I have long been intrigued by a pair of candlesticks that came to me via my grandmother. A note glued underneath indicated that they were a gift to her mother from her mother’s grandmother, Sophia Dunbar, bought “… at the door of Duffus House from a travelling caravan in 1847 or 1848, that came with linen and other goods every year …”.

We have recently spent a fabulous week on the Orkney islands, renting a house near the port of Stromness with some friends who share an interest in ancient mankind and nature. What a revelation to observe that this remote archipelago beyond the north of Scotland was such a concentrated centre for neolithic people 5,000 years ago, building stone circles and religious sites 5 centuries before Stonehenge. Four World Heritage monuments within only a few miles of each other!

Travelling south we took the opportunity to spend a night in Elgin (near the coast east of Inverness) and meet distant Dunbar cousins who now manage nearby Duffus Estate and have recently recovered Duffus House from Gordonstoun School, who had leased it as a boarding house (Prince Edward had been a boarder there).

It was great to be shown around the house (undergoing serious repair following 80 years of school boy abuse) and the church (now roofless and open to the elements) with the crypt where many generations of Dunbars are buried.

It was also particularly interesting to find out more about my 3x great grandmother Sophia Dunbar, née Orred, who had these candlesticks on her writing table.

Amongst other things I learnt that Sophia featured in a recent book “Women of Moray” where she was described as “… an accomplished amateur water colourist, exhibiting at the Royal Scottish Academy. She shared with her husband an interest in local antiquities and Continental travel…”.

By all accounts quite an intrepid character. Alongside her husband and others “Sophia was also involved in many archaeological discoveries, such as some 3500 to 4500 year old Early Bronze Age cist burials from the area around Elgin in Morayshire.” Her detailed sketches of the excavations have been of interest to recent archaeological research in Scotland as recounted in an article “A Tale of Two Dunbars: Lady Sophia Dunbar“.

Sophia’s paintings, many of scenes from her travels around the Mediterranean, were widely exhibited, with some held in Aberdeen Art Gallery and a number of her water colours now at Girton College, Cambridge.