The Ham Nomads

15 Jul 2014. <GB-SCT> Thurso, Caithness; Loch Fleet —

A relaxed start in our layby, as we were only a few minutes from The Castle of Mey, which doesn't open till 10.20am. We noticed our fridge was playing up — or really, we confirmed our suspicions of the past couple of days, so we put it into our agenda to get it checked at the earliest opportunity. And the right-hand rear indicator lamp had just blown, so this needed to be attended to at the first opportunity.

Went round to the Castle. It is well set up, with parking areas set aside for cars, for coaches, for campervans, for motorbikes — and, love 'em, even a special parking area for cars with dogs — in a wooded area, fully shaded! The cost for seniors like us to go in is £9.50 a head — a bit more expensive than some places, but as it turned out, totally worth it!

Susie at the Memorial Seat

Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, found this castle, in poor repair but not a ruin, when she was on retreat with friends in Caithness after the death of her husband, King George VI. She found Barrowgill Castle, learned that it was going to be abandoned, and decided to rescue it. In doing so, she turned it into a charming stately home that suited her wants and tastes. She fell in love with the castle, the region, and its inhabitants, and became a part of the local scene. When yo go round the castle, you find the best of the best, but also pieces of furniture and knick-knacks she bought at local antique dealers and fairs.

They run guided tours after lunch, but before that, there is an attendant in each room who possibly gives you even more value than a guided tour! Each has his/her own personality, and it comes through. One of the attendants, when he found out that we were from Australia, asked us if we knew Melbourne — which of course we did. When he found out we were actually from Melbourne, he asked us if we knew Bendigo — and of course Warren was born and bred there. He then asked us if we knew how Bendigo got its name, and he was surprised when smarty-pants told him that it was named after an English boxer, Abednigo Jones. But then he came back with the fact that Jones was actually Scottish, from Caithness (where we were), and that he was a triplet, one of 21 siblings! At which smarty-pants suggested that maybe his brothers were Shadrach and Meshach — which turned out to be the case. We had fun with this fellow, and he decided not to charge us for certain information (gratis to anyone else!).

In the tea room and gift shop outside, afterwards, we were chatting to one of the girls there, and she pointed us towards a caravan/campervan place north of Inverness, on our way back down. We decided to call in on them tomorrow.

Dunnet Head from Castle

The road up to Dunnet Head

We then went across to Dunnet Head, the northernmost point on the British mainland — we had seen it from the Castle. There's a lighthouse on the headland, some old wartime buildings (in disuse!), and not much else — except for the wind.

Susie on top of Dunnet Head

Warren at Dunnet Head

There's a good view across to the Island of Hoy in the Orkneys, although it was somewhat hazy today. Behind Hoy, between it and Mainland, the largest of the Orkneys, is Scapa Flow, the stretch of water where the German fleet was interned at the end of World War I, and where one night — at whose hands, the Germans or the British, it's not known — the entire fleet was scuttled! We walked up to the top of the hill, where the views were superb, and the wind, wild further down, was enough to take your breath away! Then we decided to quit the head and return to civilisation. Must point out that the road out (up) to Dunnet Head is one of your single-lane Scottish roads, with passing points every few hundred yards — you soon get used to looking ahead and judging if you or the other will reach the passing point first and pull aside. Must say, if makes for a lot of friendly hand waving! And the terrain it runs across — you've probably seen pictures of wind-swept grasslands — well, this is one of them!

Panorama of Dunnet Head

Thurso pedestrian precinct

Next port of call — Thurso. Basically this was to get a little internet time for Susie to catch up on email. We knew there was a museum in there, with free WiFi in its cafe. Thurso is a surprise — in the extreme north of Scotland, but a cheery little town. It even has a pedestrian precinct! The museum had a one-room exhibition of Pictish and Viking artefacts — mainly Pictish standing stones, which we had had little to do with till now. A small collection, but well presented, and well worth the visit just for that. Susie got her emailing done, and then we set off southwards, wanting to get within range of the van place we had been told about.

Sluice Gates

We stopped overnight at a parking place off the A9 in the Loch Fleet Nature Reserve. We do tend to fluke landing in some interesting places. The point we parked at was an artificial dyke ("The Mound") built across the top end of Loch Fleet, finally completed in 1816. It was to provide the final bridge in the road from London to John o' Groats. Beneath the bridge is a set of 6 sluice gates, closed at all times the tide is higher than the upstream wetlands. In this way, the area has been changed from tidal saltwater estuary to freshwater wetlands, and has become a haven for all kinds of flora and fauna. Altogether, a delightful place to stop!

Loch Fleet wetlands

Sunset at Loch Fleet Wetlands

Distance driven — today, 128 miles ( 206 km ); to date, 4,396 miles ( 7,085 km )