Caithness

Caithness (Gallaibh in ) is a, and historic  of. The name was used also for the and the  of the  (1708 to 1918). Boundaries are not identical in all contexts, but the Caithness area is now entirely within the. This year, 2007, the, which is now the local government authority, created the , which has boundaries similar to those of the historic local government area.

Caithness became a local government, with its own , in 1890, under the. Although officially within the county, the s of and  retained their status as autonomous local government areas. Wick, a and traditionally the, became the administrative centre for the local government county. County and burgh councils were later abolished, in 1975, under the, and Caithness became one of eight districts, each with its own district council, within the new two-tier Highland. In 1996, under the, the region became a , and the district councils were abolished.

As registration county, lieutenancy area and historic local government area, Caithness has a land boundary with the equally historic local government area of. Otherwise it is bounded by sea. The land boundary follows a and is crossed by two roads, the  and the, and one railway, the. Across the ferries link Caithness with, and Caithness has also an airport at Wick. The Pentland Firth island of is within Caithness.

In 2001 Caithness had a resident population of 23,866 and settlement centres include those of, , , , , , , , , , , , , and.

Geography
Caithness extends about 40 s (64 ) north-south and about 30 miles (50 km) east-west. The general aspect of Caithness, which measures in area about 712 square miles (1844 km²), is flat, in contrast to the majority of Highland Region. Until the latter part of the 20th century when significant areas were planted in conifers, this was rendered still more striking by the almost total absence of forest. Most of Caithness is old red to an estimated depth of over 4,000. This consists of the cemented sediments of, which is believed to have stretched from to  during the  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  and  area, in the relatively high southwest area of the county. Caithness' 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  times.

Caithness is a land of open, rolling farmland, and scattered settlements. The area 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  hold a great diversity of marine life. Away from the coast, the landscape is dominated by open moorland and blanket, divided up along the straths ( s) by more fertile farm and land.

History
The Caithness landscape is rich with the remains of pre-historic occupation. These include the, the , the , a complex of sites around and over 100 s.  And numerous coastal castles (now mostly ruins) are  in their foundations. When the Norsemen arrived, probably in the 10th century, the county was probably, but with its culture subject to some influence from the. 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 (south) side, they extended their settlements as far as Berriedale. Most of the names of places, and not a few of the surnames in the lowland parts of the county, are Norse in origin. A dialect of the was spoken, although little is known about it. Some of this linguistic influence still exists in some parts of the county, however. A native of Wick, for example, will tend to say til instead of to. This is an example of the surviving modern use of an word (til is Old Norse for to).

For a long time sovereignty over Caithness was disputed between Scotland and the Earldom of Orkney. Circa 1196 Earl Harald Maddadarsson agreed to pay a monetary tribute for Caithness to. Norway has recognized Caithness as fully Scottish since the in 1266.

was spoken in the west of the county into the 20th century, although it is believed to be extinct now. It is sometimes erroneously claimed to have never been spoken in Caithness, but the Gaelic name for the region, Gallaibh, translates as "Land of the Gall (non-Gaels)". The language boundary changed over time, but the New Statistical Record in 1841 says,


 * "On the eastern side of [the Burn of East Clyth] scarcely a word of Gaelic was either spoken or understood, and on the west side, English suffered the same fate".

Historically, the of Caithness has been defined and named, usually, as. There is little or no evidence, predating the late 20th century, of Scots being used as a name for Caithness, but there is now, in some quarters, a tendency to see and name it as a form of.

Other quotes,
 * "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." (J. Patten MacDougall, Registrar General, 1912)


 * "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" (Omand, D. From the Vikings to the Forty-Five, in The Caithness book)

Natural heritage
The underlying geology, harsh climate and long history of human occupation have shaped this rich and distinctive natural heritage. Today we see a diverse landscape incorporating 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 s, s and flocks of birds.

Many rare mammals, birds and fish have been sighted or caught in and around Caithness waters. s, dolphins (including, , , and s) and  and s are regularly seen from the shore and boats. Both and s come close to the shore to feed, rest and raise their pups, and s can be seen close to river mouths in some of the quieter locations.

Local government

 * See also: 

County, burghs and parishes, 1890 to 1975
Caithness became a, with its own elected , in 1890, under the. At that time, two towns within the county, and, were already well established as autonomous s with their own burgh councils. Ten councils, covering rural areas of the county were established in 1894.

Wick, a, served as the county's administrative centre.

The parish councils were abolished in 1931 under the. The county council and the burgh councils were abolished in 1975 under the. The 1973 act also created a new two tier system, with Caithness as a district within the.

Parishes
Prior to implementation of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889, civil administration parishes were also parishes of the, 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 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 area of the parish. Landward, in this context, means rural.

District, 1975 to 1996
Caithness was a district of the local government  from 1975 to 1996. When created, under the, the district included the whole of the county plus and  areas of the neighbouring. The boundary was soon changed, however, to correspond with that between the counties. Caithness was one of eight districts in the Highland region.

The 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. The creation of the Highland region and of Caithness as a district involved the abolition of the two 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, to create. The Highland region became the Highland unitary council area, and the functions of the district councils were absorbed by the.

Management area and area committee, 1996 to 2007
In 1996, Caithness and the other seven districts of the Highland region were merged in to the unitary Highland, under the. The new Highland Council then adopted the former districts as management areas and created a system of s to represent the management areas.

Until 1999 the Caithness management and committee areas consisted of 8 out of the 72 Highland Council s. Each ward elected one councillor by the 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, although that village was within the Caithness management area. For area committee representation the village was within the 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.

Ward management area, from 2007
In 2007 an area similar to that of the Highland Council's Caithness management area was divided between three new wards electing councillors by the system of election, which is designed to produce a form of. 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, 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 consists of three wards, the, the and the. Each of the other ward management areas within the corporate management area consists of a single ward.

Community councils, 1975 to present (2007)
Although created under local government legislation (the ) s have no powers or responsibilities and are not a tier of. They are however the most local tier of statutory representation.

Under the 1973 Act, district councils were obliged to implement community council schemes. The 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 the Caithness scheme is now the responsibility of the.

At present, 2007, one of the Caithness community councils is moribund, due to lack of nomination of candidates for election to the council.

Constituency
The of the  of the  (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  until 1832 and of  until 1918.

Between 1708 and 1832 the Caithness constituency was one of the alternating constituencies: one constituency elected a  (MP) to one parliament and then the other elected an MP to the next. Between 1832 and 1918 it was a separate constituency, electing an MP to every parliament.

In 1918 the Caithness constituency and Wick were merged into the then new constituency of. In 1997 Caithness and Sutherland was merged into.

The was created in 1999 and now has boundaries slightly different from those of the House of Commons constituency.

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 Caithness is represented also as part of the.

Newspapers
' and ' are weekly published by  trading as North of Scotland Newspapers and using offices in Union Street, (Public reception, however, is via Cliff Road.) and Olrig Street, Thurso.

News coverage tends to concentrate on the former counties of Caithness and. The John O'Groat Journal is normally published on Fridays and The Caithness Courier is normally published on Wednesdays.

Historically, they have been independent newspapers, with the Groat as a Wick-centred paper and the Courier as a -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.

Radio
Caithness FM has been broadcasting since 1993.

Websites
Various community organisations, including Caithness Arts, and, maintain their own websites, as do the trusts that run the Castle of Mey  and Castle Sinclair Girnigoe.

The Caithness Community Web Site, established in 1998, hosts a number of other sites. Caithness.org includes a great many photographs, news and coverage of Local Galas, and makes available archives of its News front page back to August 2001.

External pages

 * Caithness Arts
 * Caithness Dialect
 * Caithness Tartan