Cape Wrath Lighthouse
Local highlightA remote Stevenson lighthouse on the wild north-west corner of the Scottish mainland, reached across an empty moor and a firing range
Cape Wrath is the far north-western tip of the Scottish mainland, a headland of high cliffs facing the open Atlantic, and the white tower on top has warned shipping off the corner since 1828. Robert Stevenson built it — one of the lighthouse-engineering Stevensons whose towers ring the Scottish coast — and the Northern Lighthouse Board, who run the lights of Scotland and the Isle of Man, still keeps the beam going, though the light was automated in 1998 and no keepers remain. The name is thought to come from a Norse word for a turning point, where Viking ships changed course. Getting there is half the adventure: a small passenger ferry across the Kyle of Durness, then a minibus along a rough track over the Parph, the empty moor behind the cape, much of which is a Ministry of Defence firing range that closes the road during live firing. Sandwood Bay, one of Scotland’s finest wild beaches, lies a long walk to the south.
