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The tumbled stone walls of Badbea among bracken on the clifftop, the sea far below.
Sutherland

Badbea Clearance Village

The ruins of a village on the cliff edge south of Berriedale, where families cleared from the straths for sheep built new homes in the wind above the sea.

Welcome

High on the cliffs south of Berriedale, where the land falls away to the sea, the low tumbled walls of Badbea lie among the bracken and heather.

This was a village made by the Clearances. When Sir John Sinclair turned his Langwell estate over to sheep, the families who farmed it were moved here, to the edge of the cliffs, and more followed as other straths were emptied.

It was a hard place to live. The ground was poor and the wind so fierce that the people tethered their animals, and even their small children, so that they would not be blown over the edge. They built houses from whatever they could find, kept a few cows and a pig, grew what they could, and fished for herring from Berriedale.

The last resident left in 1911, and a monument built from the stones of one of the houses now stands among the ruins, raised by the son of a Badbea man who had gone to New Zealand. A short path leads out to it from the road.

A short drive awayThe River BothyA tea room, deli and gift shop in a stone cottage on the Berriedale River, just off the A9 on the Caithness coast.3 min by roadSee itShelves of jams, gifts and homeware inside the River Bothy, with botanical prints on the panelled walls.
Before you go

The ruins stand open on the cliff at all times, free, reached by a short path from a lay-by off the A9.

Keep well back from the cliff edge.

Where
On the cliffs south of Berriedale, off the A9.
Last resident
Left in 1911.
Where it is

On the cliffs above the sea south of Berriedale, reached by a path from the A9.

Close byThe east coast.
  1. Ousdale Broch's thick drystone walls and low doorway among bracken on a green hillside.Ousdale Broch2 miles3 min by road
  2. Aerial view of a lighthouse on cliffs above a rocky coastline, low cloud drifting over farmlandDunbeath Bay9 miles13 min by road
  3. Latheronwheel HarbourLatheronwheel Harbour12 miles16 min by road
Directions
Shelves of jams, gifts and homeware inside the River Bothy, with botanical prints on the panelled walls.CafeThe River Bothy2.7 miles
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