Halladale River

A historical perspective, drawn from the Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland: A Survey of Scottish Topography, Statistical, Biographical and Historical, edited by Francis H. Groome and originally published in parts by Thomas C. Jack, Grange Publishing Works, Edinburgh between 1882 and 1885.

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Halladale, a river of Reay parish, NE Sutherland. Rising at an altitude of 1200 feet above sea-level, close to the Caithness border and 4½ miles SSE of Forsinard station, it runs 22¹/₈ miles north-north-westward and northward along Strath Halladale between ranges of hills, 500 to 747 feet high, till it falls into the North Sea at the Bay of Boghouse, to the E of Portskerry current is rapid till within 3 miles of its mouth, below which point it forms a chain of about ten pools, being tidal over the last 2 miles, yet navigable only by boats. Its waters contain salmon, large sea-trout, and river trout; but the fishing-always uncertain-is rarely much worth except in spring. Tradition records that Halladha, son of Rognward, first Jar; of Orkney, was slain and buried in Strath Halladale, to which he bequeathed his name. The scene of the battle is towards the middle of the strath, near Dal-Halladha.—Ord. Sur., shs. 109, 115, 1878.

An accompanying 19th C. Ordnance Survey map is available, or use the map tab to the right of this page.

Note: This text has been made available using a process of scanning and optical character recognition. Despite manual checking, some typographical errors may remain. Please remember this description dates from the 1880s; names may have changed, administrative divisions will certainly be different and there are known to be occasional errors of fact in the original text, which we have not corrected because we wish to maintain its integrity. This information is provided subject to our standard disclaimer