The Edge of the Land - Cape Wrath to Duncansby Head

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• The Edge of the Land - Cape Wrath to Duncansby Head

  The Edge of the Land travels along the spectacular yet harsh landscape along Scotland’s north sea from Cape Wrath to Duncansby Head.
  
  Encompassing both geography and history, this programme from nearly 13 years ago gets to the northern fringe of rural Scotland, much less well known than the other coasts.
  
  The journey begins on the north west tip of the British Isles at Cape Wrath, Sutherland. The area takes its name from an old Norse word meaning “turning point” as Vikings would use the point as a marker for turning back to their homelands.
  
  The rockscape of Cape Wrath’s series of cliffs are used for target practice by the gunners of the Royal Navy and their NATO allies, restricting travel to the Cape at certain times of the year.
  
  Further east lies the sea loch, Loch Erribol, 10 miles long and two miles wide. In the middle of the loch there is a small island with old uninhabited houses. The buildings were used during the Second World War as bombing targets by the aircraft which went on to sink the German battleship, Tirpitz, in a Norwegian fjord. In 1945, the submarines of the German U-boat fleet sailed into loch Erribol to surrender.
  
  On to the Kyle of Tongue, pure Norse, and east to the township of Bettyhill, which is named after Elizabeth the First Duchess of Sutherland. Its naming is a cruel irony as the Sutherland family did more than anybody to clear the people from the land to make way for profitable sheep farming. Scotland’s only museum on the Highland Clearances is just outside the village.
  
  Back to the cliffs and the rocky headland at Strathy Point lighthouse, with its square boxy design, is one of the more unusual lighthouses in Scotland.
  
  From rugged Sutherland the landscape abruptly changes to the flat Caithness landscape, where on one stretch of sandstone lies the Dounreay nuclear reactor, built in 1958. In its heyday, Dounreay employed over 3000 workers, known locally as “The Atomics”. In 1994 the government ordered the reactors to be closed for good although a large number of workers remain employed to clean up the site, a process which is not due to be completed until 2025.
  
  East of Dounreay and Thurso are the great layered sandstone cliffs which run out to Dunnet Head. The lighthouse on Dunnet Head dates back to 1831, one of six built between 1830 and 1833 by the engineer Robert Stevenson, grandfather of Robert Louis Stevenson.
  
  On to the harbour, hotel and tourist trap of John o’ Groats, named after 17th century Dutch immigrant named Jan de Groot, who used to run a ferry across to the Orkneys.
  
  Finally from John o’Groats to Duncansby Head, the spectacular north east tip of the Scottish mainland.

• Video Tags

  Pentland Firth, john o'groats, Edge of the land, Duncansby Head, cape wrath

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