County town: Wick
Caithness was the northernmost county of mainland Scotland, its Norse character reflecting the Viking earldom of Caithness established in the 9th century. The county was incorporated into the Scottish kingdom in the 11th century.
Caithness is the far north of mainland Scotland, a flat, windswept county of flagstone, peat, and ancient archaeology. The Norse earldom of Caithness, established in the 9th century, gave the county its Scandinavian character, reflected in its place-names — Wick, Thurso, Lybster. The county's flagstone, quarried around Thurso, was exported throughout Britain and the world in the 19th century for pavements. The flow country of the interior — Europe's largest blanket bog — is a landscape of exceptional ecological importance. The Hill O' Many Stanes and the Grey Cairns of Camster attest to a prehistoric past of remarkable density in this remote corner of Britain.
The Statistical Accounts of Scotland — the Old Statistical Account (1791–99) and the New Statistical Account (1834–45) — provide detailed parish-by-parish descriptions of Caithness at two moments of transformation. Aubrey draws on these accounts when generating reports for Scottish locations, providing historical context specific to the parish and county.
Scotland's 33 traditional counties, established as sheriffdoms from the 12th century onward, were the administrative framework of the country until the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1975 replaced them with regional councils. They remain the reference framework for historical records, genealogy, and cultural identity.
An Aubrey report for a specific location in Caithness draws on historical maps, archaeological records, Domesday data, Statistical Account records, and landscape history to tell the full story of any site in the county.
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