DHETDunnet Head Educational Trust
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©Dunnet Head Educational Trust 2009
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Things NOT TO MISS while in the Dunnet area : —

The area around Dunnet Bay and Dunnet Head is of particular interest to Ornithologists. Embracing the principal bird habitats of land, waterside and water there is and abundant variety of birdlife. Spring is a great time to see fulmar, cormorants, razorbills, guillemots and much more. Puffin watching is between May and July. There are also ground nesting birds such as the great skua. The Head is such a great place for birds that RSPB took over management in 2008. The land is basically grassland or heather moor with a little woodland. Waterside habitat lies adjacent to the area's lochs, feeder streams, ditches and bogs. The lochs also provide a water habitat, but the main water area is obviously the sea around the shore, which has both sandy dunes and rocky cliffs.

Due to changed circumstances at the original archive in Brough, the WWII History archive has been transferred to the Scapa Flow Visitor Centre on Hoy, linking the information about WWII available on Orkney to that in Caithness. SFVC holds plans to the WWII sites on Burifa Hill and Dunnet Head as well as a wealth of other information and documentation from the UKFC, Historical Radar Archive, letters and photos from people who were stationed at the bases.

Brotchie?s steading

 

Archaeology – there are 34 archaeological sites on Dunnet Head which are listed in the Canmore database, including chapel geo, which is the remains of a small, drystone chapel said to have been a hermitage or place of penance.

 

 


Walking on Dunnet Head. We have a great selection of self guided walks which are downloadable from our web site. The walks give good information about places to see, about the routes, are graded, and have been walked by local people with a GPS and camera.
Purchase on line.


Cetaceans - Brough Bay is home to a seal colony. If you prefer not to go down into the Bay, you can view them from the seal viewing point in Brough. There are also whales in the Pentland Firth at different times of the year, and schools of dolphin have been viewed in the Bay.

 


Folds of Highland cattle - Highlands are known as a hardy breed due to the rugged nature of their native Scottish Highlands, with high rainfall and strong winds. They both graze and browse and eat plants many other cattle avoid. The meat tends to be leaner than most beef, as Highlands get most of their insulation from their thick shaggy hair rather than subcutaneous fat. The coat also makes them a good breed for cold Northern climates. Their heavy trampling of the ground is good for biodiversity by stimulating seedling regeneration.

 

Dunnet Head is 58 degrees north, further north than Moscow! The 100m high cliffs of old Devonian sandstone are a stupendous site at any time of year. The Dunnet Head lighthouse was built in 1831 by Robert Stevenson.

 

 


 

Stay at Ye Olde Post Office and Inn, converted croft. The property has at various times been the post office, telephone exchange, general store and inn. The property is a renovated croft and offers self catering and B&B; accommodation. There are also camping facilities. Book on line.

 



Mary Ann´s cottage - a window on the crofting past. The cottage was the home of Mary-Anne Calder until she was 93 in 1990. It is now maintained as it was when she left, a farming croft in continuous occupation since it was built by her grandfather in the first half of the 19th Century. Open June until September.