Altnaharra ( gd, Allt na h-Eirbhe) is a small
hamlet
''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...
in
Sutherland
Sutherland ( gd, Cataibh) is a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area in the Highlands of Scotland. Its county town is Dornoch. Sutherland borders Caithness and Moray Firth to the east, Ross-shire and Cromartyshire (later ...
in the
Highland
Highlands or uplands are areas of high elevation such as a mountainous region, elevated mountainous plateau or high hills. Generally speaking, upland (or uplands) refers to ranges of hills, typically from up to while highland (or highlands) is ...
region of northern
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
. The hamlet is on the
A836 road, close to its junction with the
B873. The nearest villages are
Lairg
Lairg ( gd, An Luirg, meaning "the shank/shin") is a village and parish in Sutherland, Scotland. It has a population of 891 and is at the south-eastern end of Loch Shin.
Lairg is unusual in the northern Highlands in being a large settlement tha ...
and
Tongue
The tongue is a muscular organ (anatomy), organ in the mouth of a typical tetrapod. It manipulates food for mastication and swallowing as part of the digestive system, digestive process, and is the primary organ of taste. The tongue's upper surfa ...
.
Loch
''Loch'' () is the Scottish Gaelic, Scots language, Scots and Irish language, Irish word for a lake or sea inlet. It is Cognate, cognate with the Manx language, Manx lough, Cornish language, Cornish logh, and one of the Welsh language, Welsh w ...
s in the area include Loch Naver and
Loch Eriboll
__NOTOC__
Loch Eriboll (Scottish Gaelic: "Loch Euraboil") is a long sea loch on the north coast of Scotland, which has been used for centuries as a deep water anchorage as it is safe from the often stormy seas of Cape Wrath and the Pentland Firt ...
.
The name Altnaharra is derived from the
Scottish Gaelic
Scottish Gaelic ( gd, Gàidhlig ), also known as Scots Gaelic and Gaelic, is a Goidelic language (in the Celtic branch of the Indo-European language family) native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a Goidelic language, Scottish Gaelic, as well as ...
Allt na h-Eirbhe, meaning ''Stream at the boundary wall''. This is named after a stream that flows through the hamlet.
Altnaharra is one of only two British locations where the
String sedge
''Carex chordorrhiza'', commonly called creeping sedge or string sedge, is a species of perennial plant in the family Cyperaceae with Holarctic distribution growing in acidic bogs.
Growth form and classification
''Carex chordorrhiza'' has an u ...
plant can be found. The area north of the hamlet has been designated a site of special scientific interest for its 'internationally important range of wetland vegetation'.
Buildings
Altnaharra is famous for the Altnaharra Hotel, which opened in 1820 and quickly became a popular place for
anglers to stay while visiting nearby lochs. The hotel was also popular with mountain climbers; it generally closes for winter and re-opens in March.
Ben Hope
Ben Hope ( gd, Beinn Hòb) is a mountain in northern Scotland. It is the most northerly Munro, standing alone in the Flow Country (a region of bumpy, peat-covered moorland) south-east of Loch Hope in Sutherland. The mountain is a roughly trian ...
and
Ben Klibreck are two mountains in the immediate area of the hamlet.
Altnaharra parish church was built between 1854–1857 by Hugh Mackay as a
Free Church
A free church is a Christian denomination that is intrinsically separate from government (as opposed to a state church). A free church does not define government policy, and a free church does not accept church theology or policy definitions fr ...
. It subsequently became part of the Church of Scotland, but no regular services are presently conducted in the building. Altnaharra is now part of the parish of Altnaharra and Farr, served by the church at
Strathnaver
Strathnaver or Strath Naver ( gd, Srath Nabhair) is the fertile strath of the River Naver, a famous salmon river that flows from Loch Naver to the north coast of Scotland. The term has a broader use as the name of an ancient province also kn ...
.
Weather station
Altnaharra has a
Met Office
The Meteorological Office, abbreviated as the Met Office, is the United Kingdom's national weather service. It is an executive agency and trading fund of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and is led by CEO Penelope E ...
weather station. The village's northerly latitude and inland location mean that in winter it often features in the daily
weather extremes for the United Kingdom. It is unusual in that the coldest month of the year is normally December. On 30 December 1995, the
UK's lowest recorded temperature was measured there. This matched recordings at
Braemar
Braemar is a village in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, around west of Aberdeen in the Highlands. It is the closest significantly-sized settlement to the upper course of the River Dee sitting at an elevation of .
The Gaelic ''Bràigh Mhàrr'' prop ...
in the
Grampians
The Grampian Mountains (''Am Monadh'' in Scottish Gaelic, Gaelic) is one of the three major mountain ranges in Scotland, that together occupy about half of Scotland. The other two ranges are the Northwest Highlands and the Southern Uplands. T ...
on 11 February 1895 and on 10 January 1982. In a Parliamentary debate on the Spring Statement on 23 March 2022, local MP
Jamie Stone said, "The village of Altnaharra in my constituency is the coldest place in the UK every single winter."
On 20 March 2009, it was recorded as the warmest place in the UK, at , which was the station's warmest recorded March temperature and possibly the first time the station had recorded the warmest UK temperature. The station also reported the equal warmest national temperature of , with
Tain
Tain ( Gaelic: ''Baile Dhubhthaich'') is a royal burgh and parish in the County of Ross, in the Highlands of Scotland.
Etymology
The name derives from the nearby River Tain, the name of which comes from an Indo-European root meaning 'flow'. The ...
on 20 January 2020. On 19 June 2020, the station had both the warmest temperature, , and the coldest temperature, , reported anywhere in the United Kingdom on that day. The March 2009 temperature was beaten on 25 March 2017 when the station recorded . Also on 26 May 2017, the station recorded its highest May temperature of , beating the previous recorded on 27 May 2012. On 8 January 2010, the temperature dipped to , the coldest temperature recorded in the UK since 1995. On 3 November 2015 the warmest November temperature of was reached, followed by on 17 December 2015 being the warmest December temperature on record at the weather station. On 25 January 2016, the highest January temperature of was reached. On 24 September 2020, Altnaharra reported which was the lowest reported September temperature at this station, as well as being the coldest in the UK since 1997.
Altnaharra has an
oceanic climate
An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate, is the humid temperate climate sub-type in Köppen classification ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of continents, generally featuring cool summers and mild winters ( ...
(
Cfb) with short, mild summers and long, cool winters. Precipitation occurs regularly year round.
Notable persons
*
Linda Norgrove
Linda may refer to:
As a name
* Linda (given name), a female given name (including a list of people and fictional characters so named)
* Linda (singer) (born 1977), stage name of Svetlana Geiman, a Russian singer
* Anita Linda (born Alice Lake i ...
, kidnapped by the Taliban in Afghanistan, and killed by a US grenade during a rescue effort, was born at Altnaharra.
References
External links
Met Office – Altnaharra: latest observationsAltnaharra Hotel* {{Commons category-inline
Populated places in Sutherland
Parish of Farr