Cape Wrath
Cape Wrath is the most northwesterly point of mainland Britain, a dramatic promontory of Lewisian gneiss 100 metres above the Atlantic in the far northwest corner of Sutherland whose combination of the extreme remoteness, the great sea cliffs of Clo Mor immediately to the east and the extraordinary quality of the light and landscape create one of the most powerful and most sought-after extremity destinations available on the British mainland. The cape is accessible only by the Cape Wrath ferry across the Kyle of Durness and a minibus service across the military range that occupies much of the Parph, the remote peninsula on which the cape sits.
The sea cliffs of Clo Mor immediately east of the lighthouse are the highest sea cliffs on the British mainland, rising approximately 281 metres from the sea in a sheer face that supports one of the largest seabird colonies on the Scottish north coast. Puffins, guillemots, razorbills, fulmars and kittiwakes nest in enormous numbers on the cliff ledges, and the combination of the scale of the cliffs, the bird numbers and the complete remoteness of the site creates a wildlife experience unlike anything available at more accessible Scottish seabird colonies.
The lighthouse at the cape, built in 1828 by Robert Stevenson, is one of the most remote staffed lighthouses on the Scottish coast and the road from the ferry provides a traverse of the Parph that passes through one of the most remote and least visited landscapes on the British mainland, the bogland and gneiss moorland of the far northwest providing an experience of primordial emptiness that rewards the considerable effort of getting there.