Wick, Highland
Wick (
Inbhir Uige in
Gaelic) is an
estuary town in
Caithness, in the
Highland area of
Scotland, on the main highway (the
A99-
A9 road) linking
John O Groats with southern
Britain. The town is a
royal burgh and the traditional
county town of Caithness. The population of the town is about 9000 people.
The
burgh boundaries have included
Pulteneytown since 1902. Pulteneytown was developed on the south side of
Wick River by the
British Fisheries Society during the 19th century herring boom. Wick now straddles the river and extends along both sides of
Wick Bay.
Wick Harbour[See the Wick Harbour website] is on the Pulteneytown side of the river.
A
railway links Wick with southern Britain and with
Thurso, the only other burgh in Caithness, and
Wick Airport is on the town's northern outskirts. The
airport has two usable
runways (a third is derelict) and offers flights to
Sumburgh Airport as well as
Aberdeen and
Edinburgh. Flights to
Kirkwall were suspended following intense competition from ferries sailing to
Orkney, however these have been re-introduced by
Loganair for their 2006 summer timetable.
Wick is within the
parish of Wick and the
parish has that of
Latheron to the south, those of
Watten and
Bower to the west, and that of
Canisbay to the north. The eastern boundary of the parish is
Moray Firth coastline.
The main offices of
The John O Groat Journal and
The Caithness Courier are located in Wick, as are
Caithness General Hospital (run by
NHS Highland), the
Wick Carnegie Library and area offices of
Highland Council.
Wick Sheriff Court hears cases arising in Caithness and
Sutherland.
Wick's history stretches back, at least, to the era of
Norse Orcadian rule in Caithness, which ended, conclusively, in
1266. The name
Wick appears to be from a Norse word meaning
bay. The
Castle of Old Wick is on the coast about one kilometre south of the town.
 |
Looking down-river towards the Bridge of Wick, 2005 |
Wick Academy play in the
Highland Football League.
Pulteneytown is now an area of Wick in on the south side of
Wick River. Until 1902 Pulteneytown was administered quite separately from the Royal Burgh of Wick.
Pulteneytown takes its name from Sir
William Johnstone Pulteney, a governor of the
British Fisheries Society. In the early years of the
19th century Sir William commissioned
Britain's leading
civil engineer,
Thomas Telford, to design and supervise the creation of a major new
herring fishing town and
harbour at the
estuary of Wick River. Pulteneytown was so named after the death of Sir Wiillam in 1805 and became a major player in the 19th century herring boom. During this boom period the harbour was expanded still further by local ship-builder
James Bremner. History of this era is preserved in the collections of Wick Heritage Museum.
As created by the British Fisheries Society, Pulteneytown consisted of Lower Pulteney and Upper Pulteney. Lower Pulteney was primarily a working area, built on a sandbank behind the harbour. Upper Pulteney was primarily a residential area, on higher ground.
Street names in Upper Pulteney tend to be those of somewhat "upper class" individuals associated with the Fisheries Society, while Lower Pulteney street names tend to be more "lower class". Telford Street is in Lower Pulteney.
The
Old Pulteney whisky distillery is in the Pulteneytown area. The first
Caithness Glass factory was also in this area, but Caithness Glass has now left both the town and Caithness.
The Old Pulteney Distillery is an aging
malt whisky production and facility in
Pulteneytown. The distillery produces the Old Pulteney Single Malt whisky at a number of ages and has a
visitor centre in Huddart Street
[See the Old Pulteney website and the Inver House Distillers Limited Corporate website].
Like Pulteneytown the distillery is named for Sir
William Johnstone Pulteney. The distillery was established in
1826 when Pulteneytown was quite newly established as a
herring fishing port. The distillery is the most northerly on the Scottish mainland and was quite inaccessible, when established, except by sea.
Barley was brought in by sea, and the whisky was shipped out the same way. At that time many of the distillery
workers were also fishermen.
Old Pulteney is promoted as a
Highland single-malt Scotch. It has charateristics which are attributed to exposure to
sea air duing maturation.
The distillery is now owned by
Inver House Distillers Limited. Other Inver House distilleries include
the Speyburn-Glenlivet Distillery,
Knockdhu Distillery,
Balblair Distillery and
Balmenach Distillery.
The Old Pulteney site absorbs
water from an old
mill stream called the
Mill Lade. This stream flows out of
Loch Hempriggs, 3 or 4
kilometres (2
miles) to the south/southwest, and is reputed to have powered a barley mill at or near the site of the distillery.
There are
currently plans to
fuel the distillery with
wood chips, in a
combined heat and power scheme which will also produce
heating for nearby
housing and
electricity for the
power grid.
 |
The Castle of Old Wick |
The Castle of Old Wick, known also as the
Old Man of Wick was built in the
12th century when the
Norwegian earldom of
Orkney included Caithness, and was united under
Harald Maddadsson, Earl of Orkney[See also The Raven Banner]. The castle is thought to have been his stronghold on the mainland of Britain. There is evidence that the site was occupied before the present castle was built.
All that remains today is a tall tower sitting on the very edge of the cliffs, about one kilometre (half a mile) south of Wick Bay and of the modern town of Wick, but originally the castle had at least 4 stories as well as extra buildings containing workshops and other quarters.
During the
14th century it was owned by Sir
Reginald de Cheyne who was a supporter of
Edward I during his attempt to establish
John Balliol as King of
Scotland, although there is no evidence of a battle having taken place there.
It was abandoned in the
18th century.
The castle was built to the same plan as
Brough Castle, which is about 29 kilometres to the north/northwest, on the
Pentland Firth coast of Caithness.
Wick Heritage Museum is in Bank Row, Pulteneytown. The
museum is run by the Wick Society, with a strong focus on the herring-boom era of Wick's history.
The Wick Carnegie Library is now run by
Highland Council. As well as providing a general library service the library preserves valuable books and other documents about Wick and Caithness and their histories. Also it preserves a
crocodile (
Gavialis gangeticus) presented by Sir
Arthur Bignold in 1909.
The library building also houses the North Highland Archive
[See the North Highland Archive web page] and the St Fergus Gallery exhibitions. The North Highland Archive is part of the Highland Council Archive Service, and holds collections of official and private papers, the earliest dating from 1589, relating to Wick and the county of Caithness.
Construction of the library building, 1897, was part funded by
Andrew Carnegie. It is at the junction of Sinclair Terrace with Cliff Road.
The
tourist information centre is now in an unstaffed room in a
hotel in St Fergus Road.
Two
wards of the
Highland Council are named as
Wick wards:
Wick and
Wick West. A third is named
Pulteneytown and neighbouring wards are called
Caithness South East and
Caithness North East. Each elects one
councillor by the
first past the post system of election.
All these wards are in the area of the
Caithness area committee. For further details see
List of Highland council wards.
New wards are planned for the next round of elections, in
2007. Probably this will mean the Wick, Wick West and Pulteneytown wards being merged into just one ward called
Wick, which will elect three or four councillors by the
single transferable vote system of election.
History
Until 1975 the Royal Burgh of Wick had its own burgh council and Wick was also the administrative centre for
Caithness as an
administrative county.
In 1975 Wick and Caithness became part of the then new
Highland Region, with
Inverness as its administrative centre, and the burgh and county councils were abolished. Until 1996 however, local government was a two-tier arrangement and the
district of Caithness had its own elected council, with Wick as the district's administrative centre.
In 1996 district councils were abolished and the Inverness-centred council became the
Highland unitary authority. The council maintains
area committees, however, which are named after the old districts.
Wick was a
parliamentary burgh, combined with
Dingwall,
Dornoch,
Kirkwall and
Tain in the Northern Burghs
constituency of the
House of Commons of the
Parliament of Great Britain from 1708 to 1801 and of the
Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1801 to 1918.
Cromarty was added to the list in 1832.
The constituency was a
district of burghs known also as
Tain Burghs until 1832, and then as
Wick Burghs. It was represented by one
Member of Parliament. In 1918 the constituency was abolished and the Wick component was merged into the then new
county constituency of
Caithness and Sutherland.
Ordnance Survey grid references for:
*
Caithness General Hospital:
* Castle of Old Wick:
**
Brough Castle:
* Heritage Museum:
* Library:
* Old Pulteney Distillery:
* Railway station:
* Tourist information centre:
*
Wick Airport (road access):
*
Wick Harbour:
See also
External pages
*
Caithness Comunity website
