Tain in Scotland

Excerpt from the book Scottish Highlands, Caribbean Islands, and more

Next it was back down the A9 to Tain, bypassing the Glenmorangie distillery, which I would have visited if the weather hadn’t been so warm and sunny. Tain was made a royal burgh in 1066 making it the oldest in Scotland. This was largely because the town was the site of a shrine to St Duthac who’d died the previous year. Duthac was an important figure in the early Christian era and the shrine became a place of pilgrimage in the Middle Ages with even King James IV visiting on an annual basis. The town possesses great civic pride. Tain has some of the most magnificent hanging-baskets I’ve ever seen. Most of the flowers were blooming and appeared to be flowing over the lampposts supporting the baskets. Next to these frothing flowers was a clean monument to Kenneth Murray of Geanies a former Provost of Tain who lived between 1825 and 1876. His good deeds resulted in a University Bursary.