The north and northwest Highlands - The Rough Guide to Scottish Highlands and Islands - page 252

with the whole north coast spread out before you from Cape Wrath to Duncansby
Head on a clear day.

Dunnet Bay
Just south of Dunnet lies Dunnet Bay , a vast, golden beach backed by huge dunes.
Surfers come for a smattering of reef breaks plus a beach break that offers shelter for
beginners depending on whereabouts on the bay you tuck in. At the northeast end of
the bay, the Seadrift Visitor and Ranger Centre (April-Sept Tues, Thurs, Fri & Sun
2-5pm; free; W 01847 821531) holds an exhibition about the fauna of the northwest
coast and ecology of its sand dunes. It also stocks information leaflets on local history
and nature walks.

Mary-Ann's Cottage
South end of Dunnet • June-Sept Tues-Sun 2-4.30pm • £3 • T 01847 851765
Signposted off the through road in Dunnet, Mary-Ann's Cottage is a farming croft
vacated in 1990 by the then 93-year-old Mary-Ann Calder. Her grandfather built
the cottage and today it is maintained as she left it, full of mementoes of the three
generations who lived and worked there over 150 years. With its antique rocking chair
before a blackened hearth, still with its old metal teapot, and family photos, it's a very
intimate portrait of a recent past that already feels distant.

Castle of Mey
5 miles east of Dunnet • May-July & mid-Aug to Sept daily 10.20am-4pm • £10.50, gardens only £6 • T 01847 851473, W castleofmey.org.uk
The village of Mey whizzes past in just a few houses - yet it was here that the late
Queen Mother had her Scottish home. The original Castle of Mey was a sixteenth-
century Z-plan affair, owned by the earls of Caithness until 1889, and bought in a state
of disrepair in 1952, the year the Queen Mother's husband, George VI, died. She spent
her summer holidays here each August, which may help explain why it's a modest wee
place, unstuffy inside despite the facade that bristles with turrets. The walls are hung
with works by local amateur artists and watercolours by Prince Charles (who still visits
in late July, when it's closed for two weeks) and personal mementoes of the Queen
Mum remain on show - guides are more than happy to explain their significance. The
gardens outside are a lovely spot for an amble on a sunny day, not least for their views
across the Pentland Firth.

4

THE PENTLAND FIRTH AND STROMA
All along the Caithness coastline you see Orkney. Between you and it, however, is the
Pentland Firth , one of the world's most treacherous waterways. Only seven miles across, it
forms a narrow channel between the Atlantic Ocean and North Sea, and for fourteen hours
each day the tide rips west to east at ten knots or more, flooding back in the opposite
direction for the remaining ten hours. Combined with the rocky seabed and a high wind, this
creates deep whirlpools and serious waves even on calm days as the ebb rips against the
shore. Both are the subject of old mariners' myths - the Vikings said the sea-king Mysing
caused the whirlpools by grinding salt to keep the seas saline. Many oil tankers brave the
Pentland Firth to save time on the longer passage north of Orkney - an environmental
catastrophe waiting to happen, say some locals.
Obstructing the flow of the Pentland Firth is Stroma (from the Norse staum-øy or “tidal
stream”), a flat island visible a few miles north of Gills Bay. O cially part of Caithness rather than
the Orkney islands, Stroma had a population of well over three hundred in the late nineteenth
century. It had dwindled to around eighty by the 1950s, so to help stem depopulation a new
harbour was constructed in 1955. A bad move, it turned out. The islanders earned such good
wages through labouring that many moved to the mainland. Within a few years, only the
lighthouse keepers remained. Even they left in 1997 and only sheep use the buildings.