D-Day 80th anniversary to be marked on Sutherland’s east and north coasts
Organisers of a 80th anniversary D-Day commemoration at Dornoch next Thursday, June 6, have released full details of the programme.
Events are being held nationally to mark the 80th year since the Normandy landings on Tuesday, June 6, 1944.
A commemoration is also to take place on the north coast organised by Melvich Community Council.
East Sutherland Rescue Association (ESRA) is coordinating the programme at Dornoch and all are welcome to take part.
Events begin at the town’s war memorial at 6.10pm when a lone piper will play before members of the Young Curators Club at Dornoch museum Historylinks walk from the memorial to the Cathedral Green in an enactment of the arrival of evacuees. At the Green, they will be joined by members of the Brownies and the Boys Brigade.
The bells of Dornoch Cathedral, St Finnbarr’s Episcopal Church and Dornoch school will ring out and a short outdoor service will be held which will include the reading of the International Tribute and the Act of Remembrance, the lighting of a Lamp of Peace and the laying of a wreath made by the Young Curators Club.
Events then move on to ESRA’s Cadogan Lifeboat Station at Dornoch beach where a barbecue with music will be held. Music of the World War II era will be played and there will be an exhibition by Historylinks with input from students at the University of the Highlands and Islands Dornoch campus. The exhibition will focus on the impact of World War II on the area.
Dornoch Pipe Band will perform at the beach car park at 8.45pm when members of local branches of the Royal British Legion Scotland and the Royal Naval Association will muster along with representatives of armed forces charity SSAFA and veterans and their families.
A service of remembrance will take place at 9pm when the International Tribute and Act of Remembrance will be read again. A Lamp of Peace and a Beacon of Peace will be lit and a wreath laid. A lone piper will play.
The D-Day 80 commemoration on the north coast will be held at Bruce Mackay’s Croft, Portskerra, from 8pm and a beacon will be lit at 9.15pm - at the same time as beacons are lit on the five beaches of northern France where Allied troops landed.
Refreshments will be on offer.
