Caithness

A treasure-trove of time

Caithness – Kataness, land of the Pictish people whose emblem was the cat, once stretched to Easter Ross as part of the Norse Earldom. It was those Vikings who named us for that tribal people whose land they coveted. They fought them, intermarried with them and lived beside them. This made us the strong independent unique area we call home.

The Picts were cultured, artistic and part of a wider Scotland. Their language only survives in a handful of place-names like Duncansby, Mey and Latheron. The rest are overlain by Old Norse, Scots Gaelic and English. We are a mixture in every way. Our local dialect is unique to us.

Since long before then, people have left their mark on our landscape. At the end of the last ice-age the Wild Harvesters were driven ashore from the flooded plains of the Moray Firth. Their flints are found throughout Caithness by community and University field-walking researchers.

From around 6,000 years ago, the First Farmers began to clear the land of trees to grow their crops. They built their magnificent chambered cairns. Visit Camster Cairns, the Yarrows Archaeology Trail or Cnoc Freiceadain.

Later farming communities built some 30 settings of larger stones and there are over 25 settings of small stone rows – a northern special. Visit Achavanich with its intriguing shape or the small stones at the Hill of Many Stanes, which some believe is a lunar calendar.

The next layer of time has left us the magnificent brochs, strong, circular and dominant. They are found on the coast, in the straths and on good farmland. Sinclair Bay, from Noss Head to John O’Groats is the focus for modern research. Visit an excavation to watch or even take part. Don’t miss the new Broch Centre at Aukengill which will open in 2007, or walk to Dunbeath Broch or Yarrows Broch.

Every summer, excavations and building experiments take place. Professionals, Universities and the community are involved. You are welcome to visit. Why not help us to build a chambered cairn or broch at Spittal.

Since the recent formation of the Caithness Archaeological Trust, Caithness is beginning to display its treasure-trove of time. Visit our Museums and Heritage Centres throughout the County.

Moulded by the richness of its past, Caithness is independent and different, innovative and welcoming.

Written by A.M. Bethune (Nan), Dunbeath.