Grey Coast #3 Traditional Geocache
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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A traditonal cache at the end of short rough track from the A9 trunk road on the route north into Caithness.
This cache is at Badbea, the site of a “clearance” settlement in the 19th century. There is good car parking, clearly signposted beside the A9 trunk road about 5 miles (8 km) north of Helmdsale.
The clearances took place in the early 1800s when landlords evicted local tenants from their traditional family crofts(small farms) in order to stock the land with the new bred of Cheviot sheep. These families were forced to move to the moorland on the edge of the cliffs to eke out a living as at the Badbea settlement. The ground was so steep and precipitous that local legend has it that the children were tied or tethered outside the houses to prevent them falling to certain death.
Conditions were so harsh that many families opted to emigrate to New Zealand in the mid 19th century. Their descendants raised money to erect a monument in 1911 in the memory of those who had been so unfairly treated.
The term “Grey Coast” comes from the title of the book by local author Neil Gunn(1891 - 1973) A statue commemorating his works is to be seen at Dunbeath Harbour.
The cache is placed, by kind permission of Welbeck Estates, about 75 metres from the monument. A well marked track leads to the monument, but it is narrow and steep in places, so not suitable for buggies or wheelchairs.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Haqre n ynetr tenavgr obhyqre arne na byq ehvarq pbggntr.