Gathering 2023

Clan Sutherland International Gathering 2023

This year the Gathering will be centred round the lives of ordinary people named Sutherland. These are the crofters and fishermen, tenants, tradesmen and tacksmen who bore the name Sutherland. We will be visiting townships from where the ancestors of some of you set off before crossing one or more oceans in their lives before joining the pioneers and early settlers of parts of the former British Empire across the world.

During the coach tour we will firstly aim to go via Helmsdale to Kilpheader/Kildonan and see some of the cleared communities before returning to the A9 and driving north to stop at the cliff-top deserted village of Badbea. There will be a short break during which more active members can walk out to the remains and cairn at Badbea. We will then drive north, stopping at the small Laidhay museum and through some of the Latheron parish settlements before heading on to Wick for lunch. After lunch on our journey back south we will be stopping at Latheron Old Churchyard where the Sutherland of Forse enclosure is located and where the ancestors of many clansfolk are buried. Thereafter we will be returning to Golspie and other pick-up/drop-off points in good time to enable people to get ready for the dinner in the evening.

Programme of Events

Thursday June 8

Evening: Registration at Dunrobin Castle followed by a Drinks Reception in the early evening and welcome from the Chief.

We are hoping that we will be joined for the evening by the representative of the Seaforth Highlanders Museum at Fort George who gave us so much assistance in tracing the family story and living relatives of Daniel Sutherland, one of the clansmen killed in WWI and remembered at the Clans Days and Ypres Commemoration Ceremony which you read about in an edition of Sans Peur Times.

Friday June 9

10.00: Coach tour all day in Sutherland and heading north into Caithness to include lunch at Mackay’s Hotel in Wick. In the evening we will have the Gathering Dinner at the Royal Marine Hotel, Brora.  

Convivial dinner at the Marine Hotel in 2018

Saturday June 10

Morning: AGM followed by coffee break and then Genealogy talk and Gaelic session until lunchtime in Golspie at the Golspie Inn.  Afternoon: Time for Gathering attendees to tour Dunrobin informally, or go on trips e.g. to Culloden. Evening: Ceilidh and Supper at the Golspie Inn or if numbers require it, at Golspie Golf Club.

Sunday June 11

11.00: Attend morning worship at Dornoch Cathedral

13.00: Farewell Lunch at the Castle Hotel, Dornoch and then departure

Dornoch Cathedral has been associated with our clan and the Earls of Sutherland for more than seven hundred years and it is always a special occasion when we can share Sunday morning worship there. You do not need to be of the Presbyterian faith or indeed any faith as all are welcome to attend.

Registration

We hope that you will wish to join us at the Gathering this coming June.  Please register on the booking form you will find by clicking on the link in the menu on the left.