Dunbeath, a village, a bay, and a stream of Latheron parish, Caithness. The village stands on the left bank of Dunbeath Water, ½ mile above its mouth, 6¼ miles NNE of Berriedale, and 20 SW of Wick, under which it has a post office, with money order, savings' bank, and telegraph departments. An ancient place, the kirktown once of a parish of its own name, it possesses an inn and a public school; and fairs are held at it on the third Tuesday of August and November. Dunbeath Castle, crowning a peninsulated sea-cliff, 1 mile S of the village, is partly a fine modern mansion, partly an ancient baronial fortalice, which, in April 1650, was captured and garrisoned by General Hurry for the Marquis of Montrose. Its owner, Wm. Sinclair-Thomson Sinclair, Esq. of Freswick (b. 1844; suc. 1876), holds 57,757 acres in the shire, valued at £6207 per annum. The bay is small, and has no capacity for shipping, but possesses value for its salmon fisheries, and as an excellent station for herring-fishing. Dunbeath Water, issuing from little Loch Braigh na h-Aibhne (980 feet), runs 14½ miles north-eastward and east-south-eastward along a picturesque strath, and falls into the northern curve of the bay.Ord. Sur., shs. 110, 109, 1877-78.
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