The harbour is quite sheltered, but is surrounded by the notorious, powerful currents of the Pentland Firth and the rocky cliffs of Dunnet Head.

To the south of the village lies St. John's Loch, which supports large, beautifully marked specimen brown trout.

[7] Brough Harbour provided the backdrop for the film, which was noted for its mysterious atmosphere and raw beauty.The campaign was produced by MoMA-featured photographer and director Roe Ethridge, designer Haider Ackermann, and cameraman Andre Chemetoff.

[11] Brough sits on a gently-sloping plain, rising from St Johns Loch in the south to the coastal cliffs in the north.

There are fine sea views from the north of the village across the Pentland Firth to the Orkney island of Hoy, Flotta and Stroma, amongst others.

Storm-force winter winds and wind-carried salt make it a harsh climate for trees to develop; those that do tend to be limited in height.

[12] Dunnet Head is documented (as Tarvedrum) in Roman-era maps of the 2nd century Ptolemy and Roman artifacts have been found at Crosskirk near Thurso.

[13] Dated physical evidence of pre-Viking settlement in the village is sparse; a number of sites are identified as Pictish, including brochs and the chambered cairns at Ham.

[17] These sites have been linked with events and locations in the 12th century Orkneyinga Saga, mentioning a Viking sea battle off Randaborg which may refer to Dunnet Head:

Mr Anderson says: 'It is related in the 15th Chapter of the Orkneyinga Saga, that a bloody sea-fight took place in the year 1046 off the Caithness coast, when Earl Thorfinn, who then lived at Gills, opposed the landing of his nephew, Ronald Brusison, who came over from Orkney with thirty ships.

The community would have been very isolated, and transit by boat would have been more convenient (from Brough harbour), but would have meant braving the tidal currents of the Firth.

Many small farms make up the village, and the architecture is that of the classic Scottish croft-house; land division and usage is that of crofting.

The Old Red Sandstone is of the Eday Group, and is shared with the island of Hoy, whereas the Caithness flagstone is of the Ham-Scarfskerry subgroup.

The coastline to the north of the village comprises exposed cliff and rocky foreshore with numerous small caves and inlets, providing nesting sites for sea birds.

Typical maritime grassland species include red fescue Festuca rubra, thrift Armeria maritima, ribwort plantain Plantago lanceolata, devil’s-bit scabious Succisa pratensis, angelica Angelica sylvestris and spring squill Scilla verna.

The seabird colony includes large numbers of guillemot Uria aalge and kittiwake Rissa tridactyla, as well as fulmar Fulmarus glacialis, razorbill Alca torda, puffin Fratercula arctica, shag Phalacrocorax aristotelis, cormorant Phalacrocorax carbo, herring gull Larus argentatus and great black-backed gull L. marinus.

[31] Brough has fertile soils with a high peat content, making them somewhat acidic, tending to sandy nearer the coast, and occasionally affected by salinity.

Long voyages enabled him to save some money to pay for attendance at navigation school and he qualified in every aspect of the subject, and doubtless returned to Brough several times, as he married in 1838 Mary Ann Johnston in Edinburgh.

Progress in his career continued, with voyages to the Antipodes and East Indies until he became chief mate with Captain Cowan of the barque, ‘Tory’ in 1840.

The ‘Tory’ sailed from Liverpool on 24th January 1844, bound for Bombay with general cargo and a company of soldiers and officers of the 22nd regiment under the command of Captain Anderson for services in India.

Unfortunately, during the voyage across the Indian Ocean, Captain Cowan died, leaving the navigation and ship handling to George Johnston; as task which he fulfilled competently to a safe arrival in Bombay, and glowing reports from the passengers enabled the owners to promote Johnston to be Captain of the vessel for the remainder of the voyage.

With an epidemic of cholera in Bombay, Captain Johnston lost some of his crew but sailed on with a cargo of opium and cotton to Singapore and Canton, and then to Shanghai and Hong Kong, obtaining valuable cargo at each port, but where he was forced to engage a new mate and crew from the dregs of humanity which that port was only too glad to get rid of from their jails.

It was inevitable that with such officers and crew, and a valuable cargo, trouble would break out on the long voyage home as the villains plotted to take the ship to the Americas, culminating in fighting and the death of the mate who jumped overboard and was lost.

Poor soul, it must have been a terrible blow to him to be so falsely accused with no hope of appeal in those days and at the age of 70 we find him in a workhouse in Battersea and surely could not have been lived much longer.