22/11/2024
As we sailed towards the Scottish mainland we could see that there had been a lot more snow than the sprinkling we’d encountered on Orkney. Luckily for our plans, this was all inland and the coast was largely untouched.
Dunnett Head
Our first destination was Dunnett Head, we obviously had to tick off the most northerly place on the UK mainland. We drove up to the lighthouse car park where some OSBs (remember those Overnight Sleeping Bays?) are marked out for motorhomes. It was too early for us to consider staying but it looked like a nice remote spot. I bet there would be good dark skies.
We took a short walk around the area, up to some WWII buildings that were once used by the Royal Observer Corps.
-
- Posing by the Dunnett Head monument
-
- Lighthouse at Dunnett Head
Thurso
The next stop was Thurso. It’s the larges town on the north coast of Scotland but felt quiet and gloomy in the cold weather. We popped to the fishmonger and picked up some crab, took a walk along the seafront and wandered back through the town centre towards the ruins of St Peter’s Kirk.
It was on the way to St Peter’s Kirk that we spotted the North Coast Vistor Centre. This was more than I was imagining. Not just a visitor centre but a museum with some excellent exhibits. The Dounreay Power Station, Flow Country and Pictish stone exhibits were excellent.
-
- Paul looking for Doughnuts. This is the original control room equipment from Dounreay
-
- Dressing up in the Flow Country room. It’s not just for kids.
-
- Two of the Pictish stones on display.
-
- St Peter’s Kirk was established in 1125
Pub Stopover
That night we decided to stop at a pub for an easy tea and a few drinks. The Weigh Inn had been mentioned on SearchForSites so we turned up and asked if it was ok to stay in their car park.
The chap behind the bar shrugged and said he didn’t know. It was one of the customers who said that “Yes, normally the manager says that’s fine”. I walked around the car park trying to work out where on earth we could park, it was a bit awkward but luckily the pub wasn’t busy and we parked ourselves lengthwise across a couple of spaces. That evening we had a fairly standard pub meal and a couple of relaxed pints while we watched the staff put their Christmas decorations up and turned our thoughts towards planning our own festive celebrations. It was getting close now.
Dounreay Power Station
Dounreay is a pretty remote location, a practical place for an experimental nuclear research station although it may not have seemed that way for locals. We had found out a lot about the power station and it’s impact at the visitor centre. There has been a nuclear research station in Dounreay since the 50s, and by 1962 the first “Fast Reactor” power station (a nuclear reactor powered by high energy neutrons) was providing power to the national grid. The first nuclear reactor in the world to do so. The facility continued to produce power until 1994 when it was finally taken offline and scheduled for decommissioning.
We saw on google maps that there was a viewing platform. Honestly it was a major disappointment, I was expecting something along the lines of the Saar Polygon we had climbed in Germany, but instead it was just a car park, albeit with a reasonable view of the power station.
View of Dounreay
We stopped in the car park anyway and ate our breakfast while we watched the coming and going of many members of staff. I don’t know how the staff levels for the decommissioning compare with the staff levels when the power station was operational, but it is still a very busy place and must be a major employer in the area.