House of the Northern Gate

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House of the Northern Gate A beautiful, Scottish baronial house high on Dunnet Head looking across Caithness and out to sea.

The house takes its name from the Pentland Firth, the "northern gate" between the Atlantic and the North Sea. The name i...
02/10/2026

The house takes its name from the Pentland Firth, the "northern gate" between the Atlantic and the North Sea. The name is cut into the stone by the gate. The house has long had a naval connection. It was once owned by Admiral Sir Edwyn Alexander-Sinclair who fired the first shots at the Battle of Jutland. I like to think of him in the house, with a telescope, looking across the Pentland Firth to the Grand Fleet coming and going from Scapa Flow in Orkney.

We discovered some old negatives with pictures of the Queen Mother at the Mey Highland Games and would love to hear if a...
30/09/2026

We discovered some old negatives with pictures of the Queen Mother at the Mey Highland Games and would love to hear if anyone local can tell us when they were taken. We found them while clearing out the old garages at the house.

For those you you who aren't local, the Queen Mother was a much loved regular visitor to Caithness. Famously, she bought and renovated the Castle of Mey in the 1950s while staying at the House of the Northern Gate.

The pictures have been enhanced with AI. You can see the pre-enhanced positive second and the original negative third. I think it's done a good job

The library is a good place to start a tour of the house. With deep Eames chairs, a wide selection of English and French...
25/09/2026

The library is a good place to start a tour of the house. With deep Eames chairs, a wide selection of English and French books, and views of the bay, the room is a retreat within a retreat. The Times was kind enough to call it cosy, we find the Stiffkey Blue paint calming. It is a a place that people tend to settle in and not reappear until late.

Every so often a couple looks at the map, finds the house at the very top of Britain, and decides that is precisely wher...
22/09/2026

Every so often a couple looks at the map, finds the house at the very top of Britain, and decides that is precisely where they should like to marry. We rather love them for it! Exclusive use means the whole estate, and the whole weekend, belong to you and your friends and family. You can have every one of them under a single roof, from the first arrival to the last, reluctant goodbye.

Photography of Errin & Stephen by Stephen Gallagher

Whatever else a house this size offers, everyone ends up in the kitchen. Ours has a long pine table, Nespresso and Smeg ...
20/09/2026

Whatever else a house this size offers, everyone ends up in the kitchen. Ours has a long pine table, Nespresso and Smeg coffee machines for a morning coffee, and glazed doors that open straight through to the dining room and the sea beyond. We leave bread (and a stocked bread maker), a few local things and some flowers on the table for your arrival; after that the room rather belongs to you, whether you have brought a chef or mean to cook for yourselves.

Photography: Nicole Alex

Seen from above, the shape of the estate is dramatic: moorland giving way to cliffs, a pale curve of sand at Peedie Sand...
15/09/2026

Seen from above, the shape of the estate is dramatic: moorland giving way to cliffs, a pale curve of sand at Peedie Sands, and then the Pentland Firth — the great gate where the North Sea meets the Atlantic, and among the most powerful tidal waters anywhere. The house takes its name from that gate, and has kept watch over it ever since. For the length of your stay, all of this is yours.

The house is named for the Pentland Firth, the northern gate between two seas: the Atlantic and the North Sea. It is a s...
11/09/2026

The house is named for the Pentland Firth, the northern gate between two seas: the Atlantic and the North Sea. It is a stretch of water with a character all of its own. On a spring tide it races white; on a still evening it lies like glass. Seals haul out on the rocks, gannets fold and dive, and every so often a pod of orca passes the headland. Wherever you are in the house, you are never quite out of the sound of it and, from many rooms, you have sight of it.

The house has always been happiest with every chair at the table taken. It was built for gathering, and it still does it...
08/09/2026

The house has always been happiest with every chair at the table taken. It was built for gathering, and it still does its finest work over a long dinner — three generations together, the conversation wandering, no one paying the least attention to the hour. For the length of your stay the whole estate is yours alone, which is rather the heart of it.

On a clear night, with no neighbours and no light for miles in any direction, the sky will sometimes do this entirely of...
03/09/2026

On a clear night, with no neighbours and no light for miles in any direction, the sky will sometimes do this entirely of its own accord. We watch it from the lawn with a dram in hand, in the sort of silence that elsewhere is hard to find.

There is room for eighteen to stay here comfortably. All nine bedrooms have a little character of its own, and the whole...
30/08/2026

There is room for eighteen to stay here comfortably. All nine bedrooms have a little character of its own, and the whole of our Caithness estate is handed to a single group at a time. After a warm welcome, there are no other guests, no reception desk, no one else on the horizon — only the family and friends you have brought with you. It suits a significant birthday, a reunion, a wedding, or simply the pleasure of having everyone under one roof again.

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House Of The Northern Gate
Thurso
KW148YD

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