Thurso, 9 miles east of Dounreay, was the nearest town to the planned nuclear reactor. In 1951, the town’s population was 3,249. This was to grow to over 9000 after the completion of the building programme to house ‘atomic’ workers.
The image below shows the site at Thurso South East where open fields dwelt before construction began.
Some of the first houses to be built were on Castlegreen road, opposite Ormlie Lodge, shown in the image below.
In this oral history excerpt John Walford describes an early visit to Thurso when these houses were the only ones yet in construction. He also tells of the later construction of the timber houses he would soon occupy himself and mentions Hugh Macdonald, the architect, who we’ll explore in more detail soon.
