Friends of Guisachan

Update:

Our Friends of Guisachan stone marker is finished! Artist Emily Hoffnung did an amazing job hand-cutting each letter! It was installed May 2023.

Guisachan

The mansion in the Scottish Highlands which was home to Lord Tweedmouth, founder of the Golden Retriever.

Guisachan From Another Angle

A large conservatory was added to the mansion subsequent to Lord Tweedmouth’s purchase of the mansion.

Hunting Scene

This famous photo depicts the keepers and stalkers with Golden Retrievers and other dogs used with Guisachan hunting parties.

Guisachan Today…

The ruins of this once great and gracious home bear silent testimony to the glory that was once Guisachan.

Golden Retrievers Enjoying Their Ancestral Home

Some 350 people and 222 Goldens made the pilgrimage to Guisachan for the three-day Guisachan Reunion in July, 2013.

Purchase a limited edition print in our store...

Check out the new addition to our store...

WELCOME TO THE FRIENDS OF GUISACHAN

…AND THE WORLD’S FIRST STORE FEATURING AUTHENTIC, HISTORICAL GUISACHAN TWEED HAND-MADE ITEMS. CELEBRATING THE HISTORY OF THE GOLDEN RETRIEVER

Important Announcement

In 2018, at the Guisachan Gathering celebrating the 150th anniversary of the breed’s founding, the Presidents of the Friends of Guisachan, the Golden Retriever Club of Scotland, and Alex Grigg, owner of the Guisachan ruins, made an exciting announcement. A capital campaign was going to begin raising funds to stabilize part of the Guisachan House ruins. That fall, trees were removed from inside and around the ruins, at a cost of $18,000. Subsequently, a contractor advised us that the ruins were too unstable to support the proposed work. Further consultation proved that the cost of scaffolding would use the additional $20,000 raised, leaving nothing for work on the ruins itself. Moreover, most of the ruins were beyond saving.

After considerable thought, the Board of Directors of the Friends of Guisachan has decided to relinquish the idea of stabilizing the ruins. In its place, the funds raised will be donated to another educational cause – veterinary internships in Golden Retriever cancer research funded through the Rachel Page Elliott Educational Fund of the Golden Retriever Foundation.

We are sorry our original dream could not be fulfilled but feel there is no purpose in holding these funds any longer. Anyone having questions may contact Joy Viola, Chairman of the Board at https://friendsofguisachan.org/main/contact-friends-of-guisachan/

Learn more about the 2023 Gathering
sponsored by the Golden Retriever Club of Scotland

Dedicated to the ancestral home of the Golden Retriever.

Friends of Guisachan is a non-profit organization comprised of people interested in Golden Retriever history. The Friends was created to share information about Guisachan, the ancestral home of the Golden Retriever and to share news of the 2018 world-wide celebration of the 150th anniversary of the founding of the breed. The breed was founded in 1868 by Dudley Coutts Marjoribanks, later known as Lord Tweedmouth at the historic Guisachan Estate.

To mark the historic founding of the Golden Retriever breed, the Friends erected a life-size bronze statue of a Golden Retriever, placed alongside the granite memorial to Lord and Lady Tweedmouth. In addition to the bronze statue, we have erected an historical stone marker in front of the Guisachan House ruins. These two tributes can be found in the Scottish Highland village of Tomich, Inverness-shire along the tree-lined road to the Guisachan House ruins.

Through this website, we plan to share all things Guisachan ranging from Golden Retriever history to the latest Guisachan Gatherings and on into the future.