CHAPTER 1: Elizabeth Sparkes is buried in the small graveyard at Balnakeil, but I cannot find her. Somewhere, she is lying among the old stones, eternally listening to the sea. She is so far from home and days from her sisters: Mary, Anne, Julia and Harriet. She has no hope of escape, eternally at rest in bad company.
In the same graveyard, Donald McMurdo is easier to find; his tomb is immediately visible, built into a niche in the south wall. A serial murderer and henchman for Clan Mackay, his speciality was to throw his victims down the blowhole at nearby Smoo Cave. Such was his reputation, that the local clergy would not countenance his burial at Balnakeil but were persuaded, by a compromise and maybe the greasing of palms, to bury him half in and half out of the sacred ground. The result is that his memory is better preserved than those of the good souls that surround him. He would no doubt have been proud of his epitaph: Donald McMurdo here lies low – Was ill to his friend, and worse to his foe.
The Road East – Durness to Reay
Golf in the Wild – Going Home is available to purchase from Amazon and from this website.
Printed versions of the first book, Golf in the Wild, have sold out, but can be read on Kindle.
northumbrian : light 
Great stuff, Robin. You do spin a good yarn. Happy New Year to you and Mrs Robin.
And, a very Happy New Year to you and yours, Tish – good to hear from you. My visits to WordPress are few and far between, so apologies for the lack of interaction. As I have probably mentioned before, my daily photography/posting is mostly confined to Blip where, this week, I clocked up 9 years/3285 continuous posts. Some “interesting” stats – I have 189 followers on Blip and 666,615 views. On WordPress, I have 1.6K followers but only 107,758 views in 11 years. Not sure what to make of this 😉
All the best, Robin.
Great epitaph. I saw a good one on Tombstone, Arizona years ago: Here lies Lester Moore. Four slugs from a forty-four. No Les, no more.” Congrats on the book!
janet
no more.
Thanks Janet – I like that epitaph! 😀