Caithness
Caithness 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 and by one railway. 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.
From the 9th century the Caithness area was ruled by the Jarl of Orkney, who at different times owed allegiance to both Norway and Scotland. Caithness subsequently became a separate provincial lordship from Orkney in the 14th century, being an earldom controlled by the Earl of Caithness. The name was also used for the Diocese of Caithness from the 12th century to the 17th century. The diocese was larger than the later county, also including Sutherland. A shire called Caithness covering the same area as the earldom was created in 1641, after a couple of earlier abortive attempts. Shires gradually eclipsed the old provinces in administrative importance, and also became known as counties.
The county ceased to be used for local government purposes in 1975, when the area became part of the Highland region, which in turn became a single-tier council area in 1996. There was a local government district called Caithness from 1975 to 1996, which was a lower-tier district within the Highland region. The pre-1975 county boundaries are still used for certain functions, being a registration county.
The Norn language was historically the language of everyday communication for people in Caithness, but was gradually overtaken by Scots and then English.
Toponymy
The Caith element of the name Caithness comes from the name of a Pictish tribe known as the Cat, Catt or Catti people, whose Kingdom of Cat covered what would become Caithness and parts of Sutherland from the 9th century. The -ness element comes from Old Norse and means "headland". The Norse called the area Katanes, and over time this became Caithness.The Gaelic name for Caithness, Gallaibh, means "among the strangers", referring to the Norse. The name of the Catti survives in the Gaelic name for eastern Sutherland, Cataibh, and in the old Gaelic name for Shetland, Innse Chat.
Geography
Caithness extends about north-south and about east-west, with a roughly triangular-shaped area of about. The topography is generally flat, in contrast to the majority of the remainder of the North of Scotland. Until the latter part of the 20th century when large areas were planted in conifers, this level profile was rendered still more striking by the almost total absence of woodland.It is a land of open, rolling farmland, moorland and scattered settlements. The county is fringed to the north and east by dramatic coastal scenery and is home to large, internationally important colonies of seabirds. The surrounding waters of the Pentland Firth and the North Sea hold a great diversity of marine life. Notable features of the north coast are Sandside Bay, Thurso Bay and Dunnet Bay, Dunnet Head and Duncansby Head ; along the east coast can be found Freswick Bay, Sinclairs Bay and Wick Bay. To the north in Pentland Firth lies Stroma, the only major island of the county. Away from the coast, the landscape is dominated by open moorland and blanket bog known as the Flow Country which is the largest expanse of blanket bog in Europe, extending into Sutherland. This is divided up along the straths by more fertile farm and croft land. In the far south the landscape is slightly hillier, culminating in Morven, the highest peak in the county at 706 m.
The county contains a number of lochs, though these are smaller in comparison with the rest of northern Scotland. The most prominent are Loch Heilen, St. John's Loch, Loch Watten, Loch More, Loch Shurrery, Loch Calder and Loch Mey.
The underlying geology of most of Caithness is Old Red Sandstone to an estimated depth of over. This consists of the cemented sediments of Lake Orcadie, which is believed to have stretched from Shetland to Grampian during the Devonian period, about 370 million years ago. Fossilised fish and plant remains are found between the layers of sediment. Older metamorphic rock is apparent in the Scaraben and Ord area, in the relatively high southwest area of the county. Caithness's highest point is in this area.
Because of the ease with which the sandstone splits to form large flat slabs it is an especially useful building material, and has been used as such since Neolithic times.
Natural heritage
Caithness is one of the Watsonian vice-counties, subdivisions of Britain and Ireland which are used largely for the purposes of biological recording and other scientific data-gathering. The vice-counties were introduced by Hewett Cottrell Watson, who first used them in the third volume of his Cybele Britannica, published in 1852.The underlying geology, harsh climate, and long history of human occupation have shaped the natural heritage of Caithness. Today a diverse landscape incorporates both common and rare habitats and species, and Caithness provides a stronghold for many once common breeding species that have undergone serious declines elsewhere, such as waders, water voles, and flocks of overwintering birds.
Many rare mammals, birds, and fish have been sighted or caught in and around Caithness waters. Harbour porpoises, dolphins, and minke and long-finned pilot whales are regularly seen from the shore and boats. Both grey and common seals come close to the shore to feed, rest, and raise their pups; a significant population over-winters on small islands in the Thurso river only a short walk from the town centre. Otters can be seen close to river mouths in some of the quieter locations.
Much of the centre of Caithness is known as the Flow Country, a large, rolling expanse of peatland and wetland that is the largest expanse of blanket bog in Europe. Around of the Flow Country is protected as both a Special Protection Area and Special Area of Conservation under the name Caithness and Sutherland Peatlands, and a portion is further designated as the Forsinard Flows national nature reserve.
In 2014 of the eastern coastline of Caithness between Helmsdale and Wick was declared a Nature Conservation Marine Protected Area under the title East Caithness Cliffs. The cliffs are also designated as both a Special Protection Area and a Special Area of Conservation.
History
The Caithness landscape is rich with the remains of pre-historic occupation. These include the Grey Cairns of Camster, the Stone Lud, the Hill O Many Stanes, a complex of sites around Loch of Yarrows near Thrumster, and over 100 brochs. A prehistoric souterrain structure at Caithness has been likened to discoveries at Midgarth and on Shapinsay.The study of Caithness prehistory is well represented in the county by groups including Yarrows Heritage Trust, Caithness Horizons and Caithness Broch Project.
Numerous coastal castles are Norwegian in their foundations. When the Norsemen arrived, probably in the 10th century, the county was inhabited by the Picts, but with its culture subject to some Goidelic influence from the Celtic Church. The name Pentland Firth can be read as meaning Pictland Fjord.
Norse settlers landed in the county, and gradually established themselves around the coast. On the Latheron side, they extended their settlements as far as Berriedale. Many of the names of places are Norse in origin. In addition, some Caithness surnames, such as Gunn, are Norse in origin.
The area was anciently part of the Pictish kingdom of Cat, which also included Sutherland. It was conquered in the 9th century by Sigurd Eysteinsson, Jarl of Orkney. The Jarls owed allegiance to the Norwegian crown. The Scottish crown claimed the overlordship of the Caithness and Sutherland area from Norway in 1098. The Earls of Orkney thereafter owed allegiance to the Scottish crown for their territory on the mainland, which they held as the Mormaer of Caithness, but owed allegiance to the Norwegian crown for Orkney itself.
The Diocese of Caithness was established in the 12th century. The bishop's seat was initially at Halkirk, but in the early 13th century was moved to Dornoch Cathedral, which was begun in 1224.
Caithness became a separate earldom during the 14th century, under the feudal control of the Earl of Caithness. The title Earl of Caithness had sometimes been used by the mormaers who were also Jarls of Orkney; the earldoms had been separated by the time David Stewart, Earl of Strathearn was made Earl of Caithness, sometime between 1375 and 1377.
Shire and county
In terms of shires, the north of mainland Scotland was all included in the shire of Inverness from the 12th century. In 1455 the Earl of Caithness gained a grant of the justiciary of the area, giving Caithness partial independence from the Sheriff of Inverness.An act of parliament in 1504 acknowledged that the shire of Inverness was too big for the effective administration of justice, and so declared Ross and Caithness to be separate shires. The boundary used for the shire of Caithness created in 1504 was the diocese of Caithness, which included Sutherland. The Sheriff of Caithness was directed to hold courts at either Dornoch or Wick. That act was set aside for most purposes in 1509, and Caithness once more came under the sheriff of Inverness. The sheriff of Inverness was then directed to appoint a number of deputies, including one based in Wick. In 1584, George Sinclair, 5th Earl of Caithness, forfeited the justiciary of the area after a dispute with George Gordon, Earl of Huntly, who was sheriff of Inverness at the time.
Caithness was restored to being a shire in 1641. The shire of Caithness created in 1641 just covered the earldom of Caithness; Sutherland had been made its own shire in 1633. Wick was declared to be the head burgh of the shire, and the Earl of Caithness became the hereditary sheriff.
Over time, Scotland's shires became more significant than the old provinces, with more administrative functions being given to the sheriffs. In 1667 Commissioners of Supply were established for each shire, which would serve as the main administrative body for the area until the creation of county councils in 1890. Following the Acts of Union in 1707, the English term 'county' came to be used interchangeably with the older term 'shire'.
Following the Jacobite rising of 1745, the government passed the Heritable Jurisdictions Act 1746, returning the appointment of sheriffs to the crown in those cases where they had become hereditary positions, as had been the case in Caithness. From 1748 the government merged the positions of Sheriff of Sutherland and Sheriff of Caithness into a single post. Although they shared a sheriff after 1748, Caithness and Sutherland remained legally separate counties, having their own commissioners of supply and, from 1794, their own lord lieutenants.
Although Wick had been declared the head burgh of the shire in 1641, for much of the next 200 years the sheriff held most courts and had his clerk's offices in Thurso. In 1828 a new Town and County Hall was completed on Bridge Street in Wick, jointly funded by Wick Town Council and the county's commissioners of supply. Whilst it was under construction, the Wick authorities took legal action against the sheriff, successfully securing an order requiring him to hold regular courts and have his clerk's offices in Wick.
Elected county councils were established in 1890 under the Local Government Act 1889, taking most of the functions of the commissioners of supply. Caithness County Council held its first meeting on 22 May 1890 at the Town and County Hall in Wick. The county council moved its administrative offices to the County Offices on High Street, Wick, in 1930, but continued to hold its meetings at the Town and County Hall.
The 1889 Act also led to a review of boundaries, with parish and county boundaries being adjusted to eliminate cases where parishes straddled county boundaries. The parish of Reay had straddled Sutherland and Caithness prior to the act; the county boundary was retained, but the part of Reay parish in Sutherland was transferred to the parish of Farr in 1891.