Similar memorials present themselves everywhere on the promontory, with the exception, however, of the most western and more mountainous part, adjoining the frontiers of Sutherland. This district is still inhabited by a Gaelic population, the remnant of the ancient inhabitants, as is sufficiently testified both by the Gaelic names of places and the Gaelic language of the people. In Caithness, as well as everywhere else in the British Isles, it has been the fate of the Gaels or Celts to be driven to the poor and mountainous districts, whilst more fortunate strangers have taken possession of the fertile plains. The whole of the northern and eastern part of Caithness is a rather flat and open country, over which the sea wind sweeps freely without being intercepted by woods. Fertile and well-cultivated arable land is mingled with heaths, marshes, and small lakes. Wherever the soil is capable of cultivation, both on the coasts and in the interior, a great number of undoubted Norwegian names of places are still found scattered about, of the selfsame form as those in Orkney and the Shetland Isles: as, for instance, those ending in toft (as Aschantoft, Thurdystoft, formerly “Þorðarþupt”) seter (“setr”), busta, buster, or best (originally “bolstaðr”); but particularly in ster (staðr). The bays, which are mostly small and narrow, are generally called goe (from “gjá,” an opening). The larger ones are called wick (Viig); whence the town of Wick, the most important hamlet in Caithness, derives its name; but they are never called, as in the islands lately mentioned, wall (“Vágr,” or “Vaag”). Here and there a mighty barrow lifts its head, and sometimes—as, for instance, near Barrowston, parish of Reay—so extremely near the coast of Pentland Firth, that the spray washes over it. In general we shall not be mistaken in imagining that we have found in such barrows the last resting-places of the daring Vikings, who, not even in death, could endure to be far separated from the foaming maelstrom.
At times the common people dig up in these mounds pieces of swords and various kinds of ornaments, especially the peculiar bowl-formed brooches, of a sort of brass, which are very frequently discovered in the Scandinavian North, and particularly in the Norwegian and Swedish graves of the times of the Vikings. These are never found in England; and in Scotland they are discovered only in the Orkneys and Sutherland, as well as in some of the Western Islands, where the Norwegians also settled.
[[++]] Brooch
Tall bauta stones are to be seen in several places in Caithness, to which some legend about “the Danes” is generally attached; they now stand in a leaning position, as if mourning over the departed times of the heroic age. A monument of a somewhat later period, according to tradition that of a Danish princess, who suffered shipwreck on the coast, was also formerly to be found in a churchyard near Ulbster. Danish fortifications, consisting partly of square towers, once existed along the coast, principally near the navigable inlets; but these also have now, for the most part, disappeared.
With several intervals, Caithness was subject to Norwegian jarls until some time in the fourteenth century, or for about as long a period as Orkney and the Shetland Isles. After that time, however, it does not seem to have been oppressed to such a degree as those islands; which circumstance, in conjunction with the originally great number of Norwegian settlements in the country, is the cause that even in the present day we are not referred only to inanimate memorials of the ancient Norwegian population. The present living inhabitants bear a decided and unmistakable impress of their Norwegian descent. The language in the plains of Caithness, and in the open valleys, is the same dialect of the English as is spoken in Orkney and the Shetland Isles, because the transitions from Norwegian to English have been the same. The people have in some parts, as in the parish of Wick, pure Scandinavian names: Ronald (Ragnvald), Harold, Swanson (Svendsen), Manson (Magnuson), and others; and their tall and personable figures, as well as their light hair and broad faces, render them a striking contrast to the shorter and more swarthy Highlanders. As the descendants of an old Gaelic and of an old Norwegian population adjoin one another in Caithness, we have an excellent opportunity of observing, on a small scale, how the Norwegians and Danes have actually implanted in the British Isles a more seafaring spirit and greater nautical skill. Even to the present day the Gael, in Caithness, as well as throughout the Highlands, has a decided aversion to the sea, nay, a downright fear of its dangers. It is pretty well known that in general, and except on the most urgent necessity, one should not venture out into the Pentland Firth in boats steered and rowed by Gaels or Highlanders; for, in the event of a storm, all steady command is speedily lost, and gives place to anxious irresolution. The descendants of the old Norwegians, on the contrary, who are familiar with the sea from childhood, and amongst whom lies Wick, the most important fishing station in Scotland, show themselves precisely in the hour of danger the worthy sons of their forefathers, the ancient Vikings. It is only the man at the helm who speaks, and he gives his orders in a few decisive words. He is punctually obeyed, and the misfortune is said to be rare, if his coolness, joined to his knowledge of the sea and its currents, do not gain the victory over the violence of the storm and the turbulence of the billows. This seafaring population of Caithness do not, like the Highlanders, disdain to resort to fishing, in order to bring home the riches of the sea. As their soil, moreover, is by no means barren, and as they have naturally greater activity and more inclination to work than the Highlanders, as well as, through their English dialect, greater facility in their traffic with the more southern districts, it is not to be wondered at that the prosperity of Caithness manifests a great and constant progress. We may even justly assert that the descendants of the Norwegians in Caithness are in a far more fortunate situation than their kinsmen in the Orkneys and Shetland Isles.
In ancient times, a Norwegian population speaking its native language, was undoubtedly spread over the whole eastern coast of Caithness, as well as over several districts of Sutherland. But the English language, which in our times has superseded the Norwegian, ceases to be the common language of Caithness immediately to the south of the parish of Wick. A line drawn from Clyth Ness, in a north-western direction to the before-mentioned mansion of Forss to the west of Thurso, will indicate, as near as may be, the boundary between Gaelic and English. If, however, we travel southwards from the parish of Wick, through the parish of Latheron, where the common language is already Gaelic, we, nevertheless, pass a great many villages and farms bearing Norwegian names; as, for instance, Lybster and Forse (by a waterfall). The mountains here begin to be higher, and to stand closer and closer together towards the sea. At length, after passing the deep valley of Berrydale (Old N., “Berudalr”), and the beautiful wood-crowned banks of its river, we ascend the steep mountain ridge called “the Ord of Caithness,” which runs boldly out into the sea, and forms a natural boundary between the narrow projecting promontory of Caithness and the broader Sutherland.
The first large valley in Sutherland to the south of this mountain ridge is Helmsdale, which is watered by a river of no mean size. That Helmsdale is a Norwegian name (in the Sagas “Hjalmundsdalr”) is at once evident from the present Gaelic inhabitants calling the valley in pure Gaelic, “Strath Ullie,” or with a strange confusion of language, Strath Helmsdale; for as Strath signifies in Gaelic a valley or dale, the word dale is added both at the beginning and end. It is a similar repetition which we so often hear when the “Orkney Isles” are spoken of, in the original language “Orknö,” but which, translated as now used, is Orknö Öerne (or the “Orkney-islands-islands”). Along Helmsdale River several places are met with whose original Norwegian names are still to be discerned; as, for instance, Eilderabol, Gilaboll, Dviaboll, and Leiraboll. All these have the ending bol, which is peculiar to a number of Norwegian names of places in Sutherland and in some of the Hebrides; but which, in Caithness, the Orkneys, and Shetland Isles, as well as in Lewis and several of the Hebrides, appears in the longer form of “bolstaðr.” To the north-west of Helmsdale are the vales of Kildonan, which run up as far as the Vale of Strathmore in Caithness. Here, it is supposed, on the frontiers of Caithness and Sutherland, lay “Eisteinsdalr,” so famed in history as the spot where the Scotch king William encamped in the year 1198. It is, however, very uncertain whether “Easterdale” in Strathmore be in any way connected with the name of Eisteinsdal.
On leaving Helmsdale the coast opens, and fertile and beautiful fields begin to expand themselves. Past Midgarty and Wester Gartie (the middle and western Gaard, or farm, from Old N. “garðr”?) the road runs along the shore of the Bay of Dornoch (an arm of the “Breidifjördr,” or broad firth mentioned in the Sagas, in which the Moray Firth is also included) to the little village of Brora, which is built on a considerable river, and where for a long period the only large bridge in Sutherland was to be found. It was possibly from this circumstance that the Norwegians gave the village its name (“Brúrá,” the bridge rivulet). A river in Iceland is also still called Brúrá, from a bridge which crosses it. The ancient seat of the Earls of Sutherland, Dunrobin (Robin’s tower, from dun, a tower), lies on the seashore, in the neighbourhood of Brora, surrounded by fine corn-fields and considerable tracts of woodland. The latter, however, were planted at a recent period. In the background rise considerable mountains, covered with heath. In this place, so highly favoured by nature both as regards scenery and fertility, the Norwegian jarls who ruled over Sutherland undoubtedly had one of their chief residences; as, for instance, Sigurd Jarl, a brother of Ragnvald Möre-Jarl, Sigurd the Stout (+ 1014), and his son Thorfin (+ about 1064). Norwegian antiquities, like those discovered in Caithness, are found in graves near Dunrobin, particularly the well-known bowl-formed brooches or buckles. In the neighbourhood several places with Norwegian names can be pointed out; for instance, just south of Dunrobin, in the fertile valley by the river Fleet, Mickle Torboll and Little Torboll (from Thor and bol); and on the coast, Skelbo, Skibo, and Embo (from bol, or perhaps more correctly from bœr, bö). Sigurd, the first conqueror of Sutherland, is said to have extended his dominion as far as Ekkjalsbakke. As bakki in the ancient language signifies the bank of a river, there cannot be the least doubt that Ekkjal is the river Oykill, which still forms the southern boundary of Sutherland. Sigurd himself is said to have been interred at Ekkjalsbakke. He gained the victory in a foray over the Scotch jarl Melbrigd, and cut off his head, which, in the overweening pride of his triumph, he hung to his saddle; but a sharp tooth that projected from the head chafed his leg, and caused a wound which proved his death. On different parts of the banks of the Oykill numerous barrows are seen, indicating the many battles that have been fought in ancient times on the frontiers of Sutherland. But nobody is able to point out the barrow of Sigurd Jarl; the tradition relating to it has vanished with the Norwegian population.
For the rest, names of places prove that the Norwegians had also settled themselves along the coast to the south of the Oykill. On the narrow naze called Tarbet Ness, between Dornoch and Cromarty Firths, are the villages of Arboll and Wanby, as well as the town of Tain, whose Gaelic name, “Bailed Dhuich” (or St. Duthus’ Town), shows at once that “Tain” must be of foreign origin. Tain is, moreover, a corruption of “Þing,” a Thing; and in like manner the somewhat considerable town of Dingwall, at the extremity of Cromarty Firth, was originally called “Þingavöllr,” or Thingwalla; whence the remarkable fact is evident, that the Norwegians were once sufficiently numerous in these districts to have both an inferior Thing (Tain) and a superior one (Dingwall). Dingwall, like Tain, besides its original Norwegian name, has also the Gaelic one of Inverphaeron. As the Norwegians, therefore, must have permanently possessed considerable tracts in these districts, it is clear that their settlements on the east coast of Scotland must have extended quite down to Inverness-shire and Moray. The before-mentioned stronghold of Burghead in Moray, which the Northmen maintained to the last extremity, lies pretty close to the east of Cromarty Firth, the inlet to Dingwall.