Just east of John O’ Groats at a place called Robert’s Haven, you can see fragments of drystone walls and dark coloured soils full of pottery, shell, and fish bone eroding out of the dunes. Thanks to an archaeological investigation by James Barrett in the early 1990s, we know that these are the remains of a Norse farmstead and fish processing site, where fish (mostly cod) were dried and salted for local consumption and possibly for export further afield. Radiocarbon dates tell us that these activities were taking place between the 11th and 15th centuries. Locals have been keeping an eye on the eroding midden and walls for many years and had noticed fresh material and masonry being revealed. Our trip to Caithness was prompted by a message about this from a member of the Caithness Broch Project team.
Like most archaeological sites, this one has layers of history. Two large boat nausts have been created with stone re-used from the Norse site. Nearby is a winch bearing a date of 1913 etched into its cement base. As the place-name Robert’s Haven reveals, this is a landing place for boats. The visible evidence dates to the modern period, but you can be sure that it has been used as a safe haven for time immemorial.
While exploring these interesting sites, our eyes were drawn to a distant pole standing near to the tip of the Ness of Duncansby. We could make out climbing brackets silhouetted on one side, like those on old-fashioned telegraph poles. Local information confirmed our suspicion that this was a ‘Rocket Pole’. These were erected as a stand-in for a ship’s mast for coast guard practice exercises firing a line from a mobile rocket apparatus to a ship in distress. Very few survive so this was an exciting encounter!
A Rocket Post is depicted on the 2nd edition (1905) Ordnance Survey map behind the drill hall in Huna, the nearest village to John O’ Groats. Could this be the re-located pole?
Next to the pole, floor timbers from a large wooden ship lie partially buried in the turf, a reminder of how treacherous this coast is. Thirteen wrecks are recorded in the Highland historic environment record and on Canmore in this general location.
Cutting inland we headed towards the ruins of a rectangular, stone building. This building is not depicted on any of the historic OS maps, and is said to have been exposed from under a sandhill during sand quarrying in the 1950’s. The age and purpose of the structure are unknown.
Back at the coast, we noticed a series of low circular mounds with sunken centres strung along the grassy edge of the Ness of Duncansby. A chance encounter with a metal detectorist gave us a look inside one of the mounds where, beneath the turf, we saw lime and burnt shell.
We think these must be the remains of 19th century and (possibly) earlier limekilns mentioned in a British Geological Survey special report on The Limestones of Scotland (1949). The report refers to a publication of 1914 which says that large accumulations of shell sand around the Ness of Duncansby was ‘formerly dug by local farmers and burnt in small peat-fired kilns’.
Daniell’s View of John O’ Groats, published in 1821 looks towards the Ness of Duncansby where you can just make out a group of conical mounds on the headland. Could these be limekilns?
Our walk ended near a very unusual intertidal site. Beautifully carved into sandstone bedrock, and only visible for an hour or two at low tide, are the words of poem XVII from ‘Las Piedras del Cielo’ (‘Stones of the Sky’) by Pablo Neruda, a Nobel Prize winning poet from Chile (1904-73).
The poem compares the timeless endurance of stone to the briefness and fragility of human life, and this fragment reads:
With its flimsy wrapping
man’s soul falls to mold
© Edgar White
In our walk of discovery along the first or final 2km stretch of the John O’ Groats Way, we encountered an important Norse fish processing site, coastguard and sea faring history, a once-buried mystery building, an extractive industrial landscape and a cultural memorial – what a coast!
All the sites mentioned are recorded on our Sites at Risk map and on our Coastal Archaeology Recording app for android and iOS which is free to download and will help you make your own walks of discovery.
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