Caithness Field Club
Main Field Club Index Page
Bulletin Index

The Caithness Field Club produces an annual bulletin with article produced by its members and others.  The bulletins have been published since 1973 and the articles cover many topics relating to Caithness and the north of Scotland.    The bulletins are reproduced on Caithness.org with the kind permission of the Caithness Field Club and its members with whom copyright remains.

Caithness.org is grateful to Janet Mackenzie for her assistance with these pages.
Thanks to Ken Butler the new editor who has supplied the 2004 and 2005 Bulletins

New Index Under Construction

Online Bulletins

1973 | 1974 | 1975 | 1976 | 1977 | 1978 | 1979

1980 | 1981 | 1982 | 1983 | 1984 | 1985 | 1986 | 1987 | 1988 | 1989
1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999
2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 |

THE SCULPTURED STONES OF CAITHNESS
A survey by Tim Blackie and Colin Macaulay
Section commenced 24 January 2003 completed 15 April 2003

2006

 

 

2005

Caithness Field Club Summer Programme 2005
Some Highlights of Natural History in 2004
Field Club Activities in 2004 (by Marion Owen)
A Surprising Co-incidence and an Apology
The Caithness Secret Army in World War II
201 BN News
More Big Cats
The Fungi in Dunnet Forest
The Pilkington Family in Caithness
Caithness Cetaceans
Historical Letter No 1
Hetty Munro's War Diaries
A Letter from Robert Burns to Sir John Sinclair
A Botanical Local Change Project
News of Caithness Archaeological Trust
Highland Archaeology Week October 2005
The John o' Groats Legend: Fact or Fiction?
Snippets and Stories about The Royal Hotel, Thurso

 

2004
 
Editorial - Caithness Field Club Summer Programme 2004 - Some Highlights of Natural History in 2003 -  Field Club Activities in 2003 -Achavanich - A Re-assessment - The LEADER + Programme - Mey Personified - A Brief History of Foyers - Ruthwell Cross - Excavated Finds and Treasure Trove in Scotland - The Huna Vampire - Current Biological Recording Schemes - Some Rare Caithness Bees - A New Fossil Fish - Hetty Munro's War Diaries - Cumulative Contents of Caithness Field Club Bulletins

 

2003

Club Officers 2002 - 2003, Editorial, Programme, Club Activities 2002, Birds and Plants in 2002,  Gordon Wilson Obituary, Castle Varrich At Tongue, A Cave Below Castle Varrich, Early History Of Strathnaver, A Classic Walk - A Trip to Latheron & Forse Early Settlement, Badryrie Wood - 18 Years on, Dale House - A History, Achanarras - A Window on the Glorious Devonian, Excavations at Everley, Tofts, Freswick 2002, Current Biological Recording Schemes, Progress with Biodiversity, The Pennyland Mausoleum at Victoria Walk, Fast Work

 

2002 Editorial
Club Officers 1999-2000
2000 Summer Programme
Club Activities 1999
Agnathan from Spittal Quarry
Twites Wintering in Caithness
Rockets from the North Shore
Skelpick and Rhifail
Life-saving at Wick
Chapel & Graveyard at Oldhall, Watten
Coastal Landmarks
Building the John O’Groats Mill in 1901
Forests in the New Millennium
How Did it All Begin?
Dummy Airfield at Thrumster
Field Club’s First Excursion, 17 May 1902
Sinclair Clan Gathering

 

2001  

 

2000.

Club Officers 1999-2000, Editorial, 2000 Summer Programme, Club Activities 1999, Agnathan from Spittal Quarry, Twites Wintering in Caithness, Rockets from the North Shore, Skelpick and Rhifail, Life-saving at Wick, Chapel & Graveyard at Oldhall, Watten, Coastal Landmarks, Building the John O’Groats Mill in 1901, Forests in the New Millennium, How Did it All Begin?, Dummy Airfield at Thrumster, Field Club’s First Excursion, 17 May 1902, Sinclair Clan Gathering

 

1999

Club Officers 1998-1999 , Editorial, A Notice concerning the Freedom of information Act, 1999 Summer Programme, Account of Field Club Activities, Caithness Stone, Early Steamship Voyages in the North, Castles Sinclair and Girnigoe and the Origin of the Clan Sinclair, Isabella Fortuna, Birds Seen at Scrabster, Cigar Shaped Gravestones, 10cm Radar in Fleet Air Arm, Harrow Pavement Works, The Shape of Churches, A Modern "Bee Bole", Publications List, Cumulative Bulletin Index 1993-1998

 

1998 Club Officers for 1997/8
Editorial
Letters to the Editor
1998 Summer Programme
Account of Field Club Activities 1997
The Devonian Fishes of Canowindra
Cannon Battery at Victoria Walk
A Second Glance at Brims Castle
Murdo Rivach's Grave
Addendum to Murdo Rivach Story
A Rediscovered Church
Defence of Britain's Project
The Gauge of Slate Quarry Track-Ways
A Bill of Material for Barn at Standstill Farm
Pattern Recognition
Field Club Publications
 

 

1997.

Club Officers & Editorial, 1997 Summer Programme, Letters to the Editor, Club Outings 1996, Memoirs of Hetty Munro, Queen Aud, Disaster Threatens at Seven Miles Up, A Tacksman At Borlum, Deer at Langwell, Robert Dick Collection, Scrabster Mission, Falkirk Tartan, Concentric Earthworks, No Accounting for Animals

 

1996.

An Account of the Club Outings, Another Perspective on the Sutherland Clearances, Wearing the Arsaidh, Artillery Batteries at Castletown and Mey, Ham Harbour,  Caithnessians and Hess, The Eurasian Otter, Life Cycle of the Salmon, The Birth of "Shell" Tankers, The Shielings - Summer Camps, Watten Mills, Westside Croft (Mary's Cottage)

 

1995.

Natura 2000, Thoughts on Clan Tartans, Malthus, Ireland and the Highland Clearances, A Search for Uranium in Caithness, The Sinking of the Bismark 1941

 

1994 Memories Of Halkirk From 1920
The Construction Of An Early Black House
A Fantastic Find Of Devonian Fishes At Canowindra
A Bottle-Nosed Dolphin In Thurso Bay
The Geology & Paleontology Of the Shore Section Between Thurso & Scrabster
A Remarkable Glacial Pavement
Jurassic Park In Mongolia
An Elizabethan Will
The Highland Scots Become Interested In Railways
Sweat Houses In North America
Recent Publications
The Orkney Science Festival - 11 - 14 September 1993???

 

1993 Editorial, AGM Address, Bumping Into The Americas, Burnt Mounds And Sweat Houses, Ships V Brochs, Cromwellian Soldiers In Cannesbay 1652 - 1655, The Seven Men of Knoydart, Cyclic Sedimentary Structures - North Sutherland, Westside Croft.

 

1992   Editorial, AGM Address, Clan Gunn Heritage Museum, Wintering Snow Buntings In Caithness, Holidays In Slickly, Stroma: The Island That Died, Winds Of Change, Holding A Pirates Ball

 

1991 Editorial
Hang the Kaiser
AGM Chairman's Address
Cashmere Goats - A Venture For The Highlands
The Blackbird
The Passage Grave Cemeteries Of County Meath
The Baligill Outlier
The Old Red Sandstone Of Shetland
Summer Programme 1991

 

1990 March Editorial
Mammals Of the Northern Highlands
Some Folklore About Plants and Flowers
Little Boy Blue
The Wick Charter
The Tale Of The Puma
A Model Doocot
Some Census Sidelights On Victorian Caithness - Part Two

 

1989 April Editorial
Old Rural Caithness Through Writers' Eyes
The Bouilag Four-Poster
Some Census Sidelights On Mid Nineteenth Century Caithness Part 1 : Flitting Farmers and Settled Fisher Folk
Freswick House
The Village Of Captains

 

1988 April Editorial
A Short History Of The Field Club
Dunnet Bay SSSI Historical and Present Day Ecology - Part Two
The Psalm Tune "Caithness"
The Education Of A Minister In the Late 18th Century
A Brief Account Of Education In the Parish Of Reay Prior To 1870
Dounreay Castle
The Sandside Kiln Barn
The Orcadian Middle Old Red Sandstone
October Winter Programme, Thurso East Icehouse, A Plea For Industrial Archaeology, Sheep saga - The North Ronaldsays, Mid Nineteenth Century Army Pensioners In The North Of Scotland

 

1987 April Editorial - Rules And Constitution - The Voyage Of the Iris To Norway - St Drostan In Caithness - Some Results From Bird-Ringing In N. E. Caithness - Tree Planting In Caithness
October Chairmans Report and Winter Programme, Archaeology, Early Shopping In Scotland, Brubster Places, Hanging about The highlands, Land Use and Vegetation.

 

1986 April Editorial - Roads And Tracks Through History - Part Two - Unrecorded Ways - Brief History Of Brubster - Brubster; Pre-Improvements Agriculture - Wartime Boyhood In Wick
October Editorial - Prison Life In Inverness Between 1700 And 1720
Dunnet Bay SSSI - Historical and Present Day Ecology
Caithness Lighthouses - Roads and Tracks Through Local History - Part 3: Tracks, Fords and Chapels

 

1985 April Editorial
Caithness Geological Notes
A Setting Of Stone Rows, Tormsdale, Caithness
The Badryrie Project
Badryrie - An abandoned Crofting Community In Latheron
Sailing Directions For the North Coast
October Editorial
ROADS AND TRACKS THROUGH LOCAL HISTORY Part 1 - Historical Roads
THE MULTIPLE STONE ROWS OF CAITHNESS AND SUTHERLAND 4. Their Purpose
Tarradale Weekend
Canisbay Parish Survey 1984
Air Operations From RAF Wick During World War 2 Part Three December 1941 - January 1943
Freswick Links, Caithness survey 1984
Some Incidents Involving Wick and Ackergill Lifeboats

 

1984

April

Editorial & Letter To Editor - An Early Royal Visit To Thurso
NOTES TAKEN FROM THE ACCOUNT BOOKS AND THE PUNISHMENT BOOKS - FOR THE THURSO COMBINATION POORHOUSE
Impressions Of Eilean Na Ron - Wrecks Of The Pentland Firth 1918 - 1933 - Freswick Links - Neil Gunn and Dunbeath
The Scottish Burgh Survey - Family Histories - The Sheep Eaters
October The Black Rat's Home in Roman Britain, Caithness Orchids, Some Discoveries in a Mound in Lythmore, Do We Persecute Foxes Unfairly?, The Special Touch of Caithness, Wrecks of the Pentland Firth

 

1983 April 10 YEARS 1973-1983
BURIAL GR0UNDS OF CAITHNESS AND SUTHERLAND
THE MULTIPLE STONE ROWS OF CAITHNESS AND SUTHERLAND
3. Their Description II
THE JURASSIC BOULDER BEDS OF EAST SUTHERLAND
CHRISTIAN COUPER
AIR 0PERATIONS FROM R.A.F. WICK DURING WORLD WAR II
PART TWO: JANUARY 1941 - DECEMBER 1941
REAY SCULPTURED STONES
AN EIGHTEENTH CENTURY SEA BATTLE IN THE KYLE OF TONGUE
WRECKS OF THE PENTLAND FIRTH
October SIR JOHN GUNN, THE CARDIFF BUSINESS ENTREPRENEUR FROM CAITHNESS
NOTES ON THREE NINETEENTH CENTURY CAITHNESS DOVECOTES
C0ALS TO NEWCASTLE?
JAMES INNES OF CAPE FEAR
WRECKS OF THE PENTLAND FIRTH 1890 TO 1917

 

1982. April The Multiple Stone Rows Of Caithness & Sutherland, Two Tales of the Caithness Bishops, Viscount Thurso of Ulbster (Sir Archibald Sinclair), Whaligoe
October The Moon And The Northern Highlands
Some Fungi Of Dunnet Forest
Visitors Book Huna Inn 1879
THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES, THE PUNCTUATION THEORY, AND THEIR APPLICABILITY
TO THE FOSSIL RECORD IN CAITHNESS
Grain Kiln Floors
Air Operations From RAF Wick During World War Two - Part One September 1939 - December 1940
A Note for the Record - A Coin Found At Strathnaver
Deciduous Trees In Caithness

 

1981. April Some Common Caithness Toadstools And Their Uses, The Motor Bus In Caithness, Markets in Caithness In the Old Days, Extracts From the Inspector Of Nuisances - Thurso 1891 - 96, Botany of Scrabster Braes, Research Into Family History
October General The Lord Horne of Stirkoke - Caithness's Greatest General, Inspector of Nuisances, A Caithness School in the Early Nineteenth Century, Some Caithness Grasses

 

1980. April

Chairman's Remarks and Bird Report, Historic Castles and Families of the North - The Sinclairs of Keiss, The Stone Rows of Caithness and Sutherland, Caithness Buttercups, Extracts From the Inspector Of Nuisances, Summer Programme 1980

October

Caithness Courier 1866, Andrew Geddes Bain - Road Engineer, Explorer and Geologist, Thomas Telford's Parliamentary Churches, Dirlot Castle - The Cheynes, Gunns, Sutherlands and Mackays, Invertebrates and the Pollution of Rivers, Excavations Relating to Caithness, Extracts From Reports By the Inspector Of Nuisances, Broubster & District Educational Records, Preserving Our Geological Sites, A Caithness School In The Early Nineteenth Century, Some Caithness Grasses, General The Lord Horne of Strikoke - Caithness's Greatest

 

1979 April Vegetation Of the Isle Of Stroma
The Radioactive Fishes Of The North Of Scotland
Some Notes On The History Of the Rabbit In the North
Bird Movements Through Caithness and North East Sutherland
HISTORIC CASTLES AND FAMILIES OF THE NORTH
9 . Dunbeath Castle - The Sutherlands & Sinclairs of Dunbeath
THE DISCQVERY OF HUMAN REMAINS AT CLARDON HAVEN, CAITHNESS
October OF SCHIPPES AND BUSCHES
Old Letter of November 1799
THE CAITHNESS FLAGSTONE INDUSTRY
Castle Of Mey And Sinclairs Of Mey
ARRIVALS AND DEPARTURES AT THURSO RIVER HARBOUR 1922

 

1978 April Girnigoe Castle - The First to Sixth Earls of Caithness
THE CROFTER' S COMMISSION 1884
THE COGHILLS OF COGHILL
The only Caithness Landholders "of that Ilk"
EXCAVATIONS AT CLOW CHAPEL, WATTEN
A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE HISTORY OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS IN CAITHNESS AND ORKNEY
THE GLACIAL TILLS OF CAITHNESS
CAITHNESS MONUMENTS
3. Sir George Sinclair, Fountain
October Ardvreck Castle - The MacNicols and Macleods of Assynt
THE PROSPECTS FOR BEEKEEPING IN CAITHNESS
NOTES ON F0UR CAITHNESS DOOCOTS
THE WILD PLANTS OF THURSO RIVERSIDE
DE SITU ALBANIE

 

1977 April Ackergill Tower - The Keiths and Dunbars of Hempriggs
The Short Career Of Pirate John Gow
BADRYRIE - An abandoned crofting community in Latheron
Life On A Caithness Farm In 1862
BADGERS - A Tentative Survey
An Unrecorded Stone At Broughwhin
Chapel And Burial Ground At ch'na H-uai Kinbrace
THE ARCHAEOLOGY, EXCAVATION AND DIGGING OF THE SCOTTISH CHAMBERED TOMBS
Two Possible Prehistoric Quarries in Caithness
Caithness Monuments - Harold's Tower
  October Editorial
HISTORIC CASTLES AND FAMILIES OF THE NORTH 6. Forse Castle - The Sutherlands of Forse
PARLIAMO THIRSA
HYBRIDS IN THE CAITHNESS FLORA
BALIGILL REVISITED
A NOTE ON LYBSTER VILLAGE
CNOC NA MARANAICH - A Megalithic Summer Solstice Observatory
SURVEY OF A STONE SETTING AT CNOC AN LIATH-BHAID STRATH BRORA
THE BEWITCHED CAITHNESS CROFT A Weird Mystery of Last Century
Captain Slater's Monument on Holborn Head

 

1976. April

Dunrobin Castle - Earls and Dukes of Sutherland, Caithness Folklore And Customs, Which Way Did the Great Glen Fault Move, Possible Monastery at Murkle, Three Caithness Doocots

October

Declaration Of Arbroath, Oldwick & Berriedale Castles (Cheynes, Sutherlands of Duffus and the Oliphants), Some Recent Plant Records

 

1975 April Editorial & Notes - Bucholie as Lambaborg - Deep Weathering of Rock in Caithness - The Early Ecclesiastical Remains Of Halkirk Parish - In Search Of The Real Old Mountain Dew- Hunting For Caithness Mosses And Liverworts - The Distribution Of Freshwater Fish In the British Isles - With Particular Reference To Caithness
October Castles Gunn and Halberry - The Gunns,  Two New Castle Sites
Early Ecclesiastical Remains Of Wick Parish, Traditional Knitting Patterns

 

1974. April

The Evolution of the Vegetation of Northern Scotland, Northern Scotland Since the Ice Age - Chart, Rights of Way, Work Horses - A Look Back, Diverse Dandelions

October

"Orkneyinga Saga", Caithness Fern Survey, Caithness Historical Notes 1750 - 1900 (Introduction, The Croft House, Food and Drink, Clothing and Footwear, The Landholding and Crofting System, Farm Stock, Crops and Manure, Fences and Dykes, Communications, Improvements and Clearances, Crafts and Industries, Population Trends)

 

1973. April

The First Bulletin
Progress At St Coombs, The Winter Programme, Sites of Old Horse Mills, Gossip about Birds, Small Blue Butterfly, Fern Survey, Botanists at a Caithness Meeting, The Council for Nature, A Stone Circle, County Recorders, Early Christian Chapel Sites, Churchyard Inscriptions, Bumble Bees

October

St. Coombs Chapel, Botanical Records, Annual Dinner, Other Field Clubs, Boulder Clay of Caithness, Elphin Weekend, Medieval Urban Archaeology, Nature Notes, See North, See South, Survey of an Unrecorded Stone Setting Near Broubster, Shells, Excavations at Bishop's Castle, Scrabster