Day 63: Scrabster, Caithness to Eriboll, Sutherland
Virtual Walk: Scotland 2021
8th March 2021: 106.01km walked today taking the total to 6512.14/8868km. 13% of 95 entries submitting 815.46km.
Back on mainland Scotland we work our way along the north coast to Eriboll, part of the NC500 route, and discover the history and beauty of this remote area.
We arrive back in Scrabster on the Scottish mainland after our Orkney and Shetland visit excited to continue the North Coast 500 route. We follow minor roads to join the A836 which we will be walking to Tongue, 77 kilometres away. The north coast of Caithness and Sutherland is one of the remotest parts of the Scottish mainland and, as we head west, the skies open out to expansive landscapes of rugged coastline with coves and tropical beaches with majestic mountains as their backdrop. Despite its remoteness, there are still many ancient remains dotted throughout the region, too many to mention, but we will see the most important as we progress!
Six kilometres from Scrabster we reach the settlement of Forss, a pretty place with a tree-lined road leading us over the Bridge of Forss. We have lovely views of the falls and the Forss House Hotel on the Forss Water as it winds its way to Crosskirk Bay. We press on through the areas of Lybster to Buldoo where the Dounreay Nuclear Power Station comes into view.
Dounreay was built on the site of Dounreay Castle, the meaning of which is ‘fort on a mound’, and where an RAF airfield was also based during World War 2. The Dounreay Power Station was built here from 1955, in a remote position should there be an explosion, and began to supply the National Grid in 1962. After the addition of a further reactor, the station went on to supply electricity until 1994, when the plant was taken offline. Decommissioning of the station is estimated to take 60 years so is still a work in progress. A battle called Sandside Chase took place here in 1437 where Clan MacKay launched a raid on the Caithness people; the locals lost.
We walk to the village of Reay, sitting on Sandside Bay, which has a large amount of Bronze Age, Iron Age and Viking remains in the area, including a stone circle. The bay is a Site of Special Scientific Interest and is popular with surfers; it is owned by the nearby Sandside House estate but is open to the public. The seabed and beach are monitored by the UK Atomic Energy Authority after nuclear particles were discharged into the sea during Dounreay’s active life. The particles sit on the seabed in the immediate area and wash up on the shore, so no fishing is permitted within a 2-kilometre radius of the power plant. The radioactivity is extremely low in the particles that wash up on the beach, so are deemed not a threat to the public. Set behind the beach is the Reay Links Golf Course which opened in 1893; it is the most northerly 18-hole links course on the British mainland. As we leave Reay, the Parish Church built in 1759 sits on the shore side, it is a category A-listed building due to its unusual floor plan and is still in use today.
Keeping to the main road through boggy grassland for just over 6 kilometres, we leave the A836 to follow a minor road that brings us alongside the River Halladale as it makes its way into Melvich Bay. We take a path that leads us to a wooden bridge crossing over the wide peaty-brown river at its estuary. Once on the other side, we clamber up the steep dunes to appreciate the view of the sweeping bay and Portskerra Pier further along the coast. We return to the main road and continue west, passing the Marie Curie Field of Hope where 2,000 daffodil bulbs were planted in 2007, before passing through Baligill then Strathy, which has a nice beach. Passing through a few more settlements we reach Armadale, a small fishing community that goes back to at least the 13th century, sitting on Armadale Bay. Locals were cleared to Armadale village in the early 19th century and there is an old post-clearance village, deserted now, just along the coast called Poulouriscaig which was settled in the 1830s; the last residents left in 1935.
We walk a further 9 kilometres to Bettyhill, a fairly recent addition to the landscape. It was created by Duchess Elizabeth Sutherland, as a replacement village for those they cleared from their land and was named after her. It was built next to the crofting village of Farr on the east edge of the River Naver where it opens out into Torrisdale Bay. The villages sit in the Strathnaver area which lay on the Viking trade route between Scandinavia and Ireland. This was also Clan MacKay territory centuries ago, who were supporters of Robert the Bruce during the Wars of Independence, a very ancient and powerful clan. It was from Strathnaver that the Battle of Sandside Chase commenced in 1437 which resulted in the bloodshed at Dounreay. The Farr Church, now in Bettyhill, was constructed in 1774, and is home to the Strathnaver Museum. Also known as ‘The MacKay Museum’, it has a large section devoted to their history. From the museum, you can follow the Strathnaver Trail south through the fertile river valley to Loch Altnaharra which covers several historical remains along the banks of the river as well as another clearance village, Achanlochy. The village’s 7 cottages that sat on Lochan Duinte were burned so their tenants couldn’t return, so only the foundation walls remain today. The beach at Farr is a rock-lined white sand beach and, as we travel through Bettyhill, the stunning sweep of Torrisdale Bay beyond the River Naver becomes evident; the river is a great place for salmon fishing.
We follow the road inland along the riverbank to cross the bridge at Invernaver. The road curves away from the river to the west and through the hills. After crossing the River Borgie we head north once again to the coast and Torrisdale itself, on the other side of Torrisdale Bay. When the tide is out on this side of the bay, you may see part of the wreck of the US armed cargo ship, SS John Randolph, which hit a mine in the waters nearby during World War 2. They attempted to salvage the wreck in 1952 but it broke loose from its tow coming to rest on the beach. We follow the coastal road through the settlements of Achtoty to visit the rocky Skerray Bay with its harbour established in the late 19th century. From the shore, we see the large rock, Carn Mor, across the bay entrance, and beyond that the uninhabited Neave, or Coomb, Island, although there are remains of an ancient chapel to be found there.
We continue to follow the minor road past Loch Modsarie back to the A836 and wind our way for 14 kilometres past lochs and through settlements, including Coldbackie in the shadow of Watch Hill, ‘Cnoc an Fhreiceadain’, to reach Tongue. In 2004, Jeremy Clarkson scaled this hill, from sea level to peak, in the new Land Rover Discovery 3 for BBC’s ‘Top Gear’ programme. Environmentalists weren't too happy about it!
Tongue’s name comes from Norse,’ tunga’, meaning ‘tongue of land’. The Norse are believed to have lived here 900-1200 AD though there isn’t much surviving evidence. In 1746, the Jacobite ship ‘Le Prince Charles’ was bringing a large amount of French gold to aid the Jacobite cause. The ship was chased by the British and they eventually caught up with it in the Kyle of Tongue on 25 February 1746. A fierce 5-hour battle took place, a battle the Jacobite ship lost. The gold did not reach the Prince's army which cost them support in the lead up to the Battle of Culloden. Like other villages in the 19th century, a large number of people cleared from the land were moved here to fish from Coldbackie Beach.
It is thought that the Vikings built the first Castle Varrich, mentioned in ‘The Orkneyinga Saga’ as ‘Beruvik’, which we walk through the village to visit. There is a good path to the castle, crossing a wooden footbridge over Rhian Burn, passing through Varrich Woods before a path zigzags up to the castle. The MacKay Clan are believed to have built what we see today on the site of the Norse fort that once stood here, its exact origin unknown. An iron staircase has been installed in recent years, so we climb to the top of the keep and enjoy the views before returning to the village. Sitting on the summit of a cliff overlooking the Kyle of Tongue, the castle remains have commanding views across the Kyle, Tongue Bay and to the south Ben Hope (927m) and Ben Loyal (765m). Ben Loyal sits on an estate of that name and is owned by Anders Holch Povlsen, Danish billionaire and largest landowner in Scotland.
We walk back through the village to reach the Kyle of Tongue Causeway and Bridge. En route, we pass St Andrew’s Parish Church, known as ‘The MacKay Church’. It has ancient Celtic roots, being a Roman Catholic church prior to the Scottish Reformation. Rebuilt by Donald MacKay in 1680, it was renovated again in circa 1729 when a vault was constructed over earlier MacKay family graves. We cross the Kyle of Tongue via a natural and manmade causeway onto Tongue Island, then cross a further bridge to Auchuvoldrach, previously crossed by a ferry. There are great views across the Kyle to Rabbit Islands on Tongue Bay as we cross. Reaching the opposite shore, we walk the roadside over boggy moorland for just over 10 kilometres, through Moine Ho settlement, passing a few lochs including Loch Maovally, to arrive in Hope settlement.
Hope sits on the edge of Loch Hope, where the River Hope runs into the sea loch, Loch Eriboll. As we look south the landscape is dominated by Ben Hope (927m), the most northerly Munro, which sits in the Flow Country characterised by boggy, peaty moorland. Flow Country is a large, sweeping area of peatland and wetland in Caithness and Sutherland, and the largest blanket bog in Europe. The area around Loch Hope and the river is dotted with Bronze Age hut circles, cairns and burnt mounds, and as we cross the Hope Bridge and continue our journey, there are actually many around us as we walk to the settlement at Heilam and Ard Neackie 3 kilometres away.
Arriving at Ard Neackie, we see Loch Eriboll again. The first thing we notice is its rocky promontory connected to the mainland by a tombolo (sand bar). The Heilam ferry to Portnancon sailed from the pier here before the road around the loch was completed in the 1890s. The Ferry Inn, built in 1831, still stands as a reminder of those times. There are also well-preserved lime kilns on the promontory, in use from 1870, where ‘quick’-lime was made from locally quarried limestone and then distributed via sea by the Duke and Duchess of Sutherland (again of Clearance notoriety!).
There are several settlements around its shore: Eriboll, Laid, Heilam, Portnancon and Rispond. The sea loch was used for centuries as a safe anchorage from storms, and named after the village we reach next, Eriboll. There are yet more Bronze Age remains found right around its shores, giving evidence of habitation in the area for many centuries. Its popularity with ships saw the Royal Navy use the loch in World War 2. The ships sheltered from storms here so the sailors, therefore, gave it the nickname ‘Loch ‘Orrible’, and they also used the loch’s islands as target practice against the enemy. At the end of the war, 33 enemy U-boats surrendered here in 1945, ending the Battle of the Atlantic. The area’s relationship with the Navy hasn’t ended; the largest war games in the UK were played out here in 2011, involving the Navy’s assault ship HMS Bulwark. Amphibious and specialist training exercises are still carried out in the area for a few weeks every year. It looks like such a remote place, so it's hard to picture that kind of history here!
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