Category: Caithness
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An Dùn
Another section of the John o’Groats Trail completed. I’ve done a fair few now. This coastline north of Helmsdale really is superb . And another ‘fort’; or is it? About the only evidence this promontory with a narrow sea arch under its neck is indeed a fort, is its name ‘An Dùn’, which means in…
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Cairns of Yarrows
I seem to get more of an awareness of the history of a place if some effort is needed to get there. A car park close by and manicured grounds somehow sterilises a site. Yarrows Broch was quite an adventure, through bogs, under fences, and detours to avoid over-friendly horses. 2,000 years ago, the broch…
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Castle Grinigoe Sinclair
The Caithness coastline seems to become more dramatic the further north. Geos, sea-stacks, arches, and cliffs. This is Castle Grinigoe, just north of Wick. It was built sometime after 1379 when Henry Sinclair acquired to the Earldom of Orkney by marriage and was substantially enlarged and reconstructed during subsequent centuries by his successors. By the…
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Whaligoe
Whaligoe is famous for its 330 steps down to its tiny harbour. I say 330, but elsewhere 365 is claimed. I didn’t get the chance to count as the steps were closed for maintenance. The harbour, squashed into the narrow Whale Geo, was inspected by Thomas Telford in 1786 who described it as a “terrible…
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Achastle-shore, Herring fishing station
During the 19th-Century, the Scottish herring industry was the largest in Europe. The fish was a Continental delicacy and easily caught off the east coast of Scotland. At the peak of the herring boom, there were as many as 30,000 boats involved. In the early 19th Century, the British Government gave a bounty of £3.00…
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Dùn Glas
Exploring the coast north of Helmsdale, part of the John o’Groats Trail from Inverness to John o’Groats. It’s not yet a National Trail and is partially but not consistently waymarked. One thing that is particularly noticeable at this time of the year is the yellow gorse, or whin. Large swathes of it colour the hillside.…
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Dunnet Bay
What do you call a group of imps or fairies? A herd, a flock, perhaps a mischief? Anyway, Dunnet Bay is the landfall of a bridge across the Pentland Firth that the imps employed by the wizard Donald Duibheal Mackay had been told to build. They wove the main rope out of sand, but when…