Dunnet Bay Caravan Club Site, Caithness

17 August 2017:-  After a day as full as yesterday, we were happy to go slowly today. We spent a good part of the day examining  maps and itineraries, leaving phone messages and learning that there is little “room at the inn” in northern Scotland. However by dinner time, we had secured forward bookings for the next few weeks of our itinerary.

But mid-morning we headed out to Dunnet Head, but not before we checked out the beach right here beside the camp. Now for most folk, that would have been the first thing they did, but we are not beach people and my husband does not like feeling sand under his feet, hence we tend to enjoy beaches from the comfort of the car. This morning we walked across to the edge of the dunes and out onto the platform from where we had lovely views up the wide sandy beach.

Even here at Dunnet Bay, perhaps even under our caravan, the first Vikings settled and built farmhouses with thick stone walls to keep out the wind, thatching their roofs with turf. They grew oats and bere barley to make bread and ale. They reared cows, pigs and sheep to add to their diet of fish. Centuries passed and the sands blew in, burying the farm. Then in 1995 archeologists uncovered a network of drystone walls and darker bands in the sand, evealing the story of past habitation.

Dunnet Head is the most northerly point on the British mainland, and since 2008, RSPB Scotland has managed some twenty hectares here as a nature reserve. The lighthouse was established in 1831 and was built by Robert Stevenson, grandfather of the novelist of the same name. It stands 20 metres high and has a range of 23 miles, and has been automated since 1989. Here too are many remnants of military installations, dating back to World War II installed as RADAR stations. For a time, Dunnet Head was a Coastal Defence U-Boat station, used to track shipping and surfaced submarines as well as aircraft. In 1943, the station transferred from the Royal Navy to the Royal Air Force, which operated the base until it closed. During the war, the Dunnet area became home to many thousands of servicemen.

From a high point above the lighthouse, we stood in the wind and sunshine with dozens of foreign tourists, admiring the view all the way from Cape Wrath in the west to Duncansby Head in the east, Hoy to the north and the entrance to Scapa Flow. Then below the lighthouse we stood and watched the seabirds wheel about in the draughts; Fulmars and Kittiwakes easily identifiable, and others not so much, but who also share the high cliffs; Puffins, Guillemot, Great Skua, Herring Gulls, Shags. 

Just a few miles further east lies the village of Mey, and for our attention today, the Castle of Mey, the one and only property the late Queen Mother, mother to Elizabeth II, owned in her own name. The castle was home to the Sinclairs, Earls of Caithness, those ancesters of mine for many centuries, then was given to a university mate of one of those Earls on the condition he added Sinclair to his name. This lucky man later sold it to another who finally threw his hands up in the air in the middle of last century and decided he needed to be rid of it. 

A neighbouring farmer offered to buy it with the intention of turning the castle into a wintering barn, not an acceptable proposition for the vendor. The Queen Mother was mates with a couple who lived nearby and used to come up and stay with them. They told her about the property, and when she checked it out, she was smitten. The vendor said she could have it for nothing, knowing it would be treated with veneration, however Elizabeth (previously Bowes), a widow looking for a project and distraction, insisted she pay something, a whicsomethig which equated to the cost of the roof lead, just £100. The interior of the castle was gutted and large sums of money were spent on  refurbishment. It is a very pleasant and homely place, or at least those rooms we were allowed to see today.

After forty four years of ownership, Elizabeth gifted the castle with an endowment to the Queen Elizabeth Castle of Mey Trust in 1996 and the Trust has been in charge ever since. It is available for casual rent, but mostly through the summer open to view by tourists, except for the weeks Prince Charles rents it for his sole use and refuge.

We enjoyed our wanderings through the gardens, and the tour through the castle where we learned lots of rather odd and funny stories about the now deceased eccentric dowager queen. Surprisingly she was passionate about her farmyard animals and birds, and today there is an Animal Centre where the young, and not so young, can pet a variety of chooks and chipmunks, donkeys and sheep, pigs and other various critters, or just read about the breeding of farm animals.

Back home we spent more valuable time on our cellphones and settled in for a quiet afternoon.