Reay

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Reay (Scottish Gaelic: Ratha) is a village which has grown around Sandside Bay, Caithness, in the Highland area of Scotland. The Parish of Reay includes the village.

The village is on the A836 road some 12 miles west of the town of Thurso and 3 miles west of Dounreay.

Along with Thurso the village grew dramatically in the mid-20th century with the development of the experimental nuclear power facility at Dounreay, where technologies such as fast breeder reactors were developed.

The last force-fire in Reay occurred about 1830.

1 Parish
2 Sandside Bay
3 Local government
4 Map references
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] Parish

The parish includes the hamlets of Fresgoe, Islaud and Shebster, which are close to the boundary between Caithness and the neighbouring county of Sutherland. The parish had a parish council from 1894 to 1930, and has two neighbouring parishes in Caithess: the Parish of Thurso to the east and the Parish of Halkirk to the south. Dounreay is within the parish.

[edit] Sandside Bay

One of the main environmental issues caused by the Dounreay Nuclear Power Development Establishment are radioactive nuclear fuel particles that have escaped from the site into the sea, and are now on the seabed near the plant and in Sandside Bay. Some of these are being washed ashore, including a small number on the privately owned Sandside Bay beach which is open to the public and is part of the 10,000 acre Sandside Estate. UKAEA's contractors irregularly monitor the beach, but propose developing a long-term management plan that will. The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs committed to clean up and open oversight of the work on 25th October 2006. [1] The Dounreay Particles Advisory Group recommended that the particle monitoring frequency of the beach should be increased to fortnightly. [2]

Sandside Bay is a Site of Special Scientific Interest.

[edit] Local government

For elections to the Highland Council, the village of Reay is within a ward named for Tongue and Farr, which are in the traditional county of Sutherland. Most of the parish, however, is within the Caithness North West ward.

New wards, and single transferable vote elections, are to be introduced in 2007, and the village and the parish will then be within the Landward Caithness ward, which will elect four councillors.