Lighthouses
in Caithness.

It’s 01:41 in Caithness.

Caithness

Lights on the Pentland Firth.

The seas around Caithness are some of the most dangerous in Britain, and its lighthouses have watched over them for nearly two centuries. There's a white lighthouse by Alan Stevenson on the headland north of Wick, a little light on the pier of a stone harbour at Lybster, and the lighthouse at Dunnet Head, the most northerly point of the British mainland. Go at sunset, when the lights come on over the water.

Lybster Harbour and Lighthouse→

Noss Head Lighthouse→

Dunnet Head Lighthouse→

Did you knowJust now

In 1859 Lybster, in Caithness, was the third busiest fishing port in Scotland.

That year 357 boats fished from the small harbour at Lybster, on the Caithness coast.

See Lybster Harbour and Lighthouse · Caithness

LighthousesJust now

Noss Head Lighthouse.

A white lighthouse of 1849 by Alan Stevenson on the headland north of Wick, above the cliffs of Sinclair's Bay, a short walk from Castle Sinclair Girnigoe.

See the place

Somewhere to goJust now

Lybster Harbour and Lighthouse, Caithness.

Lybster's little lighthouse on the pier of a stone harbour tucked between grassy headlands, once the third busiest herring port in Scotland, now home to lobster boats.

Read about it

From the magazineJust now

Issue 10Spring / Summer 2025

Alan and Jennifer Law were the only married lighthouse keepers in Scotland to work at separate stations, on Stroma and at Holborn Head in Caithness.

Before he kept lights, Alan had been a ladies' hairstylist, a photographer and a cocktail bartender at Gleneagles Hotel, and the couple met as colleagues in 1973. After a short spell of illness left him looking for work, he answered an advert in the paper for lighthouse keepers. He was later stationed at Stroma Lighthouse, out in the Pentland Firth, while Jennifer lived in the couple's permanent home at Holborn Head Lighthouse. Holborn Head happened to need an attendant keeper, and Jennifer eagerly took up the post, so the husband and wife were both keepers at once, at two different lights. Their story is one of those gathered by the photographer Conor Gault for his portraits of Scotland's last keepers.

Read the full story in Issue 10

LighthousesJust now

Dunnet Head Lighthouse.

Two former keepers' cottages beside the lighthouse at Dunnet Head, the most northerly point of mainland Britain, each sleeping six, with wood stoves and views to Orkney.