Cape Wrath (Scottish Gaelic: Am Parbh, known as An Carbh in Lewis) is a cape in the parish of Durness, in the county of Sutherland, Highlands, in northern Scotland. The land between the Kyle of Durness and the lighthouse that is situated right at the tip is known as the Parph: two hundred and seven square kilometres of virtually uninhabited moorland. The first road (now named the 'U70') in the district was built in 1828 by the lighthouse commission across the Parph (58° 37.5 N. Latitude; 5° 00.0 W. Longitude) to Britain's most north westerly point. This road is only accessible via the passenger ferry that crosses the Kyle of Durness.
Vikings would often turn their ships for home at Cape Wrath.
Cape Wrath is one of only two places in Great Britain that are prefixed with Cape, the other being Cape Cornwall in Cornwall.
Read more about Cape Wrath: Etymology and Pronunciation, Climate, Access, Lighthouse, Wildlife, Shipwrecks
Famous quotes containing the words cape and/or wrath:
“Wishing to get a better view than I had yet had of the ocean, which, we are told, covers more than two thirds of the globe, but of which a man who lives a few miles inland may never see any trace, more than of another world, I made a visit to Cape Cod.... But having come so fresh to the sea, I have got but little salted.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Its shrill scream seems yet to linger in its throat, and the roar of the sea in its wings. There is the tyranny of Jove in its claws, and his wrath in the erectile feathers of the head and neck. It reminds me of the Argonautic expedition, and would inspire the dullest to take flight over Parnassus.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)