48 
DESCRIPTION OF THE PHYSICAL FEATURES 
" The Links of Old Tain " and " Dunnet Links," which were once 
bare hills of blowing sand like those of Culbin on the Moray Firth, 
or of the island of Berneray in the Sound of Harris, but which 
now have been changed by the planting of bent grasses into a 
daisy-bespangled, turf-covered, and rich pasturage. The planting 
of this was performed by the evicted Sutherland crofters, who 
for a time overran the whole county of Caithness in search of 
employment. 
In this district, also, the Caithness pavement disappears, the 
last quarries being at Castletown, west of Dunnet Bay, and gives 
place to a yellow crumbling sandstone along the whole cliff-face of 
Dunnet promontory, hardening, however, at one place near the 
village of Brough into a good building freestone, almost the only 
freestone quarry in Caithness. Overlying this is deep black peat 
covered with stunted heather and grasses, a country singularly 
destitute of summer bird-life. The cliffs are yellowish or reddish, 
deeply honeycombed by wind and weather, with much earth and 
grasses on its numerous ledges, and beneath, a shore or detritus of 
huge blocks many tons in weight, which have fallen* away from 
the parent cliff. These cliffs reach a little over 300 feet, and the 
highest points are a little to the east of the lighthouse, the summit 
of the dome of the lighthouse being 346 feet high. 
A vast colony of herring-gulls may be said to occupy the 
entire cliff-face from the entrance of Dunnet Bay at Point of Ness 
and Dwarwick Head, round to the east side of Dunnet Head — 
some five miles, by 300 feet high. A few shags are occasionally 
seen, and one considerable colony was observed on the deep ledges, 
half way up the cliff — a not very usual situation for their nesting 
quarters. Small colonies of guillemots were here and there met 
with, generally low down ; and puf&ns and a few razorbills were 
tunnelling deep into the earthy ledges. 
The coast cliffs of Dunnet, though much honeycombed and 
weather-worn, are rather monotonous in their general outline, at 
least as seen from landward. This monotony is relieved, however, 
at places by a few far-reaching goes. The finest of these is Eed 
Goe, where the perpendicular cliff is cut down over 300 feet to 
