Wednesday 15th September 1819
Wednesday Sept 15th we breakfasted at Port Gower & arrived at Golspie to dinner, where my father & brothers slept but there being a dance and concert in the evening Mama & myself slept at Dunrobin Castle on account of the music disturbing us.
OBSERVATIONS & COMMENTS:
Portgower, Golspie, Dunrobin Castle: As the family is returning on the road they came see blog for 9th September 1819
The Inn at Golspie: The family dined at the Inn and Lucy took time out to sketch the Inn, later leaving for Dunrobin Casdtle to sleep whilst the men stayed at the Inn.
Subtitled by Lucy: 15 September The Inn at Golspie
The Inn was put on the Market in June 2018 as a 17 bedroom hotel , Golspie Inn, Old Bank Road, Golspie, Sutherland, KW10. Whilst its origins are deeply rooted over two centuries of trade, today the business is being offered as a leasehold proposition. Of traditional stone construction under slate roofing, the Inn dates from 1808 and is a “B” Listed Building. https://www.rightmove.co.uk/commercial-property-for-sale/property-73563353.html
Golspie Inn
Our viewer, Ken Farrance, who earlier helped us (see 9 September) has enlightened us on Lucy’s drawing: Lucy sketched the original bridge. Now with commemorative obelisk added. Since Sept 1819 I suspect the inn has been extended towards the main road. If you pan to the left on Street View and consider the extreme left hand red sandstone building with the veranda. I think that, in part, is the building in Lucy’s sketch. If you imagine no veranda, no buildings in front and accept that another first-floor window has been added (4 pane width cf 3 pane of the other two windows) Then the LH chimney, central doorway and two dormers are 2/3 of Lucy’s sketch. Also the RH chimney is visible in Google Earth view.
The 1823 Map, below, showing Golspey and Dunrobin, is rare and curious antique map of 'Sutherland' that was produced from the research of Aristide Michael Perrot and engraved by Adrien Migneret, and published in G. B. Depping's L'Angleterre. Ou Description Historique et Topographique Du Royaume Royaume Uni De La Grande-Bretagn. This map, a copper plate engraving, has original outline hand colouring. Some maps show a single county, but more often two or more counties were joined to form a group which is similar in industry, agriculture and terrain. https://antique-prints-maps.com/acatalog/ref1.php?imagefile=../largeimages/MapPerrotSutherland.jpg
The 1841 map of Scotland, below, is in greater detail. Although it does not show the roads, it does show Port Gower, Golspie and Dunrobin Castle. It gives the population of Scotland including Islands in 1841 as 2,628,957. https://antique-prints-maps.com/acatalog/ref1.php?imagefile=../largeimages/MapSDUKScotland.jpg
1841: Scotland. S.D.U.K. An antique map of Scotland 'Published by and under the Superintendence of the Society for the Diffusion of Usefull Knowledge, 59, Lincoln's Inn Fields, Nov. 29th, 1841. Engraved by J. & C. Walker. https://antique-prints-maps.com/acatalog/ref1.php?imagefile=../largeimages/MapSDUKScotland.jpg
Dunrobin Castle: We can only applaud the decision of the two Lucy’s, mother and daughter, to sleep in such comfortable and peaceful surroundings whilst the men remained at Golspie
2010: West entrance of Dunrobin Castle. Highland council area, Scotland by Postdlf, the copyright holder of this work, and licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dunrobin_Castle_001.jpg
2017: Extensive Victorian-era formal gardens at Dunrobin Castle in Sutherland, by August Schwerdfeger, the copyright holder of this work, and published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dunrobin_Castle_formal_gardens_2017-05-22.jpg
Can you help us?
The Inn at Golspie: Lucy has drawn it. It would be tremendous if we could find the building as it is today
Old Regency Prints, Pictures an Coaching maps: Do you have access to any prints or pictures showing what town and country would have looked like when Lucy travelled through? Any illustrations of what she would have seen in 1819 will enliven our research.
New Pictures: Do you have any modern pictures of the streets, buildings, gardens and views that would enable us to see the changes that two centuries have wrought?