this fabulous stone person reclining against a wall - I love the hands and how it looks like they're shading their eyes from the sun.

There's also a lovely modern standing stone circle.

Around the town there are several row boats that have been turned into lovely flower beds - it's such a nice way to brighten up the area.

Here's the lovely Bramble Jelly who really enjoyed her day out exploring Golspie - she was loving the beach and did go in and have a swim.

Here's some of the cute houses in the town.

Just to make it a perfect day out we found a church with a fabulous graveyard. I'm a bit of a lover of graveyards, as shown by last years post for this letter, G is for Graveyards. This is St Andrews which was built in the 16th century.

This is one of the many great headstones in the graveyard - I love all the symbolism on old graves.

To finish up here's our attempt at a family selfie and no Ken is not trying to strangle Bramble.

So there you have the lovely seaside town of Golspie. Before you go, why don't you pop over to the A to Z blog to see what my fellow bloggers have come up with - click HERE to visit.

Until next time, be good, stay safe, and do something nice for yourself this week.

Pamela & Ken
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