Dunbeath ( gd, Dùn Bheithe) is a village in south-east

Caithness Caithness ( gd, Gallaibh ; sco, Caitnes; non, Katanes) is a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. Caithness has a land boundary with the historic county of Sutherland to the west and is otherwise bounded by ...

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 ...

on the A9 road. It sits astride the

Dunbeath Water Dunbeath Water is a short river in Caithness in northern Scotland. It rises at Loch Braigh na h-Aibhne in the Flow Country and initially flows northeast before turning generally south-southeastward to flow through Dunbeath and into the Moray Firth ...

just before it enters the sea at Dunbeath Bay. Dunbeath has a very rich archaeological landscape, the site of numerous Iron Age

brochs A broch is an Iron Age drystone hollow-walled structure found in Scotland. Brochs belong to the classification "complex Atlantic roundhouse" devised by Scottish archaeologists in the 1980s. Their origin is a matter of some controversy. Origin ...

and an early medieval monastic site (see Alex Morrison's archaeological survey, "Dunbeath: A Cultural Landscape".) There is a community museum/landscape interpretation centre at the old village school (http://www.dunbeath-heritage.org.uk).

Prince George, Duke of Kent Prince George, Duke of Kent, (George Edward Alexander Edmund; 20 December 1902 – 25 August 1942) was a member of the British royal family, the fourth son of King George V and Queen Mary. He was a younger brother of kings Edward VIII and Geo ...

, was killed when his Short Sunderland flying boat crashed on a Dunbeath hillside on 25 August 1942.

Notable people

It was the birthplace of

Neil M. Gunn Neil Miller Gunn (8 November 1891 – 15 January 1973) was a prolific novelist, critic, and dramatist who emerged as one of the leading lights of the Scottish Renaissance of the 1920s and 1930s. With over twenty novels to his credit, Gunn was ...

(1891–1973), author of ''

Highland River ''Highland River'' is a novel by Neil M. Gunn. Its plot revolves around a young boy called Kenn who grows up next to the Dunbeath river, then going on to experience the horrors of the First World War and his attempts to rediscover inner peace ...

'' and others, many of whose novels are set in Dunbeath and its Strath. Of Dunbeath's landscape, Gunn wrote: "These small straths, like the Strath of Dunbeath, have this intimate beauty. In boyhood we get to know every square yard of it. We encompass it physically and our memories hold it. Birches, hazel trees for nutting, pools with trout and an occasionally visible salmon, river-flats with the wind on the bracken and disappearing rabbit scuts, a wealth of wild flower and small bird life, the soaring hawk, the unexpected roe, the ancient graveyard, thoughts of the folk who once lived far inland in straths and hollows, the past and the present held in a moment of day-dream." ('My Bit of Britain', 1941.). John N Sutherland, graduate of

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

St Andrews St Andrews ( la, S. Andrea(s); sco, Saunt Aundraes; gd, Cill Rìmhinn) is a town on the east coast of Fife in Scotland, southeast of Dundee and northeast of Edinburgh. St Andrews had a recorded population of 16,800 , making it Fife's fou ...

and

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

Universities, former Professor of Virtual Reality at

Gifu University is a national university in the city of Gifu, Gifu, Gifu, Gifu Prefecture, Japan. It is sometimes abbreviated as Gidai (岐大) or Gifudai (岐阜大). National University Corporation The Tokai National Higher Education and Research System est ...

in Japan, founder of video games as an academic discipline, was brought up in Dunbeath and attended Dunbeath Primary School and Dunbeath Parish Church.

References

{{Authority control Populated places in Caithness