Dunbeath
Dunbeath is a town in south-east Caithness, Scotland on the A9 road. It was the native home of Neil M. Gunn (1891-1973), writer of The Silver Darlings, Highland River etc., most of whose stories are set in Dunbeath and also its Strath. Dunbeath has a very rich archaeological landscape, the site of various Iron Age brochs and a very early medieval reclusive site (see Alex Morrison's historical survey, "Dunbeath: A Cultural Landscape".) Of Dunbeath's landscape, Gunn created: "These little straths, like the Strath of Dunbeath, have this intimate charm. In boyhood we learn more about every square backyard of it. We encompass it literally as well as our memories hold it. Birches, hazel trees for nutting, swimming pools with trout and also a sometimes visible salmon, river-flats with the wind on the bracken as well as disappearing bunny scuts, a wide range of wild flower and also small bird life, the soaring hawk, the unexpected roe, the ancient graveyard, thoughts of the people who once lived far inland in straths as well as hollows, the past as well as the here and now held in a minute of day-dream." ('My Little Bit Of Britain', 1941.). There is a community museum/landscape analysis centre at the old town institution.