Loch Ryan: Murkle Bay, Pentland Firth

ND16NE 8008 c. 171 694

N58 36.3 W3 25.6

NLO: Murkle Bay [name centred ND 171 694]

West Murkle [name: ND 157 695]

East Murkle [name: ND 173 687]

Thurso [name: ND 115 687]

Pentland Firth [name centred ND 35 81].

Possibly on map sheet ND17SE.

Not to be confused with HU44SE 8085.

20 July 1881, LOCH RYAN, 14 yrs old, of Stranraer, wooden schooner, 65 tons, 4 crew, Master G. Swanson, Owner J. Coghill, Thurso, departed Castlehill, Caithness, for Alloa, carrying paving stones, wind NNW9, stranded, total loss, Holm of Murkle, near Thurso, Caithness.

Source: PP Abstracts Returns of Wrecks and Casualties on Coasts of the UK 1881-82 (1883 [C.3487] LXIII.135).

Thurso, July 21, 3.9 p.m., LOCH RYAN schooner, of Wick, Official No. 47,192, stranded in Murtle [Murkle] Bay four miles SE of Thurso last night. She will probably become a total wreck. Crew saved in ship's boat. Vessel bound from Castlehill for Alloa, with pavement. [Record received incomplete].

NMRS, MS/829/69 (no. 3176).

(Classified as wooden schooner, with cargo of paving stones: date of loss cited as 20 July 1881). Loch Ryan: this vessel stranded at Holm of Murkle, near Thurso. Capt. Swanson.

Registration: Stranraer. Built 1867. 65 grt. Length: 22m. Beam: 5m.

(Location of loss cited as N58 36.5 W3 25.7).

I G Whittaker 1998.

The location assigned to this record is essentially tentative. Holm of Murkle is not noted as such on the 1999 edition of the OS 1:50,000 map.

Information from RCAHMS (RJCM), 1 July 2004.