Achairn Burn, known also as Haster Burn, is one of the major tributaries

Tributary

A tributary or affluent is a stream or river that flows into a main stem river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean...

 of Wick River, in Caithness

Caithness

Caithness is a registration county, lieutenancy area and historic local government area of Scotland. The name was used also for the earldom of Caithness and the Caithness constituency of the Parliament of the United Kingdom . Boundaries are not identical in all contexts, but the Caithness area is...

, in the Highland

Highland (council area)

Highland is a council area in the Scottish Highlands and is the largest local government area in both Scotland and the United Kingdom as a whole. It shares borders with the council areas of Moray, Aberdeenshire, Perth and Kinross, and Argyll and Bute. Their councils, and those of Angus and...

 area of Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

. The burn

Burn (stream)

In Scotland, North East England and some parts of Ireland and New Zealand, burn is a name for watercourses from large streams to small rivers. The term is also used in lands settled by the Scots and Northern English in other countries, notably in Otago, New Zealand, where much of the naming was...

's source is in headwaters flowing from the northern slope of the Hill of Toftgunn, which rises to over 170 metres, and in Camster Loch, which is at nearly 120 metres, between the Hill of Toftgunn and Ballharn Hill. The same area feeds also another major tributary of Wick River, the Camster/Rowans-Strath Burn

Strath Burn, Wick River

Strath Burn is a stream which has its source in the Flow Country of Caithness, Scotland, at a height above sea level of around 70 metres, at the confluence of Kensary Burn, and Rowens Burn, and about five kilometres south of the village of Watten....

. Achairn Burn enters Wick River at Mary Ford, about 10 kilometres to the northeast of the burn's source. Its entire course is within Caithness, as is the whole of the catchment basin

Drainage basin

A drainage basin is an extent or an area of land where surface water from rain and melting snow or ice converges to a single point, usually the exit of the basin, where the waters join another waterbody, such as a river, lake, reservoir, estuary, wetland, sea, or ocean...

 of Wick River.

Between its source and Maryford the burn's course describes a sort of reversed S-shape, flowing generally north, then turning east and east/southeast before turning north again. On its banks the burn has Upper Achairn, Lower Achairn, Puldagon, and Haster

Haster

Haster is a district in Wick, a somewhat double-centred area in Caithness, in the Highland area of Scotland just west of the Bridge of Haster , which carries the main road linking the burghs of Wick and Thurso over Achairn Burn, about four kilometres west of Wick and about eight kilometres east of...

. Between Upper Achairn and Lower Achairn the burn receives water from Allt Beag-airighe (Burn of the Small Shieling). In the Puldagon area it is bridged by a small, single-track road

Road

A road is a thoroughfare, route, or way on land between two places, which typically has been paved or otherwise improved to allow travel by some conveyance, including a horse, cart, or motor vehicle. Roads consist of one, or sometimes two, roadways each with one or more lanes and also any...

 linking the A882 road

A882 road

The A882 road is entirely within Caithness in the Highland area of Scotland. It has a length of about and runs generally west/northwest from the A99 in the county town of Wick to the A9 in the Georgemas area....

, near the Bridge of Haster, with the A99 road

A99 road

The A99 road is entirely within the former county of Caithness in the Highland of Scotland. It runs generally north/northeast from the A9 at Latheron to Wick and to the A836 at John o' Groats. It was part of the A9 until the A9 classification was transferred to what had been the A895-A882 link...

 in the Thrumster area. The Bridge of Haster carries the A882 itself, about 3 kilometres west of Wick

Wick, Highland

Wick is an estuary town and a royal burgh in the north of the Highland council area of Scotland. Historically, it is one of two burghs within the county of Caithness, of which Wick was the county town. The town straddles the River Wick and extends along both sides of Wick Bay...

 and about one kilometre south of Maryford.

Grid references

Grid reference

British national grid reference system

The Ordnance Survey National Grid reference system is a system of geographic grid references used in Great Britain, different from using latitude and longitude....

s are generally in order from source to Maryford:

• Hill of Toftgunn:
• Ballharn Hill:
• Camster Loch:
• Upper Achairn:
• Allt Beag-airighe:
• Lower Achairn:
• Puldagon:
• Haster
  Haster
  Haster is a district in Wick, a somewhat double-centred area in Caithness, in the Highland area of Scotland just west of the Bridge of Haster , which carries the main road linking the burghs of Wick and Thurso over Achairn Burn, about four kilometres west of Wick and about eight kilometres east of...
  
  :
• Bridge of Haster:
• Mary Ford: