A Strathpeffer Welcome

I am pleased to report that Employee No. 2 and I have made it safely to the Strath, and the characteristic warm welcome from Elsie and John.  Delta Airlines was kind enough to prevent their blue screens of death from hindering our journey, and we were able to arrange for Stuart, our driver from last summer, to ferry us North, avoiding the long drive after a sleep-deprived night.  

The drive North to Inverness up the A9 is beautiful, yet a tad harrowing.  Despite planning to expand it to a dual carriageway, it's one lane for most of the way, and that one lane will be shared with cyclists.  We had very light traffic, so the journey passed quite quickly.

Our arrival day BBQ was delightful.  I didn't get a useable photo of the Grillmaster, but this from last year will suffice:

One of my favorite bits of our BBQ's here, is the living room window that functions as a serving hutch:

Of course there was Banoffee Pie:

Apparently I'm not the only one that feels this way about Banoffee:

What does banoffee pie taste like?

Banoffee pie has gooey toffee, banana, and crunchy graham crackers in every bite. It's an incredibly rich and delicious dessert, so a little goes a long way, but anyone who tries it loves it! This traditional banoffee pie recipe features a buttery graham cracker crust, rich dulce de leche, and homemade whipped cream.

Elsie actually uses McVitties Digestives for the crust, but we'd come to Scotland just for the Banoffee.... Or at least I would.  Amusingly, in finding that 2023 picture of John at the grill, I found this of the 2023 Banoffee:

As Mark Twain famously noted, history doesn't repeat itself, but it does often rhyme.

Lots of nature to be seen from their home's elevation location.  After dinner we sat outside for a bit, staring up at the House Martins:

And a visit from a red squirrel:

John had explained to us that their red squirrel population had been decimated by bringing the larger, American Gray Squirrel to the U.K., although there is tendency to blame the colonists for all their ills.  This was amusing to us, because we had just watched those American Gray Squirrels destroy our sunflowers at home:

It looked like downtown Beirut by the time they finished.... 

We did play some golf on Thursday, at an unexpected venue, Strathpeffer Spa Golf Club, where they've been playing golf since 1888.  This was quite atypical for us, inland golf and and in buggies (carts) to boot.  The course tops out at 5,001 yards and features seven Par-3's for the men Par is 65-67 for men, 68 for the ladies), but the elevation changes are so severe that you'll feel it was more like 8,000 yards, especially if you walk.  

Here's how they describe their opening hole:

Tee Off

The fun begins right from the opening hole, which features the longest drop from tee to green of any course in Scotland. Club choice is a dilemma at this dramatic driving hole, with its burn and small green with a tricky out-of-bounds on the right.

I took some photos, but they didn't come out great:

The camera simply can't capture the severity of the elevation changes adequately, but there's a reason we were in buggies.  

But perhaps the most fun is with the attribution of the design of the golf course.  here's the presentation as per the club's website:

Legends

The course layout itself owes its provenance to golfing legends too – originally designed for the club’s founding in 1888 with nine holes by twice Open Championship winner Willie Park (Jnr), and in the early 1900s extended by Tom Morris, “the Grand old man of Golf” to 18 interesting holes.

But it's all far more speculative, as per this exhaustive history of the village:

There is a crude map of the original nine hole layout, which opened in 1888.  But the attribution to Willie Park doesn't appear in the records until 1909, and that attribution omits any distinction between Willie Park, Sr. and Willie Park, Jr.  (the former won four Opens, including the inaugural version, and the son won two, but had the more extensive design credentials, including the Old Course at Sunningdale and Maidstone .on Long Island).

Mr. Scott cites the contemporaneous accounts, then provides context.  In this case, the attribution to one of the Parks, he speculates, might rest on the fact that a Mr. and Mrs. Park of Musselburgh stayed at the Ben Wyvis Hotel in July 1887 and attended a concert at the Spa Pavilion on July 23rd.  Hey, it could have happened that way....

The Old Tom Morris attribution might be more of the same.  He's not listed in the index, though John found him mentioned as in attendance at the opening of the 18-hole course, though I've not found that reference myself.  Old Tom designed so many courses, including Tain nearby, and would take off at the drop of a tam if there was good fishing nearby, so this just falls into that category of bits that are too good to risk by fact checking.

But my favorite part of the history is that the contemporaneous accounts indicate that the course will be the finest in the North of Scotland, with the following limiting principal:

...omitting Dornoch from the comparison, for the golf links of that town are not equaled in Scotland except by St. Andrews."

That's from 1888, when presumably Dornoch was still open for new Overseas Memberships. 

We had a delightful outing, at least until it started to rain.  The way it rolled in felt like a proper Haar:

The term haar is used along certain lands bordering the North Sea, primarily eastern Scotland and the north-east of England. Variants of the term in Scots and northern English include har, hare, harl, harr and hoar. Its origin is related to Middle Dutch haren, referring to a cold, sharp wind.

Though this came in from the West, so not technically not a Haar.  Blame it on the Irish, no?

A lovely dinner at Coul House, the ancestral home of the Mackenzie's dating back to 1560.  We've been there previously for coffee and shortbread, but this was our first proper meal there.  All so wonderful that when we got home I had no room for leftover Banoffee.  That awaits this evening...

As I write this Friday morning, the sun is shining brightly and the forecast is for a fine day.  Our plans are in the formative stages, though we may go up to Dornoch to see the construction of their new clubhouse and walk along their beach.  Tomorrow we depart for Pittenweem, and Sunday is our first day of golf at Crail.  Our first Old Course Daily Ballot entry will be submitted this afternoon, for play Monday, so wish us luck there.

We'll catch up further down the road.