page_title: Durness
section_title: Tourism
hierarchical_section_title: Durness / Tourism
caption_attribution_description: Smoo Cave in Durness, Scotland own photography by Superbass, first uploaded in de.wikipedia 01:43, 15. Aug 2004 . . Superbass (Diskussion)
context_page_description: Durness is a village and civil parish in the north-west Highlands of Scotland. It lies on the north coast of the country in the traditional county of Sutherland, around 120 miles north of Inverness. The area is remote, and the parish is huge and sparsely populated, covering an area from east of Loch Eriboll to Cape Wrath, the most north-westerly point of the Scottish mainland.
  The population is dispersed and includes a number of townships including Kempie, Eriboll, Laid, Rispond, Sangobeg, Leirinmore, Smoo, Sangomore, Durine, Balnakeil and Keoldale.
context_section_description: Tourists are catered for by a campsite spectacularly sited on the cliffs above the beach (with easy access down to the beach), an SYHA hostel, housed by some converted army buildings, bed and breakfast accommodation and two hotels and restaurants, Mackay's and the Smoo Cave Hotel. The village is also used as a base by visitors to Cape Wrath.
  The main attractions in Durness are Smoo Cave, a conjoined sea cave and freshwater cave with a small river running through it and a waterfall in wet weather, unspoilt beaches backed by cliffs and the local seabirds, seals, porpoises and minke whales. The surrounding coastline is some of Europe's most isolated and spectacular, with the nearby Clo Mor Cliffs being the highest on the British mainland, at 922 feet (281 m) high.
  Balnakeil Old Church, is a scheduled monument with the grave of Donuill Mac Morraichaidh, a serial bandit and murderer, inside one wall of the church so, it is said, "that his enemies couldn't walk over his grave". The area around Loch Croispol and Loch Borrallie abounds in archeological interest, from brochs to round houses to medieval and pre-clearances settlements.
  The Balnakeil Craft Village can be found approximately 1 mile (1.6 km) outside Durness and is a collection of former MoD units dating from the 1950s, which now house various independent shops.
caption: Durness with Smoo Cave; the youth hostel is upper right
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