A836 road in the context of East Mey

Reay (/reɪ/, RAY; Scottish Gaelic: Ràth, [rˠaː]) is a village which has grown around Sandside Bay on the north coast of the Highland council area of Scotland. It is within the historic Parish of Reay and the historic county of Caithness.

The village is on the A836 road some 12 miles (19 km) west of the town of Thurso and 3 miles (4.8 km) west of Dounreay.

Caithness (/keɪθˈnɛs/; Scottish Gaelic: Gallaibh [ˈkal̪ˠɪv]; Old Norse: Katanes) is a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland.

There are two towns, being Wick, which was the county town, and Thurso. The county includes the northernmost point of mainland Britain at Dunnet Head, and also the most north-easterly point at Duncansby Head near John o' Groats. The Flow Country is the largest blanket bog in Europe, and covers a large inland area in the west of the county. Caithness has a land boundary with the historic county of Sutherland to the west and is otherwise bounded by sea. The land boundary follows a watershed and is crossed by two roads (the A9 and the A836) and by one railway (the Far North Line). Across the Pentland Firth, ferries link Caithness with Orkney, and Caithness also has an airport at Wick. The Pentland Firth island of Stroma is within Caithness.

Thurso (pronounced /ˈθɜːrzoʊ/; Scots: Thursa, Scottish Gaelic: Inbhir Theòrsa [ˈiɲɪɾʲ ˈhjɔːrˠs̪ə]) is a town and former burgh on the north coast of the Highland council area of Scotland. Situated in the historical County of Caithness, it is the northernmost town on the island of Great Britain. From a latitudinal standpoint, Thurso is located more than 500 miles (800 km) north of London and further north than the southernmost point of Norway.

It lies at the junction of the north–south A9 road and the west–east A836 road, connected to Bridge of Forss in the west and Castletown in the east. The 34-mile (55 km) River Thurso flows through the town and into Thurso Bay and the Pentland Firth. The river estuary serves as a small harbour. At the 2011 Census, Thurso had a population of 7,933. The population of the larger Thurso civil parish including the town and the surrounding countryside was estimated to be 12,057 in 2021.

Dounreay (/ˌduːnˈreɪ/; Scottish Gaelic: Dùnrath) is a small settlement and the site of two large nuclear establishments on the north coast of Caithness in the Highland area of Scotland. It is on the A836 road nine miles (fourteen kilometres) west of Thurso.

The nuclear establishments were created in the 1950s. They were the Nuclear Power Development Establishment (NPDE), now known as NRS Dounreay, for the development of civil fast breeder reactors, and the Vulcan Naval Reactor Test Establishment (NRTE), a military submarine reactor testing facility. Both have ended operations and are being decommissioned. The two establishments have been a major element in the economy of Thurso and Caithness, but this will decrease with the progress of decommissioning.