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Caithness Ghost Towns
Caithness like most parts of Scotland has its ghost towns and villages.
Unlike the hotter parts of USA or the frozen parts of the world decay sets
in after 10 or 20 years of neglect and the roofs soon go. But the
buildings often mad of stone can remain for a hundred years and often more.
Foundations of buildings even thousands of years old remain in Caithness and
Scotland.
Here we will begin to list a few ghost
places in Caithness
Villages
Badbea
Not much to see except the monument and places where the houses once were
and the children were tethered to prevent them being blown off the cliffs.
Broubster
Stroma - A Ghost Island Virtually
uninhabited but once a thriving community for hundreds of years.
Harbours
Ham
Huna - used by
the odd creel boat but with its derelict lifeboat shed and equipment slipway
it has all the appearance of a ghost place.
Castles
What can we say? Virtually all except two castles are ghost
places. check out the whole
Caithness Castles section.
Ancient Ghost Places
Caithness has a very very long history and only recently has it been
discovered that there are Mesolithic traces of people in the county.
Check the
Archaeology section for tracks of these
Ghost places. Look at
Yarrows Archaeology Trail for some really
old buildings - we're talking thousands not hundreds of years.
An interesting paper on the
Grey Cairns of Camster
Ghost Schools
Caithness has always been a rural economy until very recently when
modern industry began to arrive especially at Dounreay the nuclear facility
in the 1950's. Many children went to small country schools of which
there were over 100 in Caithness. Many still exist although converted
for other uses - houses, workshops etc. Others are and abandoned.
We are still gathering this information but you can find some in our
Old Schools section
Ghost Areas
Braemore
Down the centuries this area is mentioned in books and as
part of Caithness history. Today this spectacular area is home only to
shooting and fishing estates and one or two houses. the rest are
abandoned and only the old cemeteries tell the tale of habitation before
people left the area in the last centuries for America, Canada, Australia
and New Zealand. Although it is a continuing story some areas like
this have become almost totally deserted. But it has some of the best
wildlife and scenery in the area. Deer abound and rivers have salmon -
no wonder it was a good place to live in the past. |