Alan Calder Writer: The Glorious Twelfth- Inspirational Caithness 2

Monday, 1 April 2013

The Glorious Twelfth- Inspirational Caithness 2

The dominant geophysical feature of Caithness is its rugged coastline backed by high cliffs, with few inlets for harbours. An added disadvantage is that much of it faces east, making that shore doubly inhospitable during an easterly gale. In the early days of the herring fishing, boats were kept in natural harbours like the one shown below, The Haven at Clyth. It does not look to be much of a haven! Access was via a set of steps, all but disappeared, that were tucked into the cleft shown below right. This harbour was used by my eighteenth century ancestors.

Where there are cliffs there are caves drilled into the softer layers of the Caithness flagstones. Often only accessible by sea these secret chambers fire the imagination as hiding places. A particular feature associated with sea caves is the gloup. This is a hole in the land surface above the cave where the roof has collapsed inwards. In The Glorious Twelfth, I called this feature the sea hole. The hero, Ben Harris, falls down it in the dark and lands in the water below. The example shown, ringed by primroses, lies near Sarclet in Caithness. The cave shown on the left is the nearest to the Sinclair mausoleum at Ulbster and is large enough for a small boat to enter.