The Coolins—Blaven—Marsco.
The whole coast is rugged and forbidding. Close to the Point of Stoer is the Rhu-Stoer, a detached columnar rock resembling the Old Man of Hoy in Orkney. Several other stacks of similar formation were seen as we passed northward, conspicuously ‘The Shepherd’ between Loch Inchard and Cape Wrath. As we approached the latter, we felt once more the Atlantic swell, and the ship pitched and rolled somewhat, though she was as a rock in comparison with the smaller coasting steamers that ply habitually in these waters, two of which we saw labouring heavily; and some of us, at least, felt thankful that we were not as they.
Cape Wrath
—Lennox Browne
Cape Wrath, now seen by many of us for the first time, is really a splendid headland. The name in its modern interpretation may be appropriate enough, considering the wild seas that roar and bluster around it; but in point of fact it has no connection with the English word ‘wrath.’ It is a corruption of the Norse ‘Hvarf,’ which meant ‘the turning-point of the land,’ and might have been more correctly Englished ‘Cape Warp.’ The lighthouse stands on a cliff 370 feet above the sea, beneath which there is a succession of jagged points, or needle-rocks, stretching seaward, perforated at their bases with several openings, through which the surf breaks and spends itself in spray. A more perilous point for shipping in a dark night it would be hard to conceive. As we passed the Cape, the cold, rainy squalls which had followed us for some time cleared off, leaving behind them, however, very striking effects of sea and sky.
The north coast, east of Cape Wrath, partakes of the same rugged character as the promontory. There are castle rocks, and detached rocks, and dark ‘cletts,’ too numerous to mention. There are isolated mountains of considerable height about the dark Kyle of Durness, and Loch Erribol, and the Kyle of Tongue. The coast-scenery, however, becomes rapidly tamer. Ben Hope and Ben Loyal are the last prominent peaks that stand out from the undulating plain.
Thurso—from the Bay.
Beyond Strathy Point, we reach the lowlands of Caithness. Green meadows and yellow corn-fields sloping down to the golden sands become common. Around Brims Ness and Holburn Head, the coast is as flat and level as the shores of Fife and the Lothians. Near Holburn Head, however, there is another huge detached rock, 200 feet high, called the Clett, around which the ocean surges and swells night and day in most weathers. Passing this rock at a safe distance, we entered Thurso Bay, and anchored securely in Scrabster Roads. The rain clouds cleared off toward evening, and revealed a beautiful sunset.