Helmsdale
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| Helmsdale | |
| Scottish Gaelic: Bun Illidh | |
  Helmsdale shown within Scotland |
|
| OS grid reference | |
|---|---|
| Council area | Highland |
| Lieutenancy area | Sutherland |
| Constituent country | Scotland |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | HELMSDALE |
| Postcode district | KW8 |
| Dialling code | 01431 |
| Police | Northern |
| Fire | Highlands and Islands |
| Ambulance | Scottish |
| European Parliament | Scotland |
| UK Parliament | Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross |
| Scottish Parliament | Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross constituency in the Highlands and Islands electoral region |
| List of places: UK • Scotland | |
Helmsdale (Gaelic Bun Illidh) is a village on the east coast of Sutherland, in the Highland region of Scotland. Settled by the Norse, and once the site of an impressive medieval castle, the modern village was planned in 1814 to resettle communities that had been removed from the surrounding straths as part of the Highland Clearances. A fishing port, it lies at the estuary of the River Helmsdale and was once the home of one of the largest herring fleets in Europe. The main river itself is well known for its fishing.
Helmsdale is on the A9 road, at a junction with the A897. It has a railway station on the Far North Line, an independant youth hostel, a heritage centre, an art gallery, and an inn. It is home to Bunillidh Thistle F.C. and Helmsdale United.
[edit] History
Helmsdale castle, of which there are no modern remains, was the location of the murder of the 11th Earl_of_Sutherland in 1567.[1]
The last force-fire in Helmsdale was about 1818.
[edit] Gold rush
Two tributaries of the river experienced a gold rush in 1869. The history of Kildonan's gold started in 1818, when a single nugget of gold was found near the Suisgill and Kildonan burns. Scotland ensured its place in the history books late in 1868, when a brief announcement in a local newspaper stated that gold had been discovered at Kildonan in the county of Sutherland. The credit for the discovery goes to Robert Nelson Gilchrist, a native of Kildonan, who had spent 17 years in the goldfields of Australia. On his return home, he was given the permission by the Duke of Sutherland to pan the gravels of the Helmsdale River and he prospected all the burns and tributaries.[2]
During World War II, the Royal Air Force built Loth Chain Home radar station at Crakaig a few miles South West of Helmsdale. There was also an RAF Chain Home Low radar station Navidale about a mile North East of Helmsdale. During the Cold War there was a Composite Signals Organisation radio monitoring station in Helmsdale itself, the CSO is associated with GCHQ.
[edit] External links
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