Isabella: Thurso Sands, Pentland Firth

ND16NW 8038 c. 117 687

N58 35.9 W3 31.2

NLO: Thurso [name: ND 115 687]

Thurso Bay [name centred ND 115 699]

Pentland Firth [name centred ND 35 81].

Possibly on map sheets and ND26NW 8004.

See also NC96NE 8009.

Not to be confused with ND16NW 8044.

Thurso, 12th Sept. 'The sloop ISABELLA of Inverness, Paterson, laden with herrings, is on shore on the sands of this place, and will be wrecked. The sloop JAMES BRYCE, of Kirkcudbright, herring laden, from Port Mattamack [Portmahomack] to Ireland, is on shore at Sands Side, about ten miles west of this port, but has not sustained any material damage'.

Source: The Marine List, LL, No. 5735, London, Friday September 20 1822.

NMRS, MS/829/71 (no. 6230).

(Classified as sloop, with cargo of herring: date of loss cited as 11 September 1822). Isabella: this vessel was wrecked in Thurso Bay. Capt. Paterson.

Registration: Inverness. Built 1806. 54 tons burthern. Length: 14m. Beam: 5m.

(Location of loss cited as N58 36.0 W3 31.5).

I G Whittaker 1998.

The location assigned to this loss is essentially tentative. Thurso Sands or Sands of Thurso are not noted as such on the 1999 edition of the OS 1:50,000 map, but the name may apply to the area of sand that is depicted in front of (and to the N of) the town, and to the W of the mouth of the Thurso River.

Information from RCAHMS (RJCM), 7 April 2005.