An anonymous album | theimmeasurablewilds-sutherland.co.uk

Touring the Highlands: anonymous photo album pages from the 1920s.

Touring the Highlands by motorbike....

.....by car.....

.....maybe by both.

Some photo albums are beautifully annotated, leaving no doubt as to what one is looking at. I have recently acquired some pages taken from an album with no annotations whatsoever. So I have no idea who took the photographs, when they were taken, and in some cases, what one is looking at.

However, we can start somewhere where there is no doubt about the location:

Visitors to John o' Groats

The bench round which the group stands confirms that we are at John o' Groats. The Hotel, in itself an unmistakable landmark, was built in 1875. It has recently undergone considerable improvements internally, with nordic-style extensions added on the western end.

The John o' Groats Hotel....

.....then.....

.....and now (photograph taken in September 2022).

From John o' Groats, the party headed west (at least, they do in the order that I am showing!). An interesting page of photos taken in the Thurso vicinity:

Here, they are standing outside the "Pentland View", presumably a hotel, and probably in Thurso, though there is no longer there a hotel with that name . From this base, they visited the lighthouse at Dunnet Head.

The lighthouse at Dunnet Head, the most northerly point of mainland Great Britain

This I believe to be a very interesting shot of Scrabster Harbour, with barrels in the foreground probably connected to the Herring trade. The large vessel moored alongside the jetty is the St Ola, the first of the line of ferries that serves Orkney.

Scrabster Harbour.

The Clett Rock

They ventured to the north of Scrabster to get this image of the Clett Rock. This is famed for its bird life - a few can be seen at the top, but this is clearly not the time of the main breeding season. They then continued on along the north coast, taking this view at Tongue, looking across to Castle Varrich, with corn stooks and washing drying to add to the detail.

View at Tongue, across to Castle Varrich.

One of the most interesting pages is this one, showing images of Cape Wrath:

Photographs taken at Cape Wrath.

A postcard published by Lilywhite.

Various photographers, including George Washington Wilson, and, as here (left), Lilywhite, have tried to capture the huge block of rock that resists the battering of the waves off the headland. My anonymous photographer manages to show the channel that separates the block from the mainland, and gives a glimpse of the natural arch (right).

There are two images of the lighthouse at Cape Wrath.....

....and three more of people (and dogs!) presumably connected to it:

I think some of these must be the lighthouse staff. In an account of a cycling tour that I have recorded in a page titled 'Intrepid Cyclists' I note that one party stayed at the Cape for two weeks. Some of these folk photographed might well have been concerned with the hospitality offered at the headland.

And what of the fourth group photo, showing children, with what looks like a nurse or teacher at the back? Are these the children of the staff, who might be educated in situ rather than having to travel to Durness?