Rathkenny: Dunnet Head, Pentland Firth

ND17NE 8002 c. 18 75

N58 39 W3 25

NLO: Dunnet Head [name: ND 203 768]

Dunnet Bay [name centred ND 198 704]

Thurso [name: ND 115 687]

Pentland Firth [name centred ND 35 81].

Possibly on map sheet ND27NW.

5 January 1896, RATHKENNY, 40 years, of Belfast. Lloyds +100A1. Survey 11/95. Iron steamship. 188 ton. 12 men. Master T. Hill. Owner Antrim Iron Ore Co. Ltd., Belfast. Belfast to Leith. Iron ore and general. Wind SE1. About 2 miles W. of Dunnet Head lighthouse, Caithness.

Source: PP Abstracts of Shipping Casualties on Coasts, or in Rivers and Harbours of the UK July 1895-96 (1897 [C.8453] LXXVIII.693).

NMRS, MS/829/67 (no. 994).

(Classified as iron steamship, with cargo of iron ore and general goods: former name cited as Venus, and date of loss as 5 January 1896). Rathkenny: this vessel stranded about 2 miles W of Dunnet Head light. Capt. Hill.

Registration: Belfast. Built 1856. 417grt. Length: 51m. Beam: 7m.

(location of loss cited as N58 40.0 W3 24.0).

I G Whittaker 1998.

The location and map sheet assigned to this record are essentially tentative, being derived from the location cited by Whittaker. Dunnethead [Dunnet Head] Lighthouse (ND27NW 5.00) is at ND 20273 76775.

Information from RCAHMS (RJCM), 30 September 2002.