Dornoch's most gruesome weapon - a horse's leg!

Dornoch is an easy place to like. Our North Coast Explorer guests have the beach, shops, good food and cathedral to enjoy, with the golf providing ample reason for some to stay considerably longer. I rarely dwell on Viking battles, because their legacy here is much richer than raiding and we often know frustratingly little about individual fights. Dornoch, however, has a story I find difficult to resist. A local tradition links Dornoch’s name with a horse’s hoof, which sounds harmless enough until you discover how the rest of the horse enters the conversation.

The tradition takes us to the thirteenth century, when Scandinavian raiders land at Little Ferry and threaten Dornoch. Local defenders confront them near Embo. William, Earl of Sutherland, and Richard Murray lead the defence. In this telling, Richard’s brother, Bishop Gilbert, joins them, although his armour-bearer proves rather less committed. He runs away carrying the bishop’s shield. I can understand wanting to leave a battle, but taking somebody else’s protection with you makes the departure rather harder to forgive.

The bishop must face the fighting without it, while the earl is about to have an equipment problem of his own. Confronting the raiders’ leader, William loses his weapon. A horse’s severed leg lies nearby, and he picks it up and uses it to kill his opponent. That is the moment the story changes for me. A horse’s hoof may make an entertaining explanation of a place name, but a battlefield where a man can reach for a dead animal’s limb is a much uglier proposition.

The raiders are defeated and driven back towards their ships, with men killed in the pursuit. The survivors escape by sea, leaving the defenders with a victory and families with losses that victory cannot repair. Richard is among the dead. In Dornoch Cathedral a damaged stone effigy, traditionally identified as his, brings the story back into the town our guests enjoy today. The horse’s leg is the detail I remember first, but Richard is the reason I look again at the cathedral.

To learn more, book one of our North Coast Explorer private tours.