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Lost village

Badbea

Near Berriedale, Caithness

A clifftop clearance village, so windy that children were tethered to stop them blowing away.

In the Highland Clearances, families were evicted from their glens to make way for sheep. Some were moved to Badbea, a bare clifftop above the sea.

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When
From the 1790s
Where
58.1800, -3.5300
Group
Lost & drowned villages

Visiting

Reached by a walk from a car park on the A9 north of Helmsdale.

Cover of The Ledger of Lost Britain by Cale Mills
Read the full story in the book

The Ledger of Lost Britain

The Romans arrived in AD 43. For most people that is where the history of Britain begins. But by the time the legions landed, people had already been living on these islands for thousands of years. They had hunted, farmed, mined flint, dragged stones across the country, raised a hill by hand, and buried their dead in great tombs. They left no written words. What they left was the ground itself. Every place in this book can be visited, or has been dug up, or is in a museum.

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