Thurso and the Pentland Firth as a Site of Sport

Abstract

The shore at Thurso East has been the site of several world-class surfing competitions, and its waves are perceived by many to be the best in the UK. Increasingly, its place in surf culture has been acknowledged by documentaries shown on Channel 4 and CBBC. This chapter primarily examines media treatments of the sport in Caithness from the past forty years, both within the ‘mainstream’ media and within surfing periodicals. Consistently, these publications stress surf culture’s alleged incongruity with the Scottish weather and landscape (often as a selling point), inclusive of more subaltern discourses on the environment, given the presence of the nearby Dounreay nuclear facility.