Keiss: The Little Caithness Harbour With 2,000 Years of History

A small white fishing boat named Amber moored against the dark stone wall of Keiss Harbour in Caithness, in crystal-clear shallow water at low tide.
Keiss Harbour at low tide — water so clear you can count the pebbles. The boat’s called Amber.

Overview — the stop nearly everyone drives past

On the NC500’s long east-coast run between Wick and John o’ Groats, most people put their foot down. Keiss looks like nothing much from the A99 — a scatter of houses above a broad sandy bay. But turn off and walk down to the harbour, and you find one of the most history-stacked few hundred metres on the whole route.

In one short stroll you can stand inside a 2,000-year-old Iron Age broch, look up at a ruined clifftop castle of the Sinclair earls, wander a tiny herring-boom harbour still worked by a handful of creel boats, and peer through the gun-slit of a 1940 pillbox built to stop a German invasion on the beach in front of you. Four eras, one wee village. This is exactly the kind of place Scottish Outposts exists for.

Where it is (and where on the route)

Keiss sits on the north shore of Sinclair’s Bay, in Caithness, on the A99 — the NC500’s east coast. It’s roughly 8 miles north of Wick and 9 miles south of John o’ Groats, which puts it squarely in NC500 Section 3 (Wick → John o’ Groats). The long sweep of sand at Sinclair’s Bay (Keiss/Reiss beach) is one of the finest on the east coast — a fact that matters more than once in this story.

The story — four layers of Caithness history

1. Iron Age: the brochs of Keiss (c.100 BC)

Caithness has one of the densest concentrations of brochs anywhere — those extraordinary drystone, hollow-walled Iron Age towers unique to Scotland, with their single entrance, chambers in the wall base, and a clockwise stair winding up between double walls. There are three brochs at Keiss — Keiss Broch, Whitegate Broch and Kirk Tofts Broch — built around 100 BC and occupied, altered and reoccupied over centuries.

Their modern fame comes from Sir Francis Tress Barry (1825–1907), who bought Keiss Castle in 1890, spent his summers there, and dug the Caithness brochs between 1890 and 1906 — Keiss Broch was the first of many. Unusually for his day, Barry recorded his work: he was a keen photographer, and around 200 of his images survive, along with plans and papers to the Society of Antiquaries of London. (He’d made his fortune, of all things, from a Portuguese copper mine.) His excavations were supervised by John Nicolson (1843–1934), the Keiss Estate factor — and a talented amateur painter and sculptor who recorded many of the finds. By 1910, Keiss Broch still stood to an internal height of about 2.4m.

Today the brochs are looked after and promoted by the community-led Caithness Broch Project — whose interpretation board tells the story on site.

A Caithness Broch Project interpretation board mounted on a rough stone slab in a grassy field at Keiss, showing historic plans and photos of the Keiss brochs.
The Caithness Broch Project board at Keiss — brochs, Sir Francis Tress Barry’s Victorian digs, and a ‘you are here’ map.

2. The Sinclairs: Keiss Castle on the cliff

The gaunt tower on the cliff edge is old Keiss Castle — a ruined tower house of the Sinclairs, Earls of Caithness, believed to date to the early 1600s (exact date to confirm). It clings to the very lip of the sea cliff, slowly losing the battle with erosion. A later, grander Keiss Castle — a Victorian Scottish-Baronial mansion — stands nearby (private), and it was this house that Tress Barry bought in 1890, launching his archaeological career.

3. The herring boom: the harbour

Keiss Harbour was built in the 19th-century herring boom (exact build date/builder to confirm), when Caithness was one of the great herring coasts of Europe and every workable inlet sprouted a harbour and a fleet. The silver darlings are long gone, but the harbour still works — a handful of small creel and lobster boats (like Amber) sit on the clear water at high tide and settle onto the weed-green rock at low. It’s a genuinely lovely, unpolished working harbour — no gift shop, just boats, pots and gulls.

Wide view of Keiss Harbour at low tide with several small fishing boats resting in shallow clear water, ringed by old stone harbour walls and a green hillside.
A proper working harbour — small creel boats, old stone walls, and not a gift shop in sight.

4. WWII: Sinclair’s Bay’s invasion defences (1940)

That long, flat, sandy bay had one big drawback in 1940: it was exactly the kind of beach an invading army could land on. So Sinclair’s Bay was fortified. Among the defences is the Type 24 machine-gun pillbox on the shore here — a squat, hexagonal concrete-and-brick strongpoint with six embrasures for a Vickers heavy machine gun or a Bren, its walls around 24 inches thick, built in 1940 as part of the anti-invasion “crust” that ringed Wick, Sinclair’s Bay and Thurso. Anti-tank blocks still march along the beach. The “Caithness at War” board tells this chapter.

A grass-topped WWII Type 24 hexagonal brick pillbox beside a 'Caithness at War' interpretation board on the shore at Keiss, sea behind.
A 1940 Type 24 pillbox on Sinclair’s Bay — one of the defences against a feared beach landing.
A WWII pillbox in the foreground with the ruined tower of old Keiss Castle on the clifftop in the distance, under a moody Caithness sky.
Two eras in one frame — a 1940 pillbox, and the Sinclairs’ castle ruin on the cliff beyond. Keiss in a nutshell.

What you’ll actually see and do

  • The harbour — wander the walls, watch the boats, marvel at how clear the water is.
  • The brochs — Keiss, Whitegate and Kirk Tofts, with the Caithness Broch Project boards to make sense of them.
  • Old Keiss Castle — view the cliff-edge ruin (admire from a safe distance — it’s precarious and erosion is real).
  • The pillbox & beach defences — read the “Caithness at War” board, then walk the sand of Sinclair’s Bay.
  • The beach itself — miles of it, brilliant for dogs and a blow-the-cobwebs-off walk.
The stone slipway and harbour wall at Keiss at low tide, seaweed-covered rock exposed, a van parked in the distance.
Low-tide Keiss — the harbour dries right out, so time your visit if you want the boats afloat.

Best time to visit

Any time — but a bright summer day shows off the turquoise water and the sweep of Sinclair’s Bay best. Time the tide if you want the harbour full and the boats floating (low tide dries it out, as the photos show — atmospheric in its own right). It’s an open, breezy coast, so midges are rarely a problem.

Nearest facilities, café & overnight

Keiss is a small village — limited facilities (confirm: shop / pub / toilets currently open). The obvious base is Wick (8 miles south) for fuel, supermarkets, food and services.

Scottish Outposts note: [Kevin — did you stop/park/stay here? Where did you leave the 594, and is there any overnight or motorhome-friendly spot at Keiss or Reiss beach? Your on-the-ground detail here is gold.]

Combine it with (NC500 Section 3)

  • Wick — Old Pulteney distillery, the Wick Heritage Museum, and the spectacular clifftop ruin of Castle Sinclair Girnigoe at Noss Head (a different Sinclair castle — don’t mix it up with Keiss).
  • Nybster Broch & Mervyn Tower — another superb Caithness Broch Project site just up the coast.
  • Sinclair’s Bay / Reiss beach & Ackergill — the far end of this glorious bay.
  • Onward north: Duncansby Head & Stacks, John o’ Groats, and the turn west along the top of Scotland.

Reality notes

  • ⚓ Tides: the harbour dries out at low water — check tide times if you want boats afloat.
  • 🏰 Castle ruin: old Keiss Castle sits on an eroding cliff edge — view from a safe distance; do not climb on/around it.
  • 🚗 Parking: [confirm — harbour/village parking, and beach access parking at Reiss].
  • 🚐 Vehicle: narrow village lanes down to the harbour — [confirm suitability for larger motorhomes].
  • 🦟 Midges: low — open, windy coast.
  • 🐕 Dogs: superb beach for dogs on Sinclair’s Bay (check seasonal rules; livestock/ground-nesting birds nearby).
  • 🏺 Respect the archaeology: brochs are scheduled monuments — look, don’t disturb; take nothing.