Castletown Village, Harbour and Heritage Trail, Caithness

Castletown is a village 6 miles east of Thurso bordering the coastline and Dunnet Bay. The village is short walk to the outstanding sandy beach at Dunnet where you have two miles of pristine beach, a caravan and camping site, along with Dunnet community forest with its lovely nature filled walks.

At Castletown there is a tidal harbour that is used by local people for leisure, and a few commercial crab and lobster fishing boats. The harbour was originally built to support the export of flagstones made locally by the Castlehill Pavement Works that was started around 1824 by James Traill. Evidence of this industry is still found around Castletown with a dedicated flagstone heritage trail near the harbour. This heritage trail is part of the Castletown Heritage Centre that has recorded a fascinating record of live in Caithness in historical and more recent times.

Castletown harbour is used locally for leisure and a few small boats for lobster and crab fishing around Dunnet Bay

Castletown harbour has scenic views over Dunnet Bay and the beautiful sandy beach. There are also a number of old wooden boats with a fishing heritage lying on the grass nearby.

Castletown Heritage Trail

Windpump tower is a scheduled monument on the Castletown Heritage Trail. The Castletown Flagstone industry used to employ around 500 people in the 19th and early 20th Century.