Dornoch (/ˈdɔːrnɒx/; Scottish Gaelic: Dòrnach [ˈt̪ɔːrˠn̪ˠəx]; Scots: Dornach) is a town, seaside resort, parish and former royal burgh in the county of Sutherland in the Highlands of Scotland.

The name 'Dornoch' is derived from the Gaelic for 'pebbly place', suggesting that the area contained pebbles the size of a fist (dorn) which could therefore be used as weapons.

[4] Archaeological excavations during the development of a new business park in 1997 revealed a building, evidence for ironworking and part of a whale, dating from the 8th to the 11th centuries AD.

[9] The golf course designer Donald Ross began his career as a greenkeeper on the Royal Dornoch links.

Stations on the line were Dornoch, Embo, Skelbo, Cambusavie Halt and The Mound Junction.

[11] Dornoch Academy Modern Languages teacher Margaret C. Davidson led the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies in the burgh from 1913, volunteered as a nurse in the Scottish Women's Hospitals in France in World War One and returned to teach and serve as a Girl Guide leader in 1931.

[12] On 21 December 2000, the pop star Madonna had her son Rocco christened in Dornoch Cathedral, the day before her wedding to Guy Ritchie in nearby Skibo Castle.

Rosamunde Pilcher's last novel Winter Solstice is largely set in and around Dornoch, fictionalised under the name of Creagan.