Lunch in Dornoch, Seals and a Castle.

We learned some time ago that if you're approaching Dornoch from the north it pays you to approach a little obliquely by taking a narrow little left turn off the A9 a few miles north of the town and following the banks of Loch Fleet towards Skelbo Castle - especially if you happen to be visiting when the tide is low. On this visit the tide was just coming in, but we took the detour anyway and were rewarded with a fine view of the large colony of Harbour Seals*that calls the loch home.

They really are endlessly entertaining. Some loll like corpulent Roman dignitaries on exposed sandbanks, some swim and play in the shallow water - water shallow and clear enough, incidentally, to make it possible to make them out as they swim beneath the surface - some leap in and out of the water doing a passable impersonation of a dolphin while others rest on submerged sand banks, assuming what I've always thought of as the "banana position", bending their bodies so that their heads and tail flippers protrude above the waves. It looks most uncomfortable, but the seals seem to like it.

Seal watching is clearly a popular pass time here. The road is predictably single track, but there are a few capacious laybys to allow you to stop and stare to your heart's content. There are even benches to sit on and display boards to tell you what you're looking at - because there is an awful lot more here than just seals, entertaining as they are. Depending on the height of the tide, the season and the weather, you can see all manner of wildfowl and wading birds here too. We've spent hours here over the years - but as you may recall from the previous post we'd been driving for some time, it was lunchtime and we were hungry so we moved on after a mere quarter of an hour or so, scooting along the little single track road which leads you directly into Dornoch's main street.

I call it the main street, because "Town Square" is a bit of a strong word for it, but in fact I mean the open paved area at one end of the main street. Here can be found several parking spaces (although when it's busy there's an excellent pay and display car park on the next street over),the main bus stop,  the town notice board, a few shops - about which more later - the town hall and the Dornoch Castle Hotel.

In all our years of visiting this fantastic little town we have only eaten in two establishments. On our first visit we were with Mrs Snail's parents and we had lunch at the Royal Dornoch Golf Club. This was years ago, and I remember almost nothing about it save for a faint memory of being impressed. Every visit since we've either had a picnic, not been there at lunchtime, or made a beeline for the Dornoch Castle Hotel. It's a little forbidding from the outside perhaps, but once you learn a little about its history you begin to understand why.

The origins of Dornoch Castle are shrouded in the mists of time. It is believed that the current building stands on the site of the original Bishop's Palace, built for St Gilbert - who also founded the Cathedral - at some point in the thirteenth century. At what point the oldest of the current buildings was constructed is open to question - but look at it, it looks pretty old...

We do know that the place left ecclesiastical hands in 1557 when Bishop Robert Stewart gave it to his Brother in Law, the Earl of Sutherland. It remained in Sutherland hands until the family sold it in 1922. In those three hundred and sixty five years the building served as a palatial residence, court house and  gaol**. In 1570 it withstood a vicious siege when the Murrays of Dornoch rescued the young Earl Alexander of Sutherland from Dunrobin Castle (just up the road - I'll tell you about it someday) where he was being held by the Earl of Caithness.

The young Earl of Sutherland, it seems, was under the guardianship of the Earl of Caithness, who had married him off to one of his daughters - twice the young man's age - and proceeded to rule both Caithness and Sutherland with the proverbial iron fist. Clan Murray were opposed to the dominance of Caithness and the Clan Mackay (the clan who ruled the area around Strathnaver) and so snuck into Dunrobin and spirited the youngster away.

Naturally the Clans of Caithness and Mackay, and the Sutherlands of Skelbo, weren't going to take this lying down and gave chase. There were days of bitter and intense fighting but the people of Dornoch were outnumbered and the town was sacked. The townspeople held out for a further week in the towers of the castle and adjacent cathedral. The invaders were determined to force the people out though - and that's when things in the history get a little weird, involving a thirteenth century curse, a furious - if dead - saint and the Devil himself. I'll probably come back to that when we visit the cathedral later...

After all those adventures a large part of the castle complex became a hotel in 1947, and it manages to walk the very tricky tightrope between the opposing challenges of remaining true to its heritage as a stronghold and stately home and being a comfortable place where tourists can relax and enjoy a good meal. Indeed, it walks that tightrope very well. The walls of the lounge/bar/reception area are of the same split get stone that the exterior walls are constructed from, and I suppose that this could make the place seem a little cold and forbidding.

It doesn't though, partly because of the huge fireplace dominating the wall on the left hand side, which is so large you could use it to garage a fleet of small cars, and which on damp rainy days is guaranteed to make even the soggiest of visitors feel warm and welcome.

 The decor also helps. There must be a terrible temptation when you own a castle to fill the place up with stags heads, suits of armour and heavy red drapes. As regular readers may recall me and Mrs Snail like a good castle and we've seen many places that have fallen into this trap and consequently look as though they're being used as a set for a medieval B movie. The Dornoch Castle Hotel has deftly sidestepped that particular design faux par, and instead has light modern looking wooden table and chairs down the outside wall - If I'd paid more attention to Lawrence Llewellyn Bowen programmes in the nineties I cold probably tell you what kind of wood they are - it certainly looked too classy for pine - but frankly I have no idea and it isn't actually relevant so I'm not going to worry about it. The fireplace is surrounded by deep and comfortable looking leather sofas - well, they look like leather at least, I confess I didn't actually check, and the bar itself, tucked away in the far corner, is also resplenant in light polished wood - with not a horse brass or shield mounted claymore in sight.

We grabbed a table by a little window looking out onto the street. A tall young woman with dark bobbed hair and a dazzling smile brought us menus and confirmed that yes, they did offer free WIFI. She handed me a slip of paper bearing the WIFI access code and left us to choose our lunch. My choice was, of course, very easy. I already knew I was having the burger - I knew from happy experience that the burgers at the Castle Hotel are awesome, and to be honest the lunch menu isn't all that extensive - so I directed my attention to downloading the recent Monaco Grand Prix from the BBC i-Player.

Myself and Mrs Snail are massive fans of Formula One but we'd travelled from Killin to Grummore on the Sunday of the race and while one of the things we like about Grummore is its lack of TV signal and internet provision, that does make it difficult to keep up with events in other countries. Of course, it also makes it easy to avoid finding out the result of a race that had taken place days earlier, so with the race downloaded we were looking forward to some motor racing action when we got back to the 'van.

 The waitress with the dazzling smile reappeared briefly to take our orders, and to apologise that they were all out of Beef Burgers and, although burgers were still on the menu, all they had was venison. I was slightly amused that she presented this to me as though it might be a problem - personally I couldn't have been happier, I have no issue whatsoever with eating Bambi and vastly prefer venison to beef.  After a little ummin and ahing Mrs Snail opted for a tuna and red onion sandwich.

I was not in any way disappointed. The venison patty was beautifully rich and well seasoned with a tangy tomato relish which cut through the richness of the meat. There was, I confess, some salad, but since I was on holiday I paid it no mind. Far more worthy on notice were the chips (none of your "fries" nonsense here, thank you very much) which were thick and crisp and golden. Indeed, about the only issue I was presented with during the whole course of the meal was the fact that the chips were so crispy the salt kept bouncing off.

Yes, I know, it is such a hard life isn't it?

Mrs Snail declared her sandwich to be "very nice", but was clearly not totally blown away. It looked good, but was a little light on the red onion front.

Overall, well, we definitely still love the Dornoch Castle hotel. The food is good, if perhaps a little limited - and I have to say I'd rather it was limited and excellent than fancy and poor, so that's not much of a criticism - and the service is brilliant. The staff are attentive enough that you're never waiting long for anything you might want, but discrete enough that you don't ever feel as though you have somebody hovering on your shoulder.

With lunch over it was time to move on and have a bit of a wander around one of Sutherland's prettiest little towns - join me next tme for a little light shopping...

*They're also known as "Common Seals" but I just can't bring myself to refer to these extraordinary aquatic mammals as "common".

**Or "Jail" if you prefer. But I'm British, and can spell, so "gaol" it is.