Seahouses (Mrs Laidlaw): Week 5 – 11 September

So that was summer. Lord, it’s been hot: last week Wick experienced its highest temperature in 68 years. Granted, that was only 25.2c (or 77.4 degrees in old money), but even so it was hot for us. Things were getting serious: I even considered taking off my pullover at one point, but then remembered women and children might be present and refrained.

Dunbeath Harbour from the south

For a marvel it stayed warm into the weekend, so on Saturday we went back to Dunbeath, another former fishing village about half an hour’s drive south of Wick. We’ve usually stayed on the north side of the harbour, but this time we crossed the river and walked south along the shingle beach towards the castle. It really was a glorious day, the blue of the sky merging with the blue of the ocean somewhere around the shimmering horizon. The beach was deserted, save for a British family paddling in the rock pools; we knew they were British, because although we were the only people for several miles, we all looked the other way and pretended we hadn’t seen each other.

Dunbeath Castle

Dunbeath castle had a moment in the spotlight of history during the Civil Wars, when the royalist James Graham, Marquess of Montrose (“wrong but romantic” in the immortal words of 1066 And All That) landed at John o’ Groats from Orkney in March 1650 and, after wasting a few at days at Thurso trying to recruit—the local clans having none of it—marched south to Dunbeath. After a brief resistance the castle was surrendered, on condition that “persons and property should be respected”. Montrose left a garrison there and moved into Sutherland, where he was quickly defeated at the battle of Carbisdale on 27^th April. The rising having failed, Dunbeath Castle was retaken by government forces soon after, and it more or less sensibly kept its head down ever since.

But the day was so hot, even the sea breeze seemed to have wilted. The air was humid and sticky and deathly still. Bees and butterflies tried their best, but after a couple of flowers you could see them lying on their backs, panting, waving their little legs resignedly in the air. So we called it a day, and retreated to the car and modern miracle that is air conditioning. Summer’s all very well for a visit now and then, I thought; but you really wouldn’t want to live there…