Dunnet, a village and a parish in the N of Caithness. The village stands, near the north-eastern corner of Dunnet Bay, 3 miles NNE of Castletown and 9 ENE of Thurso by road, only 2¼ and 6¾ by sea; a little place with a beautiful southern exposure, it has a post office under Thurso, an inn, and fairs on the first Tuesday of April, the last Tuesday of August, and the second Tuesday of October.
The parish is bounded NW and N by the Pentland Firth, E by Canisbay, SE by Bower, SW by Bower and Olrig, and W by Dunnet Bay. Its utmost length, from N to S, is 8 miles; its breadth, from E to W, varies between 4½ furlongs and 6 1/3 miles; and its area is 17, 758¼ acres, of which 3832/3 are foreshore and 519 water. The coast-line, about 15 miles in length, is occupied over more than half that distance by the bold promontory of Dunnet Head; comprises a reach of 1½ mile in the extreme SW of level sand, and a reach of 2¼ miles in the extreme E of low shore accessible at several creeks; and, in all other parts is rocky and more or less inaccessible, Dunnet Bay (3¼ x 2½ miles) strikes east-south-eastward from the Pentland Firth, along the SW base of Dunnet Head, and, extending to the said reach of level sand, belongs on its southern shore to Olrig parish. Throughout its connection with Dunnet it affords no shelter for vessels, but forms there excellent fishing ground for saithe, flounders, etc., and is sometimes frequented, in July and August, by shoals of herrings. Dunnet Head, 4 miles long and from 1l to 3 miles across, goes northward from the vicinity of the village to a semicircular termination; and, consisting mainly of a hill ridge diversified with heights and hollows, it stoops precipitously to the sea all round its coast in broken rocks from 100 to 306 feet high. It contains at or near the water line several caves, and is crowned on its extremity by a lighthouse, erected in 1831 at a cost of £9135, and showing a fixed light, visible at the distance of 23 nautical miles. The rest of the land is comparatively low and flat, attaining only 200 feet above sea-level at Barrock near the Free church, and 216 near Greenland school. Besides ten little lakes on Dunnet Head, the largest of them the Loch of Bushtas (3 x 1 furl.), there are in the interior St John's Loch (6½ x 4½ furl.) and Loch Hailan (8½ x 31/3 furl.); but Loch Syster (1¾ x ½ mile), on the Canisbay border, was drained in 1866 at a cost of £840, whereby 269 acres of solum were exposed-150 of them capable of cultivation. Sandstone, of compact structure suitable for ordinary masonry and for millstones, rollers, and gate posts, forms the main mass of Dunnet Head; sandstone-flag, suitable for pavement and similar to the famous Caithness flag of other parts of the county, underlies the interior districts; and both are extensively quarried. The soil, on Dunnet Head, is mostly moss, incumbent on moorland-pan; on the eastern seaboard, is black loam, overlying sandy clay; on the south-western seaboard, round Dunnet village, is a dry, black, sandy loam; over 2000 acres eastward of Dunnet Bay is benty sand or links, formerly in commonage, but now divided among several farms, and considerably clothed with herbage; over 3000 acres in the extreme E is moss, from 2 to 6 feet deep, resting upon blue clay; and in the southern districts is an argillaceous loam, incumbent on a bed of clay from 2 to 5 feet deep. If the entire land surface be classified into 17 parts, about 5 of them are in cultivation, 2 are links, 6 are moss, and 4 are improvable waste. Several of the ancient structures, usually called Picts' houses, are in the parish, one of them at Ham being still fairly entire; in 1873, a cist at Kirk o' Banks yielded 5 penannular silver armlets, about 3 inches in diameter, which now are in the Edinburgh Antiquarian Museum. A pre-Reformation chapel at Dunnet Head and two others in different localities have left some vestiges. Timothy Pont, the topographer, was minister during 1601-8. Dunnet is in the presbytery of Caithness and synod of Sutherland and Caithness; the living is worth £311. The parish church at the village is ancient, and, repaired and enlarged in 1837, contains 700 sittings. There is also a Free church at Barrock, 27/8. miles to the E. Three public schools-Dunnet, Cross Roads, and Greenland-with respective accommodation for 100, 185, and 68 children, had (1881) an average attendance of 115, 54, and 24, and grants of £91, £48, and £33, 6s. Valuation (1881) £6237, 11s., of which £4343, 18s. belonged to James Christie Traill, Esq. Pop. (1801) 1366, (1831) 1906, (1861) 1861, (1871) 1661, (1881) 1625, of whom 63 were Gaelic-speaking, and 16 tinkers dwelling in caves.—Ord. Sur., sh. 116, 1878.
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