Caithness ( gd, Gallaibh ; sco, Caitnes; non, Katanes) is a historic county,

registration county A registration county was, in Great Britain and Ireland, a statistical unit used for the registration of births, deaths and marriages and for the output of census information. In Scotland registration counties are used for land registration purpose ...

and

lieutenancy area Lieutenancy areas are the separate areas of the United Kingdom appointed a lord-lieutenant – a representative of the British monarch. In many cases they have similar demarcation and naming to, but are not necessarily coterminate with, the coun ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

. 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 The Far North Line is a rural railway line entirely within the Highland area of Scotland, extending from Inverness to Thurso and Wick. As the name suggests, it is the northernmost railway in the United Kingdom. The line is entirely single-trac ...

). Across the

Pentland Firth The Pentland Firth ( gd, An Caol Arcach, meaning the Orcadian Strait) is a strait which separates the Orkney Islands from Caithness in the north of Scotland. Despite the name, it is not a firth. Etymology The name is presumed to be a corrup ...

, ferries link Caithness with Orkney, and Caithness also has an airport at

Wick Wick most often refers to: * Capillary action ("wicking") ** Candle wick, the cord used in a candle or oil lamp ** Solder wick, a copper-braided wire used to desolder electronic contacts Wick or WICK may also refer to: Places and placename ...

. The Pentland Firth island of Stroma is within Caithness. The name was also used for the

earldom of Caithness Earl of Caithness is a title that has been created several times in the Peerage of Scotland, and it has a very complex history. Its first grant, in the modern sense as to have been counted in strict lists of peerages, is now generally held to ha ...

( 1334 onwards) and for the Caithness constituency of the

Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprema ...

(1708 to 1918). Boundaries are not identical in all contexts, but the Caithness area lies entirely within the

Highland Highlands or uplands are areas of high elevation such as a mountainous region, elevated mountainous plateau or high hills. Generally speaking, upland (or uplands) refers to ranges of hills, typically from up to while highland (or highlands) is ...

council area {{Unreferenced, date=May 2019, bot=noref (GreenC bot) A council area is one of the areas defined in Schedule 1 of the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994 and is under the control of one of the local authorities in Scotland created by that Act. ...

Toponymy

The ''Caith'' element of the name ''Caithness'' comes from the name of a

Pictish Pictish is the extinct Brittonic language spoken by the Picts, the people of eastern and northern Scotland from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages. Virtually no direct attestations of Pictish remain, short of a limited number of geographica ...

tribe known as the ''Cat'' or ''Catt'' people, or ''Catti'' (see

Kingdom of Cat Cait or Cat was a Pictish kingdom originating c. AD 800 during the Early Middle Ages. It was centered in what is now Caithness in northern Scotland. It was, according to Pictish legend, founded by Caitt (or Cat), one of the seven sons of the anc ...

). The element comes from

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlemen ...

and means "headland". The Norse called the area ("headland of the Catt people"), and over time this became ''Caithness''.Gaelic and Norse in the Landscape: Placenames in Caithness and Sutherland
. Scottish National Heritage. pp.7–8. The Gaelic name for Caithness, , means "among the strangers" (referring to the Norse). The name of the Catti survives in the Gaelic name for eastern Sutherland, , and in the old Gaelic name for Shetland, .

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. caithness

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

and the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea, epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the ...

hold a great diversity of marine life. Notable features of the north coast are

Sandside Bay Reay ( gd, Ràth) 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 so ...

Thurso Bay Thurso Bay, known also as Scrabster Bay, is a bay of Atlantic water between the points of Clairdon Head and Holborn Head on the north coast of Caithness, Scotland. The bay receives fresh water from the River Thurso and the Wolf Burn. The river m ...

and

Dunnet Bay Dunnet is a village in Caithness, in the Highland area of Scotland. It is within the Parish of Dunnet. Village The village centres on the A836– B855 road junction. The A836 leads towards John o' Groats in the east and toward Thurso an ...

Dunnet Head Dunnet Head ( gd, Ceann Dùnaid) is a peninsula in Caithness, on the north coast of Scotland. Dunnet Head includes the most northerly point of both mainland Scotland and the island of Great Britain. Geography The point, also known as Easter ...

(the northernmost point of Britain) and

Duncansby Head Duncansby Head ( gd, Ceann Dhunngain or Dùn Gasbaith) is the most northeasterly part of both the Scottish and British mainlands, slightly northeast of John o' Groats. It lies approximately 20 km (12 mi) east-southeast of Dunnet Hea ...

(the north-east tip of Britain); along the east coast can be found Freswick Bay,

Sinclairs Bay Sinclairs Bay is a large remote, breast shaped, or left leaf of a tear drop shaped, coastal embayment, on the east coast of Scotland, in east Caithness, in the district of the east Highlands. Its coastline falls entirely within the Scottish c ...

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 The Flow Country is a large, rolling expanse of peatland and wetland area of Caithness and Sutherland in the North of Scotland. It is the largest expanse of blanket bog in Europe, and covers about . It is an area of deep peat, dotted with bog ...

which is the largest expanse of blanket bog in Europe, extending into Sutherland. This is divided up along the ''straths'' (

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of w ...

valley A valley is an elongated low area often running between hills or mountains, which will typically contain a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers or streams ove ...

s) by more fertile farm and

croft Croft may refer to: Occupations * Croft (land), a small area of land, often with a crofter's dwelling * Crofting, small-scale food production * Bleachfield, an open space used for the bleaching of fabric, also called a croft Locations In the Uni ...

land. In the far south the landscape is slightly hillier, culminating in Morven, the highest peak in the county at 706 m (2,316 ft). 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, Loch of Wester, Loch Scarmclate, Loch Watten, Loch of Toftingall, Loch Stemster, Loch Hempriggs, Loch of Yarrows, Loch Sand, Loch Rangag, Loch Ruard, Loch an Thulachan, Loch More, Loch Caluim, Loch Tuim Ghlais, Loch Scye, Loch Shurrery,

Loch Calder Loch Calder is a lowland freshwater loch lying approximately south west of Thurso in the Scottish Highlands. The loch is large with an irregular shape and has perimeter of . It is approximately long, has an average depth of and is at its deepe ...

and Loch Mey. The underlying geology of most of Caithness is

Old Red Sandstone The Old Red Sandstone is an assemblage of rocks in the North Atlantic region largely of Devonian age. It extends in the east across Great Britain, Ireland and Norway, and in the west along the northeastern seaboard of North America. It also exte ...

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 Grampian ( gd, Roinn a' Mhonaidh) was one of nine former local government regions of Scotland created in 1975 by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 and abolished in 1996 by the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994. The region t ...

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 Ord or ORD may refer to: Places * Ord of Caithness, landform in north-east Scotland * Ord, Nebraska, USA * Ord, Northumberland, England * Muir of Ord, village in Highland, Scotland * Ord, Skye, a place near Tarskavaig * Ord River, Western Austral ...

area, in the relatively high southwest area of the county. Caithness's highest point ( Morven) is in this area. Because of the ease with which the sandstone splits to form large flat slabs (

flagstone Flagstone (flag) is a generic flat stone, sometimes cut in regular rectangular or square shape and usually used for paving slabs or walkways, patios, flooring, fences and roofing. It may be used for memorials, headstones, facades and other co ...

) it is an especially useful building material, and has been used as such since

Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several p ...

times.

Natural heritage

St John's Loch near Dunnet Head - geograph

Caithness is one of the

Watsonian vice-counties A vice-county (vice county or biological vice-county) is a geographical division of the British Isles used for the purposes of biological recording and other scientific data-gathering. It is sometimes called a Watsonian vice-county as vice-cou ...

, subdivisions of

Britain Britain most often refers to: * The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands * Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...

and

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

which are used largely for the purposes of biological recording and other scientific data-gathering. The vice-counties were introduced by

Hewett Cottrell Watson Hewett Cottrell Watson (9 May 1804 – 27 July 1881) was a phrenologist, botanist and evolutionary theorist. He was born in Firbeck, near Rotherham, Yorkshire, and died at Thames Ditton, Surrey. Biography Watson was the eldest son of Hollan ...

, who first used them in the third volume of his ', published in 1852. He refined the system somewhat in later volumes, but the vice-counties remain unaffected by subsequent local government re-organisations, allowing more accurate comparisons of historical and modern data. They provide a stable basis for recording using similarly sized units, and, although grid-based reporting has grown in popularity, they remain a standard in the vast majority of ecological surveys, allowing data collected over long periods of time to be compared easily. 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

wader 245px, A flock of Dunlins and Red knots">Red_knot.html" ;"title="Dunlins and Red knot">Dunlins and Red knots Waders or shorebirds are birds of the order Charadriiformes commonly found wikt:wade#Etymology 1, wading along shorelines and mudflat ...

s, water voles, and flocks of

overwintering Overwintering is the process by which some organisms pass through or wait out the winter season, or pass through that period of the year when "winter" conditions (cold or sub-zero temperatures, ice, snow, limited food supplies) make normal activi ...

birds. Many rare mammals, birds, and fish have been sighted or caught in and around Caithness waters.

Harbour porpoise The harbour porpoise (''Phocoena phocoena'') is one of eight extant species of porpoise. It is one of the smallest species of cetacean. As its name implies, it stays close to coastal areas or river estuaries, and as such, is the most familiar ...

s, dolphins (including Risso's, bottle-nosed, common, Atlantic white-sided, and

white-beaked dolphin The white-beaked dolphin (''Lagenorhynchus albirostris'') is a marine mammal belonging to the family Delphinidae (oceanic dolphins) in the suborder Odontoceti (toothed whales). Taxonomy The species was first described by the British taxonomist ...

s), and minke and

long-finned pilot whale The long-finned pilot whale (''Globicephala melas'') is a large species of oceanic dolphin. It shares the genus '' Globicephala'' with the short-finned pilot whale (''Globicephala macrorhynchus''). Long-finned pilot whales are known as such bec ...

s are regularly seen from the shore and boats. Both

grey Grey (more common in British English) or gray (more common in American English) is an intermediate color between black and white. It is a neutral or achromatic color, meaning literally that it is "without color", because it can be composed o ...

and

common seal The harbor (or harbour) seal (''Phoca vitulina''), also known as the common seal, is a true seal found along temperate and Arctic marine coastlines of the Northern Hemisphere. The most widely distributed species of pinniped (walruses, eared se ...

s 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

, a large, rolling expanse of

peat Peat (), also known as turf (), is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation or organic matter. It is unique to natural areas called peatlands, bogs, mires, moors, or muskegs. The peatland ecosystem covers and is the most efficient ...

land and

wetland A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The p ...

that is the largest expanse of

blanket bog Blanket bog or blanket mire, also known as featherbed bog, is an area of peatland, forming where there is a climate of high rainfall and a low level of evapotranspiration, allowing peat to develop not only in wet hollows but over large expanses o ...

in Europe. Around of the Flow Country is protected as both a

Special Protection Area A Special Protection Area (SPA) is a designation under the European Union Directive on the Conservation of Wild Birds. Under the Directive, Member States of the European Union (EU) have a duty to safeguard the habitats of migratory birds and certa ...

(SPA) and

Special Area of Conservation A Special Area of Conservation (SAC) is defined in the European Union's Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC), also known as the ''Directive on the Conservation of Natural Habitats and of Wild Fauna and Flora''. They are to protect the 220 habitats and a ...

(SAC) under the name

Caithness and Sutherland Peatlands The Caithness and Sutherland Peatlands is a large area of blanket bog and peatland, covering a number of disconnected regions across the historic counties of Caithness and Sutherland in the far north of Scotland, across an area known as the Fl ...

, and a portion is further designated as the

Forsinard Flows national nature reserve Forsinard Flows is a national nature reserve (NNR) covering much of the area surrounding Forsinard in the Highland council area of Scotland. It lies at the heart of the Flow Country, a large, rolling expanse of peatland and wetland area of Ca ...

. In 2014 of the eastern coastline of Caithness between

Helmsdale Helmsdale ( sco, Helmsdal, gd, Bun Ilidh) is a village on the east coast of Sutherland, in the Highland council area of Scotland. The modern village was planned in 1814 to resettle communities that had been removed from the surrounding straths ...

and

was declared a Nature Conservation Marine Protected Area under the title

East Caithness Cliffs The name East Caithness Cliffs refers to weathered sandstone cliffs on the east coast of Caithness in Scotland. The cliffs, which rise to 150 m at Berriedale, provide ideal nesting conditions for breeding seabirds, and are protected by seve ...

. The cliffs are also designated as both a Special Protection Area and a Special Area of Conservation.

Early history

The Caithness landscape is rich with the remains of pre-historic occupation. These include the

Grey Cairns of Camster The Grey Cairns of Camster are two large Neolithic chambered cairns located about south of Watten and north of Lybster in Caithness, in the Highland region of Scotland. They are among the oldest structures in Scotland, dating to about 5,000 yea ...

, the

Stone Lud The Stone Lud is a standing stone in the parish of Bower in Caithness, in the Highland area of Scotland. It is located and about south of Castletown. The stone has been claimed as the grave stone of Ljot Thorfinnsson, the 10th century earl o ...

, the

Hill O Many Stanes The Hill O Many Stanes is a south-facing hillside (at ) in Mid Clyth, about south of Wick in Caithness, in the Highland area of Scotland, which has about 200 upright stones, none more than a metre high, set out in rows running approximately ...

, a complex of sites around

Loch Yarrows ''Loch'' () is the Scottish Gaelic, Scots and Irish word for a lake or sea inlet. It is cognate with the Manx lough, Cornish logh, and one of the Welsh words for lake, llwch. In English English and Hiberno-English, the anglicised spel ...

and over 100 brochs. A prehistoric

souterrain ''Souterrain'' (from French ''sous terrain'', meaning "under ground") is a name given by archaeologists to a type of underground structure associated mainly with the European Atlantic Iron Age. These structures appear to have been brought north ...

structure at Caithness has been likened to discoveries at Midgarth and on

Shapinsay Shapinsay (, sco, Shapinsee) is one of the Orkney Islands off the north coast of mainland Scotland. There is one village on the island, Balfour, from which roll-on/roll-off car ferries sail to Kirkwall on the Orkney Mainland. Balfour Castle ...

. Numerous coastal castles (now mostly ruins) are

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe * Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway * Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including ...

(

West Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlement ...

) in their foundations. When the Norsemen arrived, probably in the tenth century, the county was inhabited by the

Picts The Picts were a group of peoples who lived in what is now northern and eastern Scotland (north of the Firth of Forth) during Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. Where they lived and what their culture was like can be inferred from e ...

, but with its culture subject to some

Goidelic The Goidelic or Gaelic languages ( ga, teangacha Gaelacha; gd, cànanan Goidhealach; gv, çhengaghyn Gaelgagh) form one of the two groups of Insular Celtic languages, the other being the Brittonic languages. Goidelic languages historically ...

influence from the

Celtic Church Celtic Christianity ( kw, Kristoneth; cy, Cristnogaeth; gd, Crìosdaidheachd; gv, Credjue Creestee/Creestiaght; ga, Críostaíocht/Críostúlacht; br, Kristeniezh; gl, Cristianismo celta) is a form of Christianity that was common, or held ...

. The name Pentland Firth can be read as meaning Pictland Fjord. Numerous bands of Norse settlers landed in the county, and gradually established themselves around the coast. On the

Latheron Latheron () is a small village and civil parish in Caithness, in the Highland area of Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland ...

(south) 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 Gunn may refer to: Places * Gunn City, Missouri, a village * Gunn, Northern Territory, outer suburb of Darwin * Gunn, Alberta, Canada, a hamlet * Gunn Valley, a mountain valley in British Columbia, Canada * Gun Lake (British Columbia), a Canad ...

, are Norse in origin. For a long time, sovereignty over Caithness was disputed between Scotland and the

Earldom of Orkney The Earldom of Orkney is the official status of the Orkney Islands. It was originally a Norse feudal dignity in Scotland which had its origins from the Viking period. In the ninth and tenth centuries it covered more than the Northern Isles (' ...

. Around 1196, Earl

Harald Maddadsson Harald Maddadsson (Old Norse: ''Haraldr Maddaðarson'', Gaelic: ''Aralt mac Mataid'') (c. 1134 – 1206) was Earl of Orkney and Mormaer of Caithness from 1139 until 1206. He was the son of Matad, Mormaer of Atholl, and Margaret, daughter ...

agreed to pay a monetary tribute for Caithness to

William I William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first Norman king of England, reigning from 1066 until his death in 10 ...

. Norway has recognised Caithness as fully Scottish since the

Treaty of Perth The Treaty of Perth, signed 2 July 1266, ended military conflict between Magnus VI of Norway and Alexander III of Scotland over possession of the Hebrides and the Isle of Man. The text of the treaty. The Hebrides and the Isle of Man had becom ...

in 1266. The study of Caithness prehistory is well represented in the county by groups including Yarrows Heritage Trust, Caithness Horizons and Caithness Broch Project.

Local government

Early civic history

Caithness originally formed part of the shire or sheriffdom of Inverness, but gradually gained independence: in 1455 the

Earl of Caithness Earl of Caithness is a title that has been created several times in the Peerage of Scotland, and it has a very complex history. Its first grant, in the modern sense as to have been counted in strict lists of peerages, is now generally held to have ...

gained a grant of the justiciary and sheriffdom of the area from the Sheriff of Inverness. In 1503 an act of the

Parliament of Scotland The Parliament of Scotland ( sco, Pairlament o Scotland; gd, Pàrlamaid na h-Alba) was the legislature of the Kingdom of Scotland from the 13th century until 1707. The parliament evolved during the early 13th century from the king's council o ...

confirmed the separate jurisdiction, with

Dornoch Dornoch (; gd, Dòrnach ; sco, Dornach) is a town, seaside resort, parish and former royal burgh in the county of Sutherland in the Highlands of Scotland. It lies on the north shore of the Dornoch Firth, near to where it opens into the Moray ...

and

named as burghs in which the sheriff of Caithness was to hold courts. The area of the sheriffdom was declared to be identical to that of the

Diocese of Caithness The Bishop of Caithness was the ecclesiastical head of the Diocese of Caithness, one of Scotland's 13 medieval bishoprics. The first referenced bishop of Caithness was Aindréas, a Gael who appears in sources between 1146 and 1151 as bishop. Ain ...

. The Sheriff of Inverness still retained power over important legal cases, however, until 1641. In that year, parliament declared Wick the head burgh of the shire of Caithness and the Earl of Caithness became the heritable sheriff. Following the Act of Union of 1707, the term "

county A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposes Chambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

" began to be applied to the shire, a process that was completed with the abolition of heritable jurisdictions in 1747. The population by 1841 had reached 36,343. The county began to be used as a unit of local administration, and in 1890 was given an elected

county council A county council is the elected administrative body governing an area known as a county. This term has slightly different meanings in different countries. Ireland The county councils created under British rule in 1899 continue to exist in Irel ...

under the

Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889 The Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889 (52 & 53 Vict. c. 50) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which was passed on 26 August 1889. The main effect of the act was to establish elected county councils in Scotland. In this it foll ...

. Although officially within the county, the

burghs A burgh is an autonomous municipal corporation in Scotland and Northern England, usually a city, town, or toun in Scots. This type of administrative division existed from the 12th century, when King David I created the first royal burghs. Burg ...

of Wick and

Thurso Thurso (pronounced ; sco, Thursa, gd, Inbhir Theòrsa ) 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 Gre ...

retained their status as autonomous local government areas; they were already well established as autonomous burghs with their own burgh councils. Ten

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one o ...

councils covering rural areas were established in 1894. Wick, a

royal burgh A royal burgh () was a type of Scottish burgh which had been founded by, or subsequently granted, a royal charter. Although abolished by law in 1975, the term is still used by many former royal burghs. Most royal burghs were either created by ...

, served as the county's administrative centre. The county council was based at the County Offices, 73, 75 and 77 High Street, Wick. In 1930, the parish councils were abolished under the

Local Government (Scotland) Act 1929 The Local Government (Scotland) Act 1929 (19 & 20 Geo 5 c. 25) reorganised local government in Scotland from 1930, introducing joint county councils, large and small burghs and district councils. The Act also abolished the Scottish poor law syst ...

1975–96

In 1975, the Local Government council and the burgh councils were superseded under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 when Caithness became one of eight districts, each with its own "district council", within the new two-tier Highland

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics ( physical geography), human impact characteristics ( human geography), and the interaction of humanity an ...

. When created, the district included the whole of the county plus

Tongue The tongue is a muscular organ in the mouth of a typical tetrapod. It manipulates food for mastication and swallowing as part of the digestive process, and is the primary organ of taste. The tongue's upper surface (dorsum) is covered by taste ...

and Farr areas of the neighbouring

county of Sutherland Sutherland ( gd, Cataibh) is a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area in the Highlands of Scotland. Its county town is Dornoch. Sutherland borders Caithness and Moray Firth to the east, Ross-shire and Cromartyshire (later ...

. The boundary was soon changed, however, to correspond with that between the counties. Caithness was one of eight districts in the Highland region. Highland region was also created in 1975, as one of nine two-tier local government regions of Scotland. Each region consisted of a number of districts and both regions and districts had their own elected councils. The creation of the Highland region and of Caithness as a district involved the abolition of the two burgh councils in Caithness,

and

, as well as the Caithness

. Wick, which had been the administrative centre for the county, became the administrative centre for the district. In 1996 local government in Scotland was again reformed, under the

Local Government etc (Scotland) Act 1994 The Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994 (c. 39) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which created the current local government structure of 32 unitary authorities covering the whole of Scotland. It abolished the two-tier st ...

, to create 32 unitary council areas. The Highland region became the Highland unitary council area, and the functions of the district councils were absorbed by the Highland Council.

1996 to 2007

In 1996, Caithness and the other seven districts of the Highland region were merged into the unitary Highland

, under the

. The new Highland Council then adopted the former districts as management areas and created a system of

area committee Many large local government councils in the United Kingdom have a system of area committees or area boards, which involve local people and organisations in decisions affecting council spending within their area. They cover a geographical area suc ...

s to represent the management areas. Until 1999 the Caithness management and committee areas consisted of 8 out of the 72 Highland Council

ward Ward may refer to: Division or unit * Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward * Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a pris ...

s. Each ward elected one councillor by the

first past the post In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting, voters cast thei ...

system of election. In 1999, however, ward boundaries were redrawn but management area boundaries were not. As a result, area committees were named after and made decisions for areas which they did not exactly represent. The new Caithness committee area, consisting of ten out of the 80 new Highland Council wards, did not include the village of Reay, although that village was within the Caithness management area. For area committee representation the village was within the Sutherland committee area. New wards were created for elections this year, 2007, polling on 3 May and, as the wards became effective for representational purposes, the Highland Council's management and committee structures were reorganised. The Caithness management area and the Caithness area committee were therefore abolished.

2007 to date

In 2007 the Highland Council, which is now the local government authority, created the Caithness ward management area, which has boundaries similar to those of the historic county. It was divided between three new wards electing councillors by the

single transferable vote Single transferable vote (STV) is a multi-winner electoral system in which voters cast a single vote in the form of a ranked-choice ballot. Voters have the option to rank candidates, and their vote may be transferred according to alternate ...

system of election, which is designed to produce a form of

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to a type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to geographical (e.g. states, regions) and political divis ...

. One ward elects four councillors. Each of the other two elects three councillors. Also, the council's eight management areas were abolished, in favour of three new corporate management areas, with Caithness becoming a ward management area within the council's new Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross operational management area, which covers seven of the council's 22 new wards. The boundaries of the Caithness ward management area are not exactly those of the former Caithness management area, but they do include the village of Reay. The ward management area is one of five within the corporate management area and until 2017 consisted of three wards, the Landward Caithness ward, the Thurso ward and the Wick ward. Each of the other ward management areas within the corporate management area consists of a single ward. In 2017 the three Caithness wards were reduced to two 'Town and County' wards, each returning four members to the Highland Council, this was a reduction of two Councillors from the last election in 2012. The new wards are Thurso and Northwest Caithness and Wick and East Caithness. Since May 4, 2017 Caithness has been represented by four Independent Councillors, two Scottish Conservative Councillors and two Scottish National Party Councillors. The current Chairman of the Caithness Committee is Donnie Mackay (Independent) and the Civic Leader position is held by A.I Willie Mackay (Independent) both being installed on 16 June 2017 at the first Caithness Committee of the new council.

Parishes

Prior to implementation of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889, civil administration parishes were also parishes of the

Church of Scotland The Church of Scotland ( sco, The Kirk o Scotland; gd, Eaglais na h-Alba) is the national church in Scotland. The Church of Scotland was principally shaped by John Knox, in the Reformation of 1560, when it split from the Catholic Church ...

, and one Caithness parish, Reay, straddled the boundary between the county of Caithness and the

, and another, Thurso had a separate fragment bounded by Reay and Halkirk. For civil administration purposes, implementation of the act redefined parish boundaries, transferring part of Reay to the Sutherland parish of Farr and the fragment of Thurso to the parish of Halkirk. In the cases of two of the parishes, Thurso and Wick, each includes a burgh with the same name as the parish. For civil administration purposes each of these parishes was divided between the burgh and the landward (rural) area of the parish. Civil parishes are still used for some statistical purposes, and separate census figures are published for them. As their areas have been largely unchanged since the nineteenth century this allows for comparison of population figures over an extended period of time. Caithness_Shire_1845_parish_map

Halkirk was formed at the Reformation by the merger of the ancient parishes of Halkirk and Skinnet. Watten was created from part of Bower parish in 1638.

Community councils, 1975 to 2008

Although created under ''local government'' legislation (the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973)

community council A community council is a public representative body in Great Britain. In England they may be statutory parish councils by another name, under the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007, or they may be non-statutory bodies. In ...

s have no

statutory A statute is a formal written enactment of a legislative authority that governs the legal entities of a city, state, or country by way of consent. Typically, statutes command or prohibit something, or declare policy. Statutes are rules made by le ...

powers or responsibilities and are not a tier of

local government Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-l ...

. They are however the most local tier of statutory representation. Under the 1973 Act, district councils were obliged to implement community council schemes. A Caithness district scheme was adopted in 1975, dividing the area of the district between 12 community councils. Statutory status for community councils was continued under the

, and a Caithness scheme is now the responsibility of the Highland Council. The area of the former district of Caithness is now covered by 12 community council areas which are numbered and described as below in the Highland Council's ''Scheme for the Establishment of Community Councils in Caithness'', October 1997. Current community council names and contact details are given on a Highland Council website. : 1. Royal Burgh of Wick : 2. Sinclair's Bay (including Keiss, Reiss and part of Wick) : 3. Dunnet and Canisbay : 4. Bower (excluding Gelshfield area) : 5. Watten (including part of Bower i.e. Gelshfield area) : 6. Wick south-east, Wick south-west and part of Clyth (i.e. Bruan) (Tannach & District) : 7. Latheron, Lybster and remainder of Clyth (including Occumster, Roster and Camster) : 8. Berridale and Dunbeath : 9. Thurso : 13. Halkirk south, Halkirk north-east, Halkirk north-west (excluding Lieurary, Forsie and Westfield area) : 14. Castletown, Olrig, Thurso east (excluding area on west side of Thurso River) : 15. Caithness West (that part on the west side of Thurso River only), Thurso West, Reay and part of Halkirk north-west (that part comprising Lieurary, Forsie and Westfield area)

Parliamentary constituency

The Caithness constituency of the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...

of the Parliament of Great Britain (1708 to 1801) and the

(1801 to 1918) represented essentially the county from 1708 to 1918. At the same time however, the county town of

was represented as a component of Tain Burghs until 1832 and of Wick Burghs until 1918. Between 1708 and 1832 the Caithness constituency was paired with Buteshire as ''alternating constituencies'': one constituency elected a

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

(MP) to one parliament and then the other elected an MP to the next. Between 1832 and 1918 Caithness elected an MP to every parliament. In 1918 the Caithness constituency and Wick were merged into the then new constituency of

Caithness and Sutherland Caithness and Sutherland was a county constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1918 to 1997. It elected one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election. The constituency was c ...

. In 1997 Caithness and Sutherland was merged into Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross. The Scottish Parliament constituency of Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross was created in 1999 and now has boundaries slightly different from those of the House of Commons constituency. It was replaced by the larger constituency of Caithness, Sutherland and Ross in 2011. The modern constituencies may be seen as more sub-divisions of the Highland area than as representative of counties (and burghs). For its own purposes, however, the Highland Council uses more conservative sub-divisions, with names which refer back to the era of district councils and, in some cases, county councils. In the Scottish Parliament Caithness is represented also as part of the

Highlands and Islands The Highlands and Islands is an area of Scotland broadly covering the Scottish Highlands, plus Orkney, Shetland and Outer Hebrides (Western Isles). The Highlands and Islands are sometimes defined as the area to which the Crofters' Act of 18 ...

electoral region.

Towns and villages

Thurso from the hill at Mountpleasant - geograph

In 2011, Caithness had a resident population of 26,486 (23,866 in 2001). There are two towns in Caithness:

and

. There are also a few villages large enough to have amenities such as a shop, a cafe, a post office, a hotel, a church or a bank. These include Castletown,

Dunbeath Dunbeath ( gd, Dùn Bheithe) is a village in south-east Caithness, Scotland on the A9 road. It sits astride the Dunbeath Water just before it enters the sea at Dunbeath Bay. Dunbeath has a very rich archaeological landscape, the site of numero ...

, Dunnet,

Halkirk Halkirk ( gd, Hàcraig) is a village on the River Thurso in Caithness, in the Highland council area of Scotland. From Halkirk the B874 road runs towards Thurso in the north and towards Georgemas in the east. The village is within the parish o ...

, John o' Groats, Keiss,

Lybster Lybster (, gd, Liabost) is a village on the east coast of Caithness in northern Scotland. It was once a big herring fishing port. The Waterlines heritage museum is located in Lybster Harbour and provides information on the history and geology ...

, Reay/New Reay,

Scrabster Scrabster ( sco, Scraibster, gd, Sgrabastair/Sgrabstal) is a small settlement on Thurso Bay in Caithness on the north coast of Scotland. It is some from Thurso, from Wick, from Inverness and 271.7 miles (437.2 km) from Edinburgh. Scr ...

and

Watten Watten may refer to: Places * Watten, Nord, a commune in the Nord ''département'' of France ** ''Blockhaus d'Éperlecques'' or Watten bunker, intended to be a launching facility for the V-2 ballistic missile * Watten, Highland, a village in Cai ...

. Other, smaller settlements include: *

Achingills Achingills (Gaelic: ) is a small hamlet in Halkirk, Caithness within Highland region Highland ( gd, A' Ghàidhealtachd, ; sco, Hieland) is a council area in the Scottish Highlands and is the largest local government area in the United King ...

Achreamie Achreamie is a village in the Scottish council area of Highland. Achreamie is about west of Thurso Thurso (pronounced ; sco, Thursa, gd, Inbhir Theòrsa ) is a town and former burgh on the north coast of the Highland council area of ...

Achvarasdal Achvarasdal () is a village in Caithness, Scotland, within the Highland council area. Geography Achvarasdal lies east of Reay, Thurso, in Caithness, Highland. Immediately to the south flows Achiegullan Burn and the Burn of Isauld. Achvarasdal ...

Ackergill Ackergill is a settlement in the Wick, Caithness, in the Highland Council area of Scotland. History In Ackergill is a famous tower/castle named Ackergill Tower. In the 1920s, archaeologists excavated an ancient cemetery in an elongated sand moun ...

Altnabreac Altnabreac ( , ) is a tiny settlement within the county of Caithness, in the north of Scotland, and now within the Highland council area. The name Altnabreac is from the Scots Gaelic ''Allt nam Breac'', meaning "the stream of the trout". It is ...

* Auckengill *

Balnabruich Balnabruich () is a small hamlet on the east coast of Scotland, close to Dunbeath, Caithness, Scottish Highlands and is in the Scottish council area of Highland Highlands or uplands are areas of high elevation such as a mountainous region, e ...

* Berriedale * Bilbster * Borgue *

Bower Bower may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Catherine, or The Bower'', an unfinished Jane Austen novel * A high-ranking card (usually a Jack) in certain card games: ** The Right and Left Bower (or Bauer), the two highest-ranking cards in the g ...

Brabsterdorran Brabsterdorran is an area of the civil parish of Bower in Highland, Scotland. Buildings include Bower Community Hall and the Old Free Church Manse, previously derelict, but now restored and lived in by the Irwin family. The manse was featured on B ...

Braemore Braemore ( gd, Am Bràigh Mòr) is a location in Berriedale in the Highland council area Highland ( gd, A' Ghàidhealtachd, ; sco, Hieland) is a council area in the Scottish Highlands and is the largest local government area in the Unit ...

Broubster Broubster is a village in Highland, Scotland. Near Broubster, there is a Bronze Age megalith A megalith is a large stone that has been used to construct a prehistoric structure or monument, either alone or together with other stones. Th ...

* Brough *

Bruan Bruan (Scottish Gaelic:) is a small crofting hamlet on the east coast of Scotland in Lybster, Caithness, Highland and is in the Scottish council area of the Highland. In 1845, the minister of Bruan in a famous sermon on the unjust Highland Cle ...

* Buldoo *Bullavrochan * Burnside * Caberfeidh *

Canisbay Canisbay is a rural hamlet located about southwest of Huna and southwest of John o' Groats in Caithness, Scottish Highlands, and is in the Scottish council area of Highland. It lies on the A836 coast road, which bypasses the hamlet to the n ...

* Clyth * Crosskirk *

Dorrery Dorrery is a small hamlet lying to the east of Ben Dorrery in the district of Halkirk in Caithness, Scottish Highlands and is in the Scottish council area of Highland Highlands or uplands are areas of high elevation such as a mountainous re ...

*East May * Forss *

Fresgoe Fresgoe is the main harbour for the village of Reay, overlooking Sandside Bay in Caithness in the Scottish highlands The Highlands ( sco, the Hielands; gd, a’ Ghàidhealtachd , 'the place of the Gaels') is a historical region of Scotl ...

Freswick Freswick ( ) or Skirsa, is a small remote hamlet, overlooking Freswick Bay to the east, in eastern Caithness, Scottish Highlands and is in the Scottish council area of Highland. The village of Skirza lies directly northeast of Freswick. Nam ...

Gillock Gillock is a small village in Caithness, the north part of the Highland council area of Scotland. It is 262 miles north of Edinburgh, situated between the towns of Wick and Thurso. The village is located at grid reference {{gbmappingsmall, ND2105 ...

Gills A gill () is a respiratory organ that many aquatic organisms use to extract dissolved oxygen from water and to excrete carbon dioxide. The gills of some species, such as hermit crabs, have adapted to allow respiration on land provided they are ...

Ham Ham is pork from a leg cut that has been preserved by wet or dry curing, with or without smoking."Bacon: Bacon and Ham Curing" in ''Chambers's Encyclopædia''. London: George Newnes, 1961, Vol. 2, p. 39. As a processed meat, the term "ham ...

* Harrow *

Haster Haster is a small remote rural hamlet and district in Wick, in the Highland area of Scotland. It is located just west of the Bridge of Haster, which carries the A882 road linking the burghs of Wick and Thurso over the Achairn Burn to the main A ...

Houstry Houstry is a scattered crofting village, in the east coast of Dunbeath, Caithness, Scottish Highlands and is in the Scottish council area of Highland Highlands or uplands are areas of high elevation such as a mountainous region, elevated mou ...

* Huna *

Killimster Killimster is a small remote scattered hamlet in Wick, in eastern Caithness, Scottish Highlands and is in the Scottish council area of Highland. RAF Skitten Royal Air Force Skitten or more simply RAF Skitten is a former Royal Air Force satel ...

Landhallow Landhallow is a small village, approximately 1 mile west of Latheron in eastern Caithness, Scottish Highlands and is in the Scottish council area of Highland Highlands or uplands are areas of high elevation such as a mountainous region, ele ...

Latheronwheel Latheronwheel () is a small village in Caithness, in the Highland area of Scotland. It is southwest of Lybster on the A9 road to Helmsdale, near the junction with the A99 road to Wick, which lies in the equally small village of Latheron. The vi ...

*Lower Smerral * Mey * Morven (the highest point of Caithness) *

Murkle Murkle (Murchill) is a small scattered hamlet, made up of ''East Murkle'' and ''West Murkle'' located east of Thurso, in Caithness, Scottish Highlands and is in the Scottish council area of Highland. Name The name ''Murkle'' derives from the n ...

Mybster Mybster is a small village, in Caithness, Scottish Highlands, and is in the Scottish council area of Highland. Mybster lies northwest of the Loch of Toftingall, with the village of Watten Watten may refer to: Places * Watten, Nord, a co ...

* Newlands of Geise *

Newport, Caithness Newport is a small remote village on the eastern shore of Caithness, Scottish Highlands and is in the Scottish council area of Highland. Ramscraig Ramscraig is a small scattered crofting hamlet, located 2 miles southwest from Dunbeath, in e ...

* Papigoe * Ramscraig *

Reaster Reaster is a small village in Bower parish, Caithness Highland, Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with Eng ...

* Reiss * Roadside * Roster *

Sarclet Sarclet is a remote clifftop crofting township, situated on the east coast of Caithness, lying slightly north of Loch Sarclet in the Scottish Highlands and is in the Scottish council area of Highland. Sarclet Head extends into the sea and is 0 ...

Scarfskerry Skarfskerry (or Scarfskerry; gd, Sgarbh Sgeir) is a settlement located in the far northern county Caithness on a small peninsula northeast of Thurso off the A836 in Scotland. It is the most northerly settlement in Great Britain. The name comes ...

Shebster Shebster is a small remote hamlet, which lies 7 miles southwest of Thurso, in northern Caithness, Scottish Highlands and is in the Scottish council area of Highland Highlands or uplands are areas of high elevation such as a mountainous regio ...

*Sibster *

Skirza Skirza or Skirsa, is a small remote linear fishing village, overlooking Freswick Bay to the south and Skirza Head to the southeast, in eastern Caithness, Scottish Highlands and is in the Scottish council area of Highland. The village of Fres ...

Smerral Smerral is a small hamlet on the eastern coast of Caithness, Scottish Highlands and is in the Scottish council area of Highland. It lies northwest of Latheronwheel Latheronwheel () is a small village in Caithness, in the Highland area of Sco ...

Sordale Sordale is a small linear village, located northeast in Halkirk, in Caithness, Scottish Highlands and is in the Scottish council area of Highland Highlands or uplands are areas of high elevation such as a mountainous region, elevated mounta ...

* Spittal * Staxigoe *

Swiney Swiney is a small village on the east coast of Scotland, 1 mile west of Lybster along the A99 road, in Caithness, Scottish Highlands and is in the Scottish council area of Highland Highlands or uplands are areas of high elevation such as ...

* Thrumster *

Ulbster Ulbster is a scattered crofting hamlet on the eastern coast of Caithness, within the parish of Wick, Caithness, Wick, in the Scottish Highlands, within the Highland Council area. The town of Wick is located seven miles north of the village along t ...

* Upper Camster * Upper Lybster *

Westerdale Westerdale is a village, civil parish and dale within the Scarborough district of North Yorkshire, England. The Esk Valley Walk runs through part of the village. The village is at the confluence of three streams (Esklets) which combine as th ...

* Westfield * Weydale * Whiterow

Transport

Caithness is served by the Far North railway line, which runs west–east across the middle of the county serving

and

Scotscalder Scots Calder is an area within Halkirk, Northern Scotland. It is served by Scotscalder railway station which is operated by ScotRail. The B870 runs directly through the centre with Achagie and Thurso to the north and Olgrinmore and Westerdale to ...

before splitting in two at Georgemas Junction, from where the east branch continues to

whilst the north branch terminates at

. Stagecoach Group provided bus transport between the major towns, and on to Inverness via Sutherland and Ross-shire. The ferry port at

provides a regular service to Stromness in the Orkney Islands. Ferries also run from

Gills Bay Gills Bay, which is situated about west of John o' Groats with the community of Gills close by, has one of the longest stretches of low-lying rock coast on the northern shores of Caithness. Its main features are a small harbour and the pier used ...

to St Margaret's Hope on South Ronaldsay. A summer-only ferry runs from John o' Groats to Burwick on South Ronaldsay.

Wick Airport Wick John O' Groats Airport is located north of the town of Wick, at the north-eastern extremity of the mainland of Scotland. It is owned and maintained by Highlands and Islands Airports Limited. The airport provides commercial air travel co ...

provided regular flights to

Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...

and

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...

until 2020 when Loganair and Eastern Airways cancelled their flights to wick. In 2021 there were no scheduled flights to and from Wick Airport. Starting on 11 April 2022,

Eastern Airways Eastern Airways, legally incorporated as ''Air Kilroe Limited'', is a British regional airline whose head office is at Humberside Airport near the village of Kirmington, North Lincolnshire, England. It operates domestic, international and p ...

started a scheduled operation to Wick from Aberdeen.

Language

At the beginning of recorded history, Caithness was inhabited by the

, whose language

is thought to have been related to the

Brythonic languages The Brittonic languages (also Brythonic or British Celtic; cy, ieithoedd Brythonaidd/Prydeinig; kw, yethow brythonek/predennek; br, yezhoù predenek) form one of the two branches of the Insular Celtic language family; the other is Goidelic. ...

spoken by the

Britons British people or Britons, also known colloquially as Brits, are the citizens of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the British Overseas Territories, and the Crown dependencies.: British nationality law governs mod ...

to the south. The

Norn language Norn is an extinct North Germanic language that was spoken in the Northern Isles ( Orkney and Shetland) off the north coast of mainland Scotland and in Caithness in the far north of the Scottish mainland. After Orkney and Shetland were pledged ...

was introduced to Caithness, Orkney, and Shetland by the Norse occupation, which is generally proposed to be c. AD 800. Although little is known of that Norn dialect, some of this linguistic influence still exists in parts of the county, particularly in place names. Norn continued to be spoken in Caithness until perhaps the fifteenth century and lingered until the late eighteenth century in the

Northern Isles The Northern Isles ( sco, Northren Isles; gd, Na h-Eileanan a Tuath; non, Norðreyjar; nrn, Nordøjar) are a pair of archipelagos off the north coast of mainland Scotland, comprising Orkney and Shetland. They are part of Scotland, as are th ...

. It is sometimes erroneously claimed that Gaelic has never been spoken in Caithness, but this is a result of

language shift Language shift, also known as language transfer or language replacement or language assimilation, is the process whereby a speech community shifts to a different language, usually over an extended period of time. Often, languages that are percei ...

to Scots, and then towards Standard

Scottish English Scottish English ( gd, Beurla Albannach) is the set of varieties of the English language spoken in Scotland. The transregional, standardised variety is called Scottish Standard English or Standard Scottish English (SSE). Scottish Standard ...

during recent centuries. The Gaelic name for the region, ''Gallaibh'', translates as "Land of the Gall (''non-Gaels'')", a name which reflects historic Norse rule. Gaelic speakers seem to first figure in the early stage of the Scandinavian colonisation of Caithness, gradually increasing in numerical significance from the 12th century onwards. Gaelic has survived, in a limited form, in western parts of the county. Scots began supplanting Norn in the early fourteenth century at the time of the

Wars of Scottish Independence The Wars of Scottish Independence were a series of military campaigns fought between the Kingdom of Scotland and the Kingdom of England in the late 13th and early 14th centuries. The First War (1296–1328) began with the English invasion of ...

. The emergent

Northern Scots Northern Scots refers to the dialects of Modern Scots traditionally spoken in eastern parts of the north of Scotland. The dialect is generally divided into:{{cite web , url=http://www.dsl.ac.uk/INTRO/intro2.php?num=15 , title=SND Introduction - ...

dialect became influenced by both Gaelic and Norn and is generally spoken in the lowlying land to the east of a line drawn from Clyth Ness to some west of

. The dialect of Scots spoken in the neighbourhood of John o' Groats resembles to some extent that of Orkney. Since the seventeenth century, Standard Scottish English has increasingly been replacing both Gaelic and Scots. Records showing what languages were spoken apparently do not exist from before 1706, but by that time, " ye suppose a Parallel to the hypotenuse drawn from

Week A week is a unit of time equal to seven days. It is the standard time period used for short cycles of days in most parts of the world. The days are often used to indicate common work days and rest days, as well as days of worship. Weeks are of ...

to Thurso, these on the Eastside of it speak most part English, and those on the Westside Irish; and the last have Ministers to preach to them in both languages." Similarly, it is stated at that time that there were "Seven parishes ut of 10 or 11in he Presbytery ofCaithness where the Irish language is used."Caithness of the Gael and the Lowlander
As previously indicated, the language mix or boundary changed over time, but the ''New Statistical Record'' in 1841 says: "On the eastern side of he Burn of East Clythscarcely a word of Gaelic was either spoken or understood, and on the west side, English suffered the same fate". Other sources state: * "There are Seven parishes in he Presbytery ofCaithness where the Irish language is used, viz. Thurso, Halkrig alkirk Rhae eay Lathrone atheron Ffar arr Week

ick Ick or ICK may refer to: * William Ick, (1800–1844), botanist *Ichthyophthirius multifiliis, a single-celled parasite. Also known as Ich *Inhibitor cystine knot *Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest *Trains in the Netherlands, Intercit ...

Duirness urness But the people of Week understand English also." (Presbytery of Caithness, 1706) * "A presbytery minute of 1727 says of 1,600 people who had 'come of age', 1500 could speak Gaelic only, and a mere five could read. Gaelic at this time was the principal language in most parishes except Bower, Canisbay, Dunnet and Olrig". * "Persons with a knowledge of Gaelic in the County of Caithness (in 1911) are found to number 1,685, and to constitute 6.7 per cent of the entire population of three years of age and upwards. Of these 1,248 were born in Caithness, 273 in Sutherland, 77 in Ross & Cromarty, and 87 elsewhere.... By an examination of the age distribution of the Gaelic speakers, it is found that only 22 of them are less than 20 years of age." According to the 2011 Scotland Census, 282 (1.1%) residents of Caithness age three and over can speak Gaelic while 466 (1.8%) have some facility with the language. The percentage figures are almost exactly the same as for all of Scotland (1.1% and 1.7%, respectively). Nearly half of all Gaelic speakers in the county live in Thurso civil parish. The town of

hosts the only Gaelic-medium primary school unit in all of Caithness (see Language in Thurso). The bilingual road sign policy of Highland Region Council has led to some controversy in the region. In 2008, eight of the ten Caithness representatives to the Highland Council tried to prevent the introduction of bilingual English-Gaelic road signs into the county. The first bilingual sign in Caithness was erected in 2012. In 2013, a bilingual road sign on the A99 road next to

was damaged by gunfire within 24 hours of it being placed. Gaelic-speaking Councillor Alex MacLeod, at the time representing Landward Caithness in the Highland Council, referred to it as "an extreme anti-Gaelic incident".

Local media

Newspapers

'' The John O'Groat Journal'' and '' The Caithness Courier'' are weekly

newspapers A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports ...

published by Scottish Provincial Press Limited trading as North of Scotland Newspapers and using offices in Union Street,

(but with public reception via Cliff Road) and Olrig Street,

. News coverage tends to concentrate on the former counties of Caithness and Sutherland. ''The John O'Groat Journal'' is normally published on Fridays and ''The Caithness Courier'' on Wednesdays. The two papers share a website. Historically, they have been independent newspapers, with the ''Groat'' as a Wick-centred paper and the ''Courier'' as a Thurso-centred paper. Even now, the ''Groat'' is archived in the public library in Wick, while the ''Courier'' is similarly archived in the library in Thurso. The ''Courier'' was printed, almost by hand, in a small shop in High Street, Thurso until the early 60's by Mr Docherty and his daughter. The ''Courier'' traditionally covers that week's sheriff court cases.

Radio

''Caithness FM'' has been broadcasting since 1993 and the Orkney Commercial Radio, Superstation Orkney from Kirkwall from 2004 to 2014.

References

External links

Caithness Community WebsiteCaithness Dialect at Scots Language Centre

Caithness Arts website

Castletown and District Community Council website

Castletown Heritage Society

Dunnet and Canisbay Community Council

Castle of Mey website

Castle Sinclair Girnigoe

Caithness forum

Caithness alternative community forum

Caithness Broch Project
{{Authority control Lieutenancy areas of Scotland Counties of Scotland Orkneyinga saga places Norn language Counties of the United Kingdom (1801–1922)