Once we found the itinerary for the Guisachan Week we extended our holiday an extra day, to be able to include "The Big Picture".

When we went looking for the old house on Tuesday, we missed the turning but found the wonderful Plodda Falls.

Today we're more organised and knew where to turn . . . but then it was just a case of following the crowds !

- - - o o o - - -   The reason that the Golden Retriever Club of Scotland had chosen this place to celebrate the breed was that it was here on this estate that his lordship first bred the dog that was to become known as The Golden Retriever.   The 150th Anniversary was five years ago and during the Gathering that year they had such a good response that they decided to repeat the event five years on.   - - - o o o - - -

We found the "Kennel Field" and joined the others in an orderly queue.

There was now a short mile walk along the track to the old house.

Overnight rain had filled the puddles but the forecast was reasonable for the day.

We still brought waterproofs . . . just in case.

The old house, a mere shadow of its former self, suffered the same fate as Lowther Castle in Cumbria.

- - - o o o - - - When the old family wealth had gone, the house had became too expensive to run and the tax rules of the day said that if your property had no roof then it wasn't liable to tax.  The contents were sold, but with the roof removed the structure soon fell into decay.  A fundraising effort five years back by the Friends of Guisachan enabled the site to be partially cleared of invasive trees but the structure was deemed too far gone to be economically and safely repaired. - - - o o o - - -

Anyone got a small fortune they wish to be parted from ?

The Club had arrived early and set up a coffee trailer and sales table where you could buy all things Guisachan.

The crowd started to grow, as did the number of retriever dogs.

By the appointed time most people had arrived.

After the rain, even standing back it needed the panorama feature on the camera to capture the scene properly.

The afternoon was not just the chance of the photo . . . there were also events and games.

The first event was for the dogs . . . to show off their retrieving skills . . . fetching a toy thrown in the air from the other side of the arena.

Some dogs were better than others . . . but there was no pressure and great humour was had when some didn't perform quite according to plan.

There were "games" for humans too . . .

The Scottish ladies versus the English Ladies.

These competitions were meant to be a friendly but they turned out to be serious competitions, despite the fun had by all.

Time for the main event . . . the organisers wanted a picture of all the dogs . . . without their humans in the photo !!

The instruction was to settle your dog on the lawn in front of the old house.

[ If you couldn't be certain they would 'sit and stay' then bring a lead and a peg to keep them in the picture.]

With so many on the field we all got asked to move closer together and nearer to the official camera, so my two ended up sitting close to the front.

On the given command would all the people please exit the field.

All the hands in the air were other owners also holding cameras high, in order to photograph the dogs.

Dougal (blue collar/lead) and Dylan (red collar/lead) are standing either side of the two front-and-centre lighter coloured retrievers.

What's the collective noun for a large group of dogs like this . . . a pack doesn't seem right somehow.

At the time I guessed at a figure between 350 and 450.

It seems that not all dogs present made the picture, as there were officially 466 blue tags given out, one to each dog who left the field that day.

That's got to be a record for the number of retrievers gathered here at Guisachan, the "home" of the breed !

- - - o o o - - -

That evening pictures were already circulating.

Thanks to Bill Reyna who presumably flew the photo drone for the 'club' photo.

[ I tried to count how many of them made the picture, but so many looked like sheep that I fell asleep !]

The event even made the BBC News that evening . . . this was the picture on our hotel TV whilst we got changed to go out.

Click here or on the picture above for another short video. 

[ Thanks to 'Lakebrook Golden Retrievers' for posting this one.]