Here are some non-golf tourist ideas for spending time in and around Dornoch:
Dunrobin Castle (on the north side of Golspie) is a "grand house" and is the primary tourist attraction in the Highlands. It is well worth seeing. There is a falconry show at 11:30 & 2:00pm that should not be missed.
http://www.dunrobincastle.co.uk/ In Dornoch, be sure to take a look the inside the
Cathedral. The town museum (called the
History Links) is also worth seeing.
http://www.historylinks.org.uk/ Near Tain, the
Glenmorangie Distillery is worth a tour, although it does get crowded at times. The
Balblair Distillery, in Edderton (west of Tain), is also worth visiting and gets much less tourist traffic. The
Clynelish Distillery is in Brora, but is a little too modern for my taste (although I do like their whisky
).
https://www.glenmorangie.com/en/experiences https://balblair.com/distilleryhttps://www.malts.com/en-gb/distilleries/clynelish/In Tain, there is a nice art gallery (
Brown's Gallery) and also a glassblowing studio worth a look (
Glasstorm). During working hours you can often see the glassblowers in action.
http://www.brownsart.com/ http://www.glasstorm.com/ Just outside Portmahomack (east of Tain), the
Tarbat Discovery Centre is an excellent small museum.
http://tarbat-discovery.co.uk/ Near the village of Fearn is the factory store of the
ANTA shops. ANTA makes beautiful fabrics, rugs, pottery, etc.
The ladies will love the place! There is a nice tea & cake lounge there as well.
All these places are within 20-25 miles of Dornoch. There is plenty to see and do further afield.