The Library, Castletown Hotel, Caithness

And Dunnet Beach and dunes from Castletown Harbour at 10.00pm this evening. Now 712 miles from home. A very enjoyable stretch from Edinburgh to our overnight hotel just east of Thurso. A pleasure to drive the relatively quiet roads especially north of Inverness. Just a shame about the absence of sun and overall general gloom.

We stopped for a Sunday lunch as the House of Bruar. Very reasonable, especially scone, jam and cream for £2.95. David and I sat in the men’s creche as recommended by JohnRH while Barbara and Susan went to browse the extensive departments.

Soft arm chairs, newspapers and magazines occupied our time while they were browsing. All that was missing was a wee dram on the side. It was a good job as both of us were driving and it’s best not to have any alcohol when driving in Scotland.

The Castletown Hotel is surprisingly good. Warm(!) and popular even on a Sunday evening. The meals were good value, if carb heavy with a curry coming with rice, chips and naan! We chose grilled sea bass and stir fried veg with new potatoes. The waitress came back to say they’d run out of spuds and would we mind having extra veg? A good win.

Had there been any sun it would have set at 21.15 tonight. Rather than sitting in our room we agreed a walk would be a good idea so we set off for the coast in the deepening gloaming getting down to Castletown Harbour and Dunnet Beach in the last of the light. Dunnet Head is the most northerly point in mainland Britain.

I camped at Dunnet beach in 1993 while on a solo camping trip around the north coast of Scotland Skye and Orkney before it became the NC500.

Interesting historical context down at the harbour. The rocks around here are Old Red Sandstone which cleaves neatly into slabs. In the 18-19 century there was a thriving trade in flagstones from the harbour all over the world.

As our ferry to St Margaret’s Hope is not until 13.30 tomorrow we’ll explore that beach more after breakfast. Even at 10pm there were people walking on the beach.