Dunbeath: take a break and spend a little time here

Bronze statue of a boy carrying a salmon over his shoulder, with the sea and sunlit cliffs behind him at Dunbeath Harbour.

Down at Dunbeath harbour, there’s a bronze statue of a boy with a salmon in his arms, and from where he stands you can look across the bay to Dunbeath Castle on the cliffs. The boy is Kenn, from Highland River, the novel Neil Gunn set around the river he knew growing up here. Kenn is only nine when he catches the salmon with his bare hands, and what I like about the bronze is that you can see what a feat that was just from the size of the fish in his arms.

When I go down to the harbour, I turn off for the heritage centre on the south side of the flyover and take the old road. It’s single-track down the side of the brae, and by the time I’ve crossed the stone bridge and turned into the harbour, I’ve already slowed to the pace of the place. The A9 has gone straight across the valley since the flyover opened in 1990. Down here, you can take your time looking round the old fishing buildings and get something to eat from Tasty Toes, the little seafood takeaway, if it’s open. The public loos are by the harbour, and there’s no fuel station in the village. If you fancy a look round the heritage centre, it tells Dunbeath’s story in the old school Gunn attended.

If I’ve got a dog to walk or just want to stretch my legs, I’d start from the riverside car park and follow the Dunbeath Water upstream. Once you’re over the footbridge at the Houstry Burn, it’s a short climb to the Iron Age broch, where you can still make out the entrance and the little chambers in the wall.

My favourite way out of Dunbeath is the little road inland to Braemore. It’s a quietly pretty drive and I’d take it for its own sake, even if I had no intention of going up Morven. At the road end you can set out for Caithness’s highest hill, which is a proper day’s walking. In the blogcast, I’ll tell you what came out of Caithness cupboards when a film crew set up on the moors behind Dunbeath to make The Silver Darlings.

To learn more, listen to the blogcast or book one of our North Coast Explorer private tours.