Dunbeath
Encyclopedia
Dunbeath is a village in south-east Caithness
Caithness
Caithness is a registration county, lieutenancy area and historic local government area of Scotland. The name was used also for the earldom of Caithness and the Caithness constituency of the Parliament of the United Kingdom . Boundaries are not identical in all contexts, but the Caithness area is...

, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 on the A9 road.
It was the birthplace of Neil Gunn (1891–1973), author of The Silver Darlings, Highland River
Highland River
Highland River is a novel by Neil M. Gunn. Its plot revolves around a young boy called Kenn who grows up next to the Dunbeath river, then going on to experience the horrors of the First World War and his attempts to rediscover inner peace and satisfaction on his return to his village.-Plot:The plot...

etc., many of whose novels are set in Dunbeath and its Strath. Dunbeath has a very rich archaeological landscape, the site of numerous Iron Age brochs and an early medieval monastic site (see Alex Morrison's archaeological survey, "Dunbeath: A Cultural Landscape".)

Of Dunbeath's landscape, Neil Gunn wrote: "These small straths, like the Strath of Dunbeath, have this intimate beauty. In boyhood we get to know every square yard of it. We encompass it physically and our memories hold it. Birches, hazel trees for nutting, pools with trout and an occasionally visible salmon, river-flats with the wind on the bracken and disappearing rabbit scuts, a wealth of wild flower and small bird life, the soaring hawk, the unexpected roe, the ancient graveyard, thoughts of the folk who once lived far inland in straths and hollows, the past and the present held in a moment of day-dream." (Neil M Gunn, 'My Bit of Britain', 1941.).

There is an excellent community museum/landscape interpretation centre at the old village school - see http://www.dunbeath-heritage.org.uk.

Notable people

Dr John N Sutherland, graduate of Glasgow, St Andrews and Edinburgh Universities, former Professor of Virtual Reality at Gifu University
Gifu University
is a national university in the city of Gifu, Gifu Prefecture, Japan. It is sometimes abbreviated as Gidai or Gifudai , with "Gifudai" being the abbreviation most commonly used throughout Japan.-Faculties and graduate schools:...

in Japan, founder of video games as an academic discipline , was brought up in Dunbeath and attended Dunbeath Primary School and Dunbeath Parish Church.
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