Kyle of Durness

Kyle of Durness is a coastal inlet on Scotland’s north coast in Sutherland. It stretches nine kilometres inland from Balnakeil and separates the Cape Wrath peninsula from the mainland. The nearest village is Durness. The inlet is about eight hundred metres wide and tidal, leaving only a narrow channel at low tide. It bends twice around Keoldale and opens into Balnakeil Bay, which is three kilometres wide. The eastern shore is limestone with rolling grasslands, while the western shore remains uninhabited. The Kyle carries water from the River Dionard, Grudie River, Daill River and smaller streams. Archaeologists found a skull beside a prehistoric cairn west of the Kyle in 1998. Excavations revealed two burials, one adult male and one teenager, dating from the 1st century BC to the 1st century AD. This discovery suggests burial in sub-rectangular cairns began before the Picts. The area is part of a special landscape area and contains further prehistoric remains. The A838 runs along the eastern shore south of Keoldale, the only settlement on that side. A passenger ferry from Keoldale gives the only land access to Cape Wrath from the east between May and September. Beaches along the Kyle have narrow machair backed by few dunes. On the western shore, the 19th-century Cape Wrath road follows the shoreline past former farmsteads at Achimore and Daill. A ruined storehouse marks an earlier landing site near the mouth of the Kyle.