Our story
Keepers of the forest
Torwood Goldens takes its name from a royal hunting forest in the heart of Scotland, and from the family who kept it for centuries: the Forresters.
The Torwood
A royal hunting forest
The Torwood was a royal forest in Stirlingshire, a few miles northwest of Falkirk and about six miles south of Stirling Castle. For the kings and courtiers at Stirling it was a hunting ground, and the Forresters of Torwood held it as its hereditary keepers. The clan's very name comes from that role, as guardians of the king's forest.
In the sixteenth century the family raised Torwood Castle, an L-plan tower house whose date stone reads 1566. The Forresters of Torwood were people of standing in nearby Stirling, where eight of them served as Provost. The castle is a ruin today, but much of it still stands among the trees, the same ruins painted into our crest.
From hounds to Goldens
A hunting heritage, reimagined
The Forrester arms are full of hounds and horns. It felt fitting that the family's dogs today are Golden Retrievers, a gundog bred in the Scottish Highlands to work alongside the hunter. Our crest reimagines the old hound's head as a golden, set above the forest and ruins of Torwood and ringed with Celtic knotwork.
Through the years
From Torwood to Sarasota
- 1376
Sir Adam Forrester acquires Corstorphine near Edinburgh, which becomes the seat of the clan chiefs, later the Lords Forrester.
- c. 1500
Sir Duncan Forrester, first of Torwood, serves James IV as Comptroller of the Royal Household.
- 1566
The date carved on a stone found at Torwood Castle, the L-plan tower house that became the Forresters’ seat.
- 1868
In the Scottish Highlands, Lord Tweedmouth’s breeding program at Guisachan produces the first Golden Retrievers.
- 2026
Torwood Goldens welcomes its first litter: Luna × Brady.
Today
The Forrester family
We're a Forrester family living in Sarasota, Florida, and Luna is the heart of our home. She lives with us as a family companion first, and her puppies will be born and raised here with us.
We started Torwood Goldens to raise a small number of thoughtfully planned, fully health-tested litters, with parents chosen for temperament, structure and health. Every puppy is raised to be a loving family member, as Luna is for us.