Kyle of Durness is a coastal inlet on the north coast of

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

in the

county A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposes Chambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

of Sutherland. It extends inland from Balnakeil and divides the Cape Wrath peninsula from the mainland.Groome.F.H (1885) 'Parish of Durness', ''Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland: A Survey of Scottish Topography, Statistical, Biographical and Historical'',
available online
. Retrieved 2013-02-20. The nearest village is

Durness Durness ( gd, Diùranais) is a village and civil parish in the north-west Highlands of Scotland. It lies on the north coast of the country in the traditional county of Sutherland, around north of Inverness. The area is remote, and the parish is ...

Physical features

The Kyle is around wide and tidal with only a narrow channel of water remaining at low tide along most of its length.Fifteen pilot whales in trouble in Kyle of Durness
BBC news website, 2011-07-15. Retrieved 2013-02-20. Unlike other coastal inlets along Scotland's north coast it is not straight, having two major bends around Keoldale.Keoldale NC 383662
Beaches of Sutherland, Scottish Natural Heritage. Retrieved 2013-02-20. It opens into Balnakeil Bay, which is around wide, at its mouth. Faraid Head, on the eastern shore of the bay, provides the range control for the Cape Wrath military training area to the west. The danger area associated with the range includes sea areas to the north of the bay and the range is used for live firing from

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...

vessels as well as for bombing practice by the

RAF The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

.Public Information Leaflet
Defence Training Estate Scotland. Retrieved 2013-02-06.Cape Wrath Training Area
Public access to military areas, Ministry of Defence, 2012-12-12. Retrieved 2013-02-06. The River Dionard and Grudie River flow into the Kyle at its southern end with the Daill River and a number of minor streams also flowing into the Kyle along its length. The geology along the eastern side of the Kyle is limestone with rolling grasslands dominating.Loch Borralie, Kyle of Durness
Historic Scotland, 2003. Retrieved 2013-02-20. The Kyle and its surrounding area forms part of the Oldshoremore, Cape Wrath and Durness

Special Landscape Area A local landscape designation is a non-statutory conservation designation used by local government in some parts of the United Kingdom to categorise sensitive landscapes which are, either legally or as a matter of policy, protected from developme ...

.Assessment of Highland Special Landscape Areas
, The Highland Council, June 2011. Retrieved 2013-02-05. It contains a number of archaeological remains dating to the prehistoric period.Pròiseact Loch Chroispol - Loch Croispol School History Project
Durness Development Group, August 2009. Retrieved 2013-02-20.

Human features

The

A838 road The A838 is a major road in Sutherland, in the Highland area of Scotland. It runs generally northwest from the A836 in the Lairg area to Laxford Bridge on the west coast of Scotland, then generally northeast to Durness on the north coast, an ...

runs along the eastern shore of the kyle in its southern section, with an unclassified road leading to Keoldale, the only remaining settlement on the shore. The Cape Wrath passenger ferry operates from Keoldale between May and September providing the only access to Cape Wrath from the east.Cape Wrath Training Area
Public access to military areas, UK Government. Retrieved 2017-12-13.Life on the Edge
Northern Scotland - Cape Wrath to Orkney, Coast, BBC. Retrieved 2013-02-06. Land to the north of Keoldale is used by the Keoldale Sheep Stock Club, a joint farm run by crofters in the Durness area. Beaches along the shore of the kyle are backed by narrow

machair A machair (; sometimes machar in English) is a fertile low-lying grassy plain found on part of the northwest coastlines of Ireland and Scotland, in particular the Outer Hebrides. The best examples are found on North and South Uist, Harri ...

with few dunes. The western shore of the Kyle is uninhabited with the former farmsteads at Achimore and Daill the only settlements. The Cape Wrath road runs along the shore from the ferry slipway. This dates from the 1830s having been built to supply the lighthouse at Cape Wrath.Kyle of Durness
Royal Commission on the ancient and historical monuments of Scotland. Retrieved 2013-02-08. A previous landing site towards the mouth of the Kyle was originally used and is the site of a ruined storehouse.Kyle of Durness storehouse to Cape Wrath lighthouse
Royal Commission on the ancient and historical monuments of Scotland. Retrieved 2013-02-08. In 1998, a skull was discovered next to a sub-rectangular cairn to the West of the Kyle. Further excavations of the cairn found two burials, one adult male and one teen of unknown sex. They lived sometime during the 1st century BC to the 1st century AD. Traditionally the practice of burying people in a sub-rectangular cairns was thought to be a

Pictish Pictish is the extinct Brittonic language spoken by the Picts, the people of eastern and northern Scotland from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages. Virtually no direct attestations of Pictish remain, short of a limited number of geographica ...

practice but this discovery has led archaeologists to believe this practice started before the Picts.

References

External links

Cape Wrath tourismCape Wrath ferryCape Wrath Training Area
Ministry of Defence information, including access information and contact telephone numbers {{coord, 58.55, -4.79, type:waterbody_region:GB, display=title Inlets of Scotland Parish of Durness

Physical features

Human features

See also

References

External links