Tweedmouth notes the mating took place in 1868 between a yellow Wavy-Coated Retriever named Nous and a somewhat rare, and now extinct, Tweed Water-Spaniel named Belle. Crufts catalogue, considered the historical British authority on all things canine, cites Lord Tweedmouth’s stud book. It was here he famously bred the first golden retriever. Guisachan was the home of Dudley Coutts Majoribanks, the first Baron Tweedmouth, from 1854 to 1894. The golden retriever breed originated in 1868 when Lord Tweedmouth mated a yellow Wavy-Coated retriever named “Nous” with a Tweed Water spaniel named “Belle.” And there were also Spaniards, Danes, Austrians, Japanese, Italians, Canadians and a contingent of about 50 Americans on hand, among others. Others traveled the length of the United Kingdom to attend. And because Scotland is the birthplace of the breed, hundreds of dogs - a new record of 222 dogs, to be exact - and dog owners from around the world made the pilgrimage to the tiny conservation village of Tomich, next to the Guisachan Estate, about a 200-mile drive north from Glasgow. It was one of the opening events to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the founding of Britain’s Golden Retriever Club. It was a mostly quiet affair.Ī quiet nighttime stroll of dogs and owners winded up the lane to the ruins of Guisachan House, where owners toasted Lord Tweedmouth, the man who first bred golden retrievers there in 1868.Īlmost unbelievably, the dogs didn’t bark, and their owners spoke in hushed, reverential tones as they made their way along the drive up to the now-ruined house. Their destination, Guisachan House (pronounced Goose-a-kin), was brightly lit in a changing array of colored lights against the darkening Scottish sky. The dogs and their owners strolled down the very same lane that British Prime Minister Winston Churchill once reputedly learned to drive on. Some were almost white some had a more reddish hue and others fell somewhere in between.
They came from around the world to pay tribute to the man who first bred them here in the mid-1800s. Dogs were everywhere, and nearly all of them were golden retrievers. the crowd raised their glasses as the last of the light faded from the Highland sky to toast Lord Tweedmouth.
Golden retrievers from around the world converged for three days in July in the Scottish Highlands to honor the birthplace of the breed.
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