Loch Watten is the largest of a number of shallow, moorland lochs which dot the northern part of Caithness (Cat). Located some ten miles up the River Wick from the village of the same name, the loch abounds in several species of fresh-water fishes. At its southeastern end, it also supports a crannog. Surrounding the loch are numerous cairns and standing stones, evidence of the Neolithic settlers in the area. There are six brochs of the Iron Age Celtic population as well as an extensive farming community and the scattered remains of a hillfort. A small ring of stones graces a promontory which overlooks one of the streams flowing into the loch. All the archaeological evidence suggests this area has been inhabited, mor or less continuously, since the latter part of the Stone Age.

Today the area is mostly barren moorland, due to many centuries of farming, grazing, and harvesting of timber. However, in the early part of the first millennium, the hills would have been covered with coniferous forests and the valleys filled with hardwoods. Only isolated copses and woodlots remain, a shadow of their former glory. A famous visitor had these words to say of the landscape:

Grey recumbent tombs of the dead in desert places,
Standing stones on the vacant wine-red moor,
Hills of sheep, and the howes of the silent vanished races,
And winds austere and pure,

~ Robert Louis Stevenson

Map of Loch Watten and Dún Oíche