Wick, Highland

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Map sources for Wick, Highland at grid reference ND3650

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 9,000.

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^[1] 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, vik, 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.

1 Pulteneytown
2 Old Pulteney Distillery
3 Castle of Old Wick
4 Heritage Museum
5 Carnegie Library
6 Tourist information centre
7 World's shortest street
8 Local government
- 8.1 History
9 Parliamentary burgh
10 Map references
11 Footnotes
- 11.1 See also
  - 11.1.1 External pages

[edit] Pulteneytown

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 William 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.

Pulteneytown Parish Church (of the Church of Scotland) is located in Argyle Square and was opened in 1842. Services are held twice every Sunday.

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.

[edit] Old Pulteney Distillery

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^[2].

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 characteristics 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

[edit] 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^[3]. 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.

[edit] Heritage Museum

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.

[edit] Carnegie Library

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^[4] 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.

[edit] Tourist information centre

The tourist information centre is now located upstairs in the Mcallans store on the High Street.

[edit] World's shortest street

In 2006 it was reported by the BBC that the Guinness Book of Records had confirmed the world's shortest street, Ebenezer Place measuring 2.06m (6' 9"), was located in Wick, containing just one front door. ^[5] ^[6]

[edit] Local government

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.

[edit] 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.

[edit] Parliamentary burgh

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.