Scrabster

2012-01-26T13:14:00.000-08:00

Scrabster Harbour Upgrade and Works
Visited Scrabster beach with the dogs this afternoon and stopped to video and photograph more of the harbour upgrade and work that is going on. Some major changes to the scene I photographed a few weeks ago and it is amazing to see the huge transformation in the harbour. Anyway below is a few photographs along with a video on Scrabster harbour improvements.

Below is the video of Scrabster taken on the 26th January 2012

Scrabster harbour changes

2011-09-02T13:46:00.000-07:00

The harbour at Scrabster is undergoing major changes, I just hope everyone is happy with the changes when it is completed. Video below.

Cockerals dumped at Dunnet Forest

2011-03-13T00:14:00.000-08:00

Sunday 13th March 2011
11 cockerals have been found dunped at Dunnet Forest and 10 have been rescued by the Scottish SPCA - www.scottishspca.org/news
This is a serious issue as the cockerals would just have ended up being killed by foxes. They are currently at the Caithness and Sutherland Balmore SPCA Centre.

First Cast

2011-02-11T03:56:00.000-08:00

First cast on the River Wick for the new seaon of 2011.

For more pictures of the Wick River Salmon Season on the Scotland blog

Pheasant

2010-12-26T04:42:00.000-08:00

Caithness is not known for a lot of pheasants and the ones we see are wild ones, not ones raised by gamekeepers for shooting. So it was with surprise and delight when I looked out our kitchen window to an area where we have put out wild bird seed to see a female pheasant along with other birds.

fishing boat which ran aground in the River Thurso on Christmas Day

2010-12-26T04:19:00.000-08:00

Three crew members were rescued from a fishing boat which ran aground in the River Thurso on Christmas Day.

Scrabster and Orkney from Thurso Beach

2010-12-24T02:06:00.000-08:00

Scrabster and Orkney from Thurso Beach
It is Christmas Eve and Caithness (and most of Scotland) is covered in snow. The pictures below were taken on the 23rd December 2010 and show Scrabster, Scrabster Lighthouse, Orkney Islands taken from Thurso beach when I was walking the dogs. Orkney looks beautiful covered in snow and reflecting the sun.

Thurso lighthouse as seen from Thurso beach

Scrabster harbour surrounded by snow

Distant Orkney covered in snow

Orkney from Thurso beach

Wickers World Christmas Lunches at Wick Caithness

2010-12-09T12:51:00.001-08:00

We went to Wickers World down by the harbour for lunch and instead of the fantastic Caithness hamburger I was planning on I decided to have the Turkey and all the trimmings for just £8.50 - it turned out to be brilliant, so thumbs up for Wickers World putting on a great pre-christmas menu at a very good price. It is one of our favourite places to eat out in Caithness and it has just got better.

Ulbster Arms Hotel Christmas Meals

2010-12-05T08:11:00.001-08:00

We just has a brilliant 3 course pre-Christmas lunch at the Ulbster Arms Hotel in Halkirk, this hotel has amazing food and we have already booked another Christmas menu lunch for next weekend. The hotel does lunches and dinners and the menu starts (for Christmas) at under £16 for a three course lunch and £23 (under) for diner.
Check it out now and book your Christmas meal out at Ulbser Hotel - www.ulbsterarmshotel.co.uk
This hotel is ideal for a break in the north of Scotland and is ideally positioned for salmon fishing (in season), hunting and just exploring the Scottish Highlands around Caithness and north Sutherland. It is also close to the Castle of Mey and John O'Groats - the castle is well worth a visit during the spring / summer months when it is open to the public.

Cakes for Charity

2010-11-17T09:56:00.000-08:00

Update from Pearl about Children in Need at Allans of Gillock
"We had a great day yesterday, and the cake raffle itself raised £425, with the total of baking and donations bringing the total up to £650 and rising by the moment. Lorna from Thurso won the cake and was thrilled to receive it."

Allans of Gillock are holding a home made cake sale on Friday 19th November in aid of Children in Need, if you live in Caithness then pop into their offices at Gillock (5-6 miles from Thurso) and buy some delicious home made cakes. You can find Allans of Gillock contact details on their website http://www.allans.co.uk/ they supply building and agricultural materials.
There is also a fantastic cake to be won by raffle, a £1 a ticket. The cake is amazing and looks too good to eat.

Caithness Stone Industries Open Day

2010-11-11T06:38:00.000-08:00

Caithness Stone Industries are having an open weekend on November 13/14th 2010 - open from 10am. Caithness Stone Industries have turned Caithness stone into art with many items suitable as christmas presents along with the more unique products made out of stone.

Website: http://www.caithnessstoneindustries.com/

John O'Groats makeover proposals approved

2010-11-10T06:12:00.000-08:00

John O'Groats makeover proposals approved, about time and let's hope that it changes John O'Groats to a location that we can be proud of. Read news report.

The iconic hotel at John O'Groats

The view looking over John O'Groats towards the Orkney Islands - Stroma

Books on Orkney we can recommend

A Photographic Portrait of Swona available from bookshops and Amazon UK

SNP Government to sell off rare Shetland Cattle herd

2010-11-03T01:49:00.000-07:00

According to a news report on the BBC website the Shetland Cattle are regarded as a hardy breed The longest established herd of a rare cattle breed looks set to be sold off by the Scottish government, sparking anger among breeders and crofters.
There should have been an opportunity for the public to be allowed to raise money to preserve this herd which is important to crofters and farming. The SNP have dissapointed in many ways and this is just another example of short term thinking. You can read the article on the rare Shetland Cattle herd on the bbc website.
You can learn more about the breed on the Shetland Cattle Herd Book Society

Pentland Firth tidal project

2010-10-27T18:43:00.000-07:00

Pentland Firth tidal project set for development

The scheme is part of efforts to develop the world's largest wave and tidal generating programme A huge tidal project is set to be developed in the Pentland Firth after the rights to the site were awarded to a consortium by the Crown Estate ... read more on the BBC website

Dunnet Head lighthouse overlooking the area where the development is to take place.

Overlooking the Pentland Firth and the turbulent water where the tides meet.

The sea looks like it is bubbling all the time where the tides collide.

I just hope that there has been an environmental impact analysis made before they start putting in the large underwater turbines - while I love the idea of free energy from the sea I also do not want to affect whales, dolphines and other sea creatures that pass through this area.

Calendars

2010-10-13T21:48:00.000-07:00

If you fancy getting a free Scotland calendar then visit http://www.scotlandcalendars.com/ for a number of free to use calendars that feature pictures of Scotland.

Pictures of Scotland mountains taken by Lindsay Boyd

Sea Fishing from Scrabster

2010-10-11T01:45:00.000-07:00

October is a good month for sea angling in the far north of Scotland with ample numbers of large cod, pollack and ling to be caught. Surprisingly mackeral are also in good numbers.
The fishing trip on the 10 - 10 - 2010 was very good and two boats were out sea fishing from Scrabster on this unusual date in the calendar. The Hebridean Warrior and Strormdrift II both landed a god number of fish and my freezer had another batch of fish added as well as having fresh fish for the next couple of days. There is a huge difference in taste from supermaket fish, you should try it, book a trip out from Scrabster and see the difference in the taste of the fish. A days fishing off a Scrabster charter boat costs between £30-60 a day, depending on the boat and the numbers fishing, it is great value for money when you consider the cost of running the boat and fuel. You often go back home with well over this value in fish.
A few pictures of the fish caught on Sunday:

robot finds Dounreay radioactive hot spots

2010-09-30T02:30:00.000-07:00

Over the last few weeks people in Thurso and Scrabster has been able to see the large barge being used to help look for radioactive particles off Dounreay. I photographed the barge and the support boat last week. The sooner they find and remove all the radioactive particles the better as it is a disgrace that you see signs up on several local beaches warning people not to remove sand or anything from the beach. This of course is probably a total over reaction to any real dangers. One day I hope to see these signs removed and we can get back to fully enjoying the beautiful coastal areas around Dounreay.

Read more about this on the BBC website
BBC Scotland reporter Craig Anderson joined a team recovering radioactive particles flushed into the sea from the Dounreay nuclear site on the Caithness coast. Read more about this on BBC Scotland website

Fishing Tackle

2010-09-18T13:28:00.001-07:00

Having just bought some fishing tackle and weights I decided to have a look at the suppliers website - Fish with Finn and for anyone interested in sea fishing it should be on your favourites list, good prices and products for sea angling - www.fishwithfinn.co.uk

Scrabster Sea Angling

2010-08-01T13:55:00.000-07:00

Scrabster is one of Scotland's hidden secrets for sea fishing and while it is known by many keen fishing anglers it is not know about by many people in Scotland and in other areas of the UK. What everyone does know is that Scrabster is the ferry port for Orkney, it is also an important commercial fishing port. The secret that local fishing anglers want to keep to themeselves is that it is a cracking sea angling location for beach and boat fishing. The lochs are stuffed full of trout and the salmon rivers are some of the best. So for your next fishing trip think Caithness and Scrabster.

A good 12Ib cod caught on the 1st August 2010 off Scrabster

An 8Ib red cod caught off the coast of Caithness - near Thurso

More pictures from this fishing trip - Scrabster

Fishing

2010-07-12T01:19:00.000-07:00

Sunday 11th July 2010
Another day's sea fishing off Scrabster on Davey's boat, Stormdrift II. It was certainly a great days fishing and the weather started out with sunshine and teashirts, it ended up with waterproofs and heavy seas. In between we had a great days fishing with the largest fish being a ling at over 9Ibs, and my best fish was a cod of around 8Ibs. Needless to say the deep fre
ezer is has more fish in it today.

More pictures can be seen on Caithness & Sutherland - Fishing pages

Sea Fishing

2010-07-05T13:09:00.000-07:00

Sea fishing from Scrabster usually gives good results and on the last Sunday in June it was no surprise that fish were caught, in fact it turned out to be one of the best day's sea fishing I have had and that probably went for everyone on the charter boat, Stormdrift II. It was certainly the first time I have caught a spurdog - the first on the boat to get one of around 5Ibs, this was however quickly the smallest spurdog caught, the largest being 13Ibs.
Pictures of the day's fishing is on my Caithness sea fishing page and on my photo sharing site - Scrabster sea fishing page. Some of the pictures are shown below, it was a great day's fishing, can't wait until the next one!

www.caithnessandsutherland.com/fishing/sea-fishing/

www.photosharing.org.uk/fishing-scotland-sea-fishing-scrabster/

The Universe

2010-07-05T05:16:00.000-07:00

When you look up into the sky at night what do you see, well you see a fraction of what is there, so check out http://www.chromoscope.net/ for another view of the universe.

Scotland's Housing Expo

2010-06-26T02:58:00.000-07:00

The Scotland's Housing Expo is being held in Inverness from the 1st to 31st of August 2010, it has a lot for everyone inlcuding modern house construction and gardens. Find out more on the Scotland's Housing Expo website, or buy tickets online from The Booth.

Whales & Dolphins - Should they have rights?

2010-05-25T11:56:00.000-07:00

Whales & Dolphins - Should they have rights?
I have just finished reading an interesting article on the BBC website by Margi Prideaux who makes the point that Whales and Dolphins have an intelligence that in some ways surpasses humans and that they should be protected and given rights. Well I am all for giving animals rights and certainly agree that Whales and Dolphins should be given legal rights and protection from hunting, as well as the right to life. What's your view? well before you make up your mind have a read of Margi Prideaux article on Whales and Dolphins first.

Other resources:
Margi Prideaux website Cetacean Conservation
Ocean Expert website for finding that expert to do with the ocean, and for science jobs.

Boiler Scrappage Scheme Scotland

2010-05-23T03:00:00.000-07:00

Scottish Boiler Scrappage Scheme Scotland
On Monday May 24th 2010 the long awaited Scottish Boiler Scrappage Scheme starts for the first 5,000 suitable applicants - and provides a £400 voucher towards replacing an old and energy inefficient boiler. It is expected that this scheme will help save around 5,000 tons of Carbon Dioxide each year, plus the new boilers are often 15% or more efficient than older models, saving you money as well.
Details are available on the Energy Saving Trust UK site and for details on the Scotland Boiler Scrappage Scheme go to the Scotland Energy Section and the how to apply page.

Alternatively if you are switching from Oil to Gas (Calor) then check out the Calor UK site for the free boiler exchange offer (currently still available May 23rd 2010).