Scrabster Accommodation Visitors Information

• Scrabster Latitude: 58.611026 Longitude: -3.552627
• Scrabster Postcode KW14
• Scrabster Map
• Scrabster 4 day weather forecast

Scrabster, is a small but important harbour on Scotland's north coast facing the Pentland Firth, a treacherous stretch of water notorious for its fast-flowing tides (6-IO knots).

Pentland means 'Pictland", the Picts (the 'painted people') being a race in Scotland whose only remains are the many carved stones and some elements of their language in place names - for example Pitmedden in Aberdeenshire.

The harbour is the terminal for the ferry to Stromness in Orkneyand, in the summer months a car ferry to the Faroe Islands and Iceland.

It is one of Britain's larger sea-angling centres, with claims to records for both the largest catches of fish and world-record sized giant halibut (the current record stands at 232 lb).

It was from Scrabster that Lord Kitchener sailed in the ill-fated HMS Hampshire in June I9I6.

If you are visiting Scrabster why not book Bed and Breakfast accommodation in the local area.

The estate of Scrabster once belonged to the Crown, and the reigning sovereign is called locally the Laird of Scrabster. To the coast of the village is Holborn Head, where that rather rare flower the Scottish primrose.

SCRABSTER, Caithness, The origins of Scrabster date back to the Vikings

Scrabster is a small settlement on Thurso Bay in Caithness,on most northerly of the Inner Hebrides. It is some 1 ¹⁄₂ miles from Thurso, 22 ¹⁄₂ miles from Wick and 112 miles from Inverness.

The jagged rocks provide perfect conditions for fishing making the harbour an important port for the Scottish fishing industry. Steamers and car-ferries operate to Orkney and Shetland.

There rock formations are carved into curious arched chasms and stacks, The level has been raised by a hydro-electric rock, the highest of these, known as the Clett, about 150 ft high, Sea birds use these rocks in the breeding season.

Scrabster is sheltered by largest loch in Sutherland,it is 17 miles long, on the shores of the bay, are the ruins of the medieval castle known as the bishop's palace, over the centuries becoming known as Scrabster Castle, the Sinclair family owned the castle until the 1550s when it was passed to the Earls of Sutherland, today almost nothing remains of the castle but a couple of grassy mounds.