Dunnet
Encyclopedia
Dunnet ) is a village in Caithness
, in the Highland
area of Scotland
. It is within the Parish of Dunnet.
The village centres on the A836
–B855 road junction. The A836 leads towards John o' Groats
in the east and toward Thurso
and Tongue
in the west. (At the junction however the road's alignment is much more north-south than east-west.) The B855 leads toward Brough
and Dunnet Head point
in the north.
The Northern Sands Hotel is located on the A836, adjacent to the village church. It is a small, family-run hotel with 12 bedrooms, a large dining room, a large car park & 2 bars. It was originally called The Golf Links Hotel, there being a links
course between Dunnet & Castletown that fell into disuse during World War II. It is locally owned.
The village has a hall, The Britannia Hall, which is run by a committee, it is used for a variety of activities including a children's nursery, an indoor bowling club, a badminton club & the Post Office visits twice a week, on Wednesday afternoons & Saturdays.
Its main fund raising activity each year for the upkeep of the hall is the Marymas Fair, held in late August on a nearby farm field, it has the usual attractions such as Highland Dancing, a display of vintage & classic cars & motorcycles, bonniest baby, home baking, tossing the wheatsheaf, line dancing, face painting, raffles and tug of war.
The House of the Northern Gate (sometimes called Dwarick House) sits in a commanding position on Dunnet head, overlooking the west side of the village. It is thought to have been built by the Sinclairs of Freswick, who owned a great deal of the village historically. It was later owned by Admiral North, then from the 1930s to the late '50s, by Commander Clair Vyner & his wife Lady Doris Vyner. They used it as a summer residence & ran the local salmon station. Lady Vyner was a close friend of HM Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother & invited her to stay at the house in 1953. During her stay, she looked east out of one of the upper floor windows & spied the tower of the recently-vacated Barrogill Castle, 3 miles (4.8 km) away. Upon enquiring about the castle, a visit was arranged to view it, it was owned by Mr & Mrs Imbert-Terry, an eccentric couple whose family reputedly owned Terry's
chocolate factory in York. A deal was struck to buy the rather dilapidated castle & Longoe Mains farm for a reported £6,000. The Queen Mother renamed it the Castle of Mey
, its original name.
The House of the Northern Gate was made into a hotel by Bill Dodd in the '60s & owned by a Mr Divanian Gold in the '70s, a flamboyant Jewish fashon clothes manufacturer from Manchester, who used it as a summer home. He later tried to sell building plots on its land, but the council vetoed the project on grounds of drainage & sewerage difficulties, because the land is flow country or blanket bog
.
In the late '70s it came on the market again & the rock band Led Zeppelin
viewed it several times with a view to making it into a recording studio, a possible reason for this is the fact that guitarist Jimmy Page
already owned Boleskin House, for many years the home of notorious occultist & white witch Aleister Crowley
, near Foyers on the south bank of Loch Ness
& was a frequent visitor to Caithness.
Also Woody, of the band The Bay City Rollers looked into buying the house as a country retreat, his Uncle worked at Dounreay at the time & Woody was a frequent visitor to Caithness in the mid-70's.
During this period, scenes from a horror film were recorded using the outside of the house as a backdrop. The house was empty until the mid-'80s, when a family from Kent bought it & made it into a private residence again. It has 1800 acres (7.3 km²) of land, 2 lochs, a small pier & a small beach, "The Peedie Sannie" (The small beach).
Dunnet Church
is near the road junction and has documented history dating from 1230.
CH Haygarth & Sons, Gun & Rifle Makers, are situated on the A836 on the eastern side of the Village, they are Scotland's oldest practicing gunmakers & cartridge loaders & the only full-time gunshop North of Inverness & are unusual in that it is still family owned & run by Colin's 2nd son, Ross, marking the business's 3rd generation of ownership by the Haygarth Clan. They were the Queen Mother
's gunsmiths from 1964 until her death in 2001. The building was the site of the original village shop, owned by the Begg family, which closed in the mid-1950s. The property was built in 1900.
Dunnet is at the north/northeast end of Dunnet Beach, which extends across three miles (5 km) towards Castletown
.
Dunnet Forest
is south of the village and east of the here southward A836.
St John's Loch , known also as Dunnet Loch, is north-east of the village.
. It originally became the focus of archaeological interest because structural members (cruck blades) in one of the rooms were known to have been formed from a pair of whale
mandibles, probably from a fin or blue whale. These are presently housed in the Dunnet Bay Visitor Centre.
An excavation by Headland Archaeology
was undertaken to examine the role of whale bones as a construction material in Caithness
croft houses but it quickly became apparent that the 19th/20th century croft house sits on a much older and extensive archaeological site.
Trial trenching has shown that the bank upon which Brotchie’s steading sits is largely man-made and part of an extensive settlement mound that possibly includes a ruined broch. The earliest deposits excavated were from an occupation surface and material from this provided a date in the range 390-170 BC. At the North end of the site a thick layer of stone rubble associated with a clay and stone-lined pit and two red deer antler picks was identified. Radiocarbon dating showed these to be from the 1st-3rd centuries AD The overlying strata supported by a sequence of radiocarbon dates and datable finds indicate that the site was also a focus of human activity in the 5th, 13th and 15th centuries up until the early 20th century. While the full extent of the site is currently unknown the knoll upon which Dunnet Church now sits would appear to form a part of a major archaeological site that has seen almost continuous, or at least regular, occupation for over two millennia.
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
Scottish Highlands
The Highlands is an historic region of Scotland. The area is sometimes referred to as the "Scottish Highlands". It was culturally distinguishable from the Lowlands from the later Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Scots replaced Scottish Gaelic throughout most of the Lowlands...
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...
. It is within the Parish of Dunnet.
The village centres on the A836
A836 road
The A836 road is entirely within the Highland area of Scotland, and 129 miles long.It branches from the A9 near Tain and runs generally north through Bonar Bridge and Lairg, until Tongue. Between Lairg and Tongue the road is single track for 38 miles...
–B855 road junction. The A836 leads towards John o' Groats
John o' Groats
John o' Groats is a village in the Highland council area of Scotland. Part of the county of Caithness, John o' Groats is popular with tourists because it is usually regarded as the most northerly settlement of mainland Great Britain, although this is not a claim made by the inhabitants...
in the east and toward Thurso
Thurso
-Facilities:Offices of the Highland Council are located in the town, as is the main campus of North Highland College, formerly Thurso College. This is one of several partner colleges which constitute the UHI Millennium Institute, and offers several certificate, diploma and degree courses from...
and Tongue
Tongue, Highland
Tongue is a coastal village in northwest Highland, Scotland, in the western part of the former county of Sutherland. It lies on the east shore above the base of the Kyle of Tongue and north of the mountains Ben Hope and Ben Loyal...
in the west. (At the junction however the road's alignment is much more north-south than east-west.) The B855 leads toward Brough
Brough, Caithness
Brough is a small village in Caithness in the North of Scotland. It is located on the B855 single-track road, the most northerly numbered road on the mainland of Great Britain, and is a few miles to the south east of Dunnet Head, the most northerly point on the British mainland, and a mile or so...
and Dunnet Head point
Dunnet Head
Dunnet Head is a peninsula in Caithness, on the north coast of Scotland, that includes the most northerly point of the mainland of Great Britain. The point, known as Easter Head, is at , about westnorthwest of John o' Groats and about from Duncansby Head...
in the north.
The Northern Sands Hotel is located on the A836, adjacent to the village church. It is a small, family-run hotel with 12 bedrooms, a large dining room, a large car park & 2 bars. It was originally called The Golf Links Hotel, there being a links
Links (golf)
A links is the oldest style of golf course, first developed in Scotland. The word "links" comes from the Scots language and refers to an area of coastal sand dunes and sometimes to open parkland. It also retains this more general meaning in the Scottish English dialect...
course between Dunnet & Castletown that fell into disuse during World War II. It is locally owned.
The village has a hall, The Britannia Hall, which is run by a committee, it is used for a variety of activities including a children's nursery, an indoor bowling club, a badminton club & the Post Office visits twice a week, on Wednesday afternoons & Saturdays.
Its main fund raising activity each year for the upkeep of the hall is the Marymas Fair, held in late August on a nearby farm field, it has the usual attractions such as Highland Dancing, a display of vintage & classic cars & motorcycles, bonniest baby, home baking, tossing the wheatsheaf, line dancing, face painting, raffles and tug of war.
The House of the Northern Gate (sometimes called Dwarick House) sits in a commanding position on Dunnet head, overlooking the west side of the village. It is thought to have been built by the Sinclairs of Freswick, who owned a great deal of the village historically. It was later owned by Admiral North, then from the 1930s to the late '50s, by Commander Clair Vyner & his wife Lady Doris Vyner. They used it as a summer residence & ran the local salmon station. Lady Vyner was a close friend of HM Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother & invited her to stay at the house in 1953. During her stay, she looked east out of one of the upper floor windows & spied the tower of the recently-vacated Barrogill Castle, 3 miles (4.8 km) away. Upon enquiring about the castle, a visit was arranged to view it, it was owned by Mr & Mrs Imbert-Terry, an eccentric couple whose family reputedly owned Terry's
Terry's
Terry's was a chocolate and confectionery maker in York, England. Its history stretched back to 1823, but in 1993 it was taken over by Kraft Foods. The York factory closed in 2005 and Terry's products are now produced in other Kraft facilities in Poland, Sweden, Belgium, and...
chocolate factory in York. A deal was struck to buy the rather dilapidated castle & Longoe Mains farm for a reported £6,000. The Queen Mother renamed it the Castle of Mey
Castle of Mey
The Castle of Mey is located in Caithness, on the north coast of Scotland, about west of John o' Groats. In fine weather there are views from the castle north to the Orkney Islands.-History:...
, its original name.
The House of the Northern Gate was made into a hotel by Bill Dodd in the '60s & owned by a Mr Divanian Gold in the '70s, a flamboyant Jewish fashon clothes manufacturer from Manchester, who used it as a summer home. He later tried to sell building plots on its land, but the council vetoed the project on grounds of drainage & sewerage difficulties, because the land is flow country or blanket bog
Blanket bog
Blanket bog or blanket mire is an area of peatland, forming where there is a climate of high rainfall and a low level of evapotranspiration, allowing peat to develop not only in wet hollows but over large expanses of undulating ground. The blanketing of the ground with a variable depth of peat...
.
In the late '70s it came on the market again & the rock band Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin were an English rock band, active in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Formed in 1968, they consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham...
viewed it several times with a view to making it into a recording studio, a possible reason for this is the fact that guitarist Jimmy Page
Jimmy Page
James Patrick "Jimmy" Page, OBE is an English multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and record producer. He began his career as a studio session guitarist in London and was subsequently a member of The Yardbirds from 1966 to 1968, after which he founded the English rock band Led Zeppelin.Jimmy Page...
already owned Boleskin House, for many years the home of notorious occultist & white witch Aleister Crowley
Aleister Crowley
Aleister Crowley , born Edward Alexander Crowley, and also known as both Frater Perdurabo and The Great Beast, was an influential English occultist, astrologer, mystic and ceremonial magician, responsible for founding the religious philosophy of Thelema. He was also successful in various other...
, near Foyers on the south bank of Loch Ness
Loch Ness
Loch Ness is a large, deep, freshwater loch in the Scottish Highlands extending for approximately southwest of Inverness. Its surface is above sea level. Loch Ness is best known for the alleged sightings of the cryptozoological Loch Ness Monster, also known affectionately as "Nessie"...
& was a frequent visitor to Caithness.
Also Woody, of the band The Bay City Rollers looked into buying the house as a country retreat, his Uncle worked at Dounreay at the time & Woody was a frequent visitor to Caithness in the mid-70's.
During this period, scenes from a horror film were recorded using the outside of the house as a backdrop. The house was empty until the mid-'80s, when a family from Kent bought it & made it into a private residence again. It has 1800 acres (7.3 km²) of land, 2 lochs, a small pier & a small beach, "The Peedie Sannie" (The small beach).
Dunnet Church
Dunnet Church
Dunnet Parish Church is a Church of Scotland church in Dunnet, Caithness, northern Scotland. References to St Mary’s Parish Church are known from as far back as the 13th century, and there are pre-16th century gravestones in the churchyard. It undoubtedly has pre-reformation origins, and the...
is near the road junction and has documented history dating from 1230.
CH Haygarth & Sons, Gun & Rifle Makers, are situated on the A836 on the eastern side of the Village, they are Scotland's oldest practicing gunmakers & cartridge loaders & the only full-time gunshop North of Inverness & are unusual in that it is still family owned & run by Colin's 2nd son, Ross, marking the business's 3rd generation of ownership by the Haygarth Clan. They were the Queen Mother
Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon
Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon was the queen consort of King George VI from 1936 until her husband's death in 1952, after which she was known as Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, to avoid confusion with her daughter, Queen Elizabeth II...
's gunsmiths from 1964 until her death in 2001. The building was the site of the original village shop, owned by the Begg family, which closed in the mid-1950s. The property was built in 1900.
Dunnet is at the north/northeast end of Dunnet Beach, which extends across three miles (5 km) towards Castletown
Castletown, Caithness
Castletown is a village on the north coast of the Highland council area of Scotland, situated near Dunnet Bay. It is within the civil parish of Olrig, where it is the main settlement, and within the historic county of Caithness. The A836 links the village with Thurso and Tongue in the west and...
.
Dunnet Forest
Dunnet Forest
Dunnet Forest in Dunnet, Caithness, Scotland, is the most northerly community woodland on the UK mainland, and has been managed since 2003 by Dunnet Forestry Trust....
is south of the village and east of the here southward A836.
St John's Loch , known also as Dunnet Loch, is north-east of the village.
Archaeology
Brotchie’s steading, is a ruined croft house just to the West of Dunnet ChurchDunnet Church
Dunnet Parish Church is a Church of Scotland church in Dunnet, Caithness, northern Scotland. References to St Mary’s Parish Church are known from as far back as the 13th century, and there are pre-16th century gravestones in the churchyard. It undoubtedly has pre-reformation origins, and the...
. It originally became the focus of archaeological interest because structural members (cruck blades) in one of the rooms were known to have been formed from a pair of whale
Whale
Whale is the common name for various marine mammals of the order Cetacea. The term whale sometimes refers to all cetaceans, but more often it excludes dolphins and porpoises, which belong to suborder Odontoceti . This suborder also includes the sperm whale, killer whale, pilot whale, and beluga...
mandibles, probably from a fin or blue whale. These are presently housed in the Dunnet Bay Visitor Centre.
An excavation by Headland Archaeology
Headland Archaeology
Headland Archaeology comprises a holding company Headland Group Ltd and the trading subsidiaries Headland Archaeology Ltd, Headland Archaeology Ltd and Archaeological Investigations Ltd....
was undertaken to examine the role of whale bones as a construction material 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...
croft houses but it quickly became apparent that the 19th/20th century croft house sits on a much older and extensive archaeological site.
Trial trenching has shown that the bank upon which Brotchie’s steading sits is largely man-made and part of an extensive settlement mound that possibly includes a ruined broch. The earliest deposits excavated were from an occupation surface and material from this provided a date in the range 390-170 BC. At the North end of the site a thick layer of stone rubble associated with a clay and stone-lined pit and two red deer antler picks was identified. Radiocarbon dating showed these to be from the 1st-3rd centuries AD The overlying strata supported by a sequence of radiocarbon dates and datable finds indicate that the site was also a focus of human activity in the 5th, 13th and 15th centuries up until the early 20th century. While the full extent of the site is currently unknown the knoll upon which Dunnet Church now sits would appear to form a part of a major archaeological site that has seen almost continuous, or at least regular, occupation for over two millennia.