Thomas Dai
Thomas Doa is not correct in his post above.
When Donald Ross played Dornoch regularly (1890's) there was no 6th hole (as we know it today). 1 and 2 were short par 4s (for those days ~230 yards), 3 was another short 4 heading perpendicularly towards what is today the upper fairway of the 17th. The 4th was a longer 4, playing from what is now the high right side of the 17th fairway to the current green. 5 was what we now know as 3 and 6 was what we now know as 4. 7 was the the last 2/3 of today's 12th. 8 was today's 13th, although to a green in front of today's Foxy. 9 was today's 14th, but at 255 yards. 10 was today's 15th, 11 was today's 16th and 12 was a shortened (300 yard) version of today's 18th. 13 was today's 1st on the Struie course. 14 was a pure copy of the 1st on the Old Course (drive onto a farmers field and then negotiate a green tucked into a burn-you can see the green today next to the caravan site)). 15 was today's 4th on the Struie., 16 was todays 17th on the Struie, 17 (the famous "Witch") was todays 18th on the Struie, and 18 was a superb long 3 (~200 yards when I played it in the 1980's) from the trees to the left the Witch to todaysw putting green.
In 1906, the course was changed to eliminate the perpendicular 3rd, and to replace it the old 6th was created. That was not the 6th we know today but a shot from what is now the 6th tee to what is now the 11th green. My brother in law and I played the hole that way in April. It was a great hole. What is now the 12th (~500) was created (with a green in the hollow past and to the right of the current 14th tee), and what is now the 13th was left to sleep with the fishes. As a result, Foxy was lengthened to 360 yards (with the original OTM green), and the rest of the course was the same.
In 1921, Ross visited Dornoch for the first time since flitting to America and helped John Sutherland redo 1 and 2 (moving the 1st green 100 yards forward-- Ross's idea, and building a new 2nd green well to the left of the original one--Sutherland's idea).
In 1940, old holes 13-15 (plus all of the Ladies Course) were appropriated by the Ministry of Defense for a relief airfield. In 1946, the club brought in George Duncan to re-build the course and (with the considerable assistance of the local greenkeeper (Grant) and professional (McCulloch)) added today's 6th green (a push up into the hill and the gorse), today's 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th, a great new 11th going to the old 6th green plus a revivified 13th to create (essentially) the course we play today.
Ric