488 Golden Retrievers Gather in the Scottish Highlands to Celebrate 155 Years of the Breed

Nearly 500 golden retrievers and their respective humans gathered at the Guisachan Estate, their ancestral home in the Scottish Highlands, to celebrate 155 years of the breed. The event, known as the Guisachan Gathering, took place July 10-13, 2023, and was organized by the Golden Retriever Club of Scotland.

The four-day anniversary event, held every five years, was organized by the Golden Retriever Club of Scotland at the ruins of Guisachan House, where the dogs were first bred. The event was marked with talks, training workshops, a picnic and a night-time procession.

The home belonged to Lord and Lady Tweedmouth (Major Edward Marjoribanks and Lady Fanny Spencer-Churchill), the couple who first established the historic breed.

The Golden as we know it today was bred at Guisachan, Glen Affric, near Inverness, the Scottish Estate of Lord Tweedmouth, from a series of matings which commenced by mating a good looking yellow coloured Flat Coated Retriever with a Tweed Water Spaniel called ‘Belle” (a breed now extinct but believed to be a small liver coloured dog with a curly coat). This first mating happened in 1864.