#dunbeath

Gunn was a novelist, critic and dramatist working at the height of the Scottish Renaissance of the 1920s and 1930s. Unlike his contemporaries Lewis Grassic Gibbon and Hugh MacDiarmid, Gunn choose to write largely in English. 

Gunn worked in the Civil Service in London and Edinburgh before returning to the live and work in the Highlands, his first novel, The Grey Coast, was published in 1926, but it wasn’t until 1937 and the success of Highland River, which won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, that he was able to give up his job with Customs and Excise to write full-time. 

Highland River marked the end of a trilogy of novels exploring the history of the Highlands, following Sun Circle and Butcher’s Broom. The following year Gunn sold his house in Inverness and bought a twenty-seven foot motor boat, The Thistle, and took his wife and brother on a three-month sailing cruise around the islands of Scotland. His final book was the autobiography The Atom of Delight, published in 1956. He wrote a number of essays, which have been collected into anthologies. 

Laidhay Croft Museum

Laidhay Croft is a 200 year old rush thatched Caithness longhouse. It is a typical example of the old style croft dwellings that were once a common feature of the Scottish landscape.

The Croft Museum consists of the longhouse, incorporating the dwelling, stable & byre at each end, a detached barn with its original cruck roof and a cart shed. Laidhay Croft comprises of 16 acres of arable, with rights over 15 acres of rough grazing. It came into the possession of the Bethune family in 1842 and stayed with them until 1968. The last person to live in it was William (Beil).