Undiscovered Scotland

 

Keiss is the most significant settlement you encounter on the A99 as it heads north from Wick towards John o' Groats. There's enough on the main road, including a church, the Village Inn and the shed proclaiming itself to be home to The Sinclair Bay Lobster Co Ltd, to ensure you notice it as you pass. If you're heading north you will perhaps also notice a large castle off to the right of the road after you leave the village itself, plus the ruin of a second, on the shore not far from the first.

There is a little more to Keiss than you see from the main road. Many of the village's dwellings are found on High Street, which runs south-east from the main road. This is also where you find the primary school and parish church. The High Street leads to a zig zag at its far end that descends to Keiss harbour, an attractive and still active fishing harbour. (Continues below images...)

 

Keiss has ancient origins. There are the remains of three brochs dating back around two millennia near to the village. Keiss Broch and Whitegate Broch are close together just above the shore, north-east of Keiss Harbour. The remains of a third, Kirk Tofts Broch, can be found close to the inland side of the A99 a short distance north-east of the centre of the village.

The original Keiss Castle, now normally referred to as Old Keiss Castle, was built in a superb coastal setting in the late 1500s or early 1600s for George Sinclair, the 5th Earl of Caithness. There are suggestions it was built on the site of an earlier defensive structure. The castle was built as a Z-plan tower house with four floors plus an attic and a vaulted basement. The 7th Earl of Caithness died in the castle in 1698 and it was said to be ruinous within two years of his death.

A replacement dwelling, originally called Keiss House but later taking the name (and presumably some of the stone) of Keiss Castle, was built in about 1755. This passed through a number of hands. Its owner in 1860, Colonel K. Macleay, engaged the architect David Bryce to extend it into the Scottish baronial mansion you see today. It was then sold to the Duke of Portland in 1866.

A harbour was built at Keiss in about 1820, along with the warehouse you see there today. The catch at the time was herring and by 1850 it is said that there were 49 boats based here with 180 fishermen. They in turn kept several hundred coopers, net makers, gutters, packers and curers in employment. In the early 1900s crabs replaced herring as the catch of choice and Keiss continued to thrive.

A couple of miles south of Keiss the main road crosses an odd railway track, on which can often be seen pipes. This is part of what amounts to a seven kilometre long mainly outdoor factory. Operated by Subsea 7, this fabricates pipeline bundles for a variety of offshore uses before they are towed out to sea.