North Coast Visiting

North Coast Visitor Centre, Thurso Caithness. Museum, gallery and exhibitions: Pictish Stones, the botanist Robert Dick, the Flow Country, prehistory, crofting; Dounray. Superb local museum ….. and … the Northern Pilgrim’s Way, recreating the Skinnet Stone.

The North Coast Visitor Centre in Thurso opened in 2022, replacing Caithness Horizons which closed in 2019. The old Thurso Town Hall and Carnegie Library have been adapted for their new roles. Much more than a typical visitor centre, the NCVC displays stone carvings of global significance and wide-ranging museum exhibits and galleries, all housed in the centre of Thurso.

The Visitor Centre occupies several floors. The Gallery space (left) on the upper floor, is flooded with natural light. Other rooms held various displays and more permanent exhibits.

When visited in early September 2024, the gallery housed an exhibition by local artists. One of the works, by Juliette Currams, was titled Women not Witches, with the description:

“A reflection on the representation of women who were convicted of witchcraft in the 17th and 18th Century and an acknowledgement that they were just women who were different in some way and were unable to speak for themselves or engage in any kind of fair judicial process. Represented in charcoal and watercolour on paper. Then burnt and broken, as were the women in life, to extract false confessions.”

From the Material Matters exhibition at NCVC: Women not Witches by Juliette Currums

carved stones gallery

Two major Pictish stones [2], both highly weathered, one defaced but still magnificent, are now displayed with several other carved stones in a gallery on the ground floor. They are there for all to see, safe from further damage that over the centuries removed or obscured some of the carving.

Images above: Gallery displaying a range of carved stones, notably the Skinnet Stone and the Ulbster Stone (left) with examples from the Ulbster of the Salmon, the Pictish Beast and the Crescent and V rod. Images below: the Skinnet stone .

Both were found at churches in Caithness. The Ulbster is dated to the 9th century, the Skinnet to the late 9th or 10th century. They had been used in recent centuries as building material or grave slab. Their value was not appreciated and both suffered.

Today, Pictish carved stones are highly valued by historians, artists and carvers, and by people in general who can wonder at  their construction and the meaning of the carved symbols. A replica of the Skinnet is being carved by a stone mason for display outdoors on the Northern Pilgrim’s Way (see below).

Robert Dick | botanist

A room in one of the upper floors tells of the life and legacy of the self-taught naturalist Robert Dick [3]. From his base in Thurso, where he worked as a baker, he explored the coast and countryside, noting the geology, the plants, including mosses and ferns, and invertebrates such as molluscs and insects.  He collected and classified many specimens.

He discovered fossils of an extinct fish Microbrachius dicki, named after him, which is the earliest vertebrate to reproduce by internal fertilisation (rather than by eggs laid outside the body). 

His work was recognised and praised by Hugh Miller and a range of academic scientists, but was little appreciated by local people, at least not before he died on 24 December 1866.

His collections of fossils had to be sold in later life and those of insects and shells are lost. The task of preserving his 3000 herbarium specimens, many now damaged, has begun with funding from museum groups and charitable trusts [4]. Examples are on display at the NCVC. 

The exhibition on Robert Dick, including information on his life, the task of restoring and curating his collection, and specimens on display under glass and in cabinets (www.livingfield.c0.uk).

Heritage evolving

Interest and activity in the archaeology, history and nature of Caithness continues to grow, dispelling the perception of some early writers of the place as only a bleak, peaty wilderness. 

The land and people around Thurso have been linked for millenia to other parts of Scotland and to a much wider world. Hundreds of years ago the country was traversed by pilgrimmage routes between the Christian centres of Tain to the south and the Orkney to the north. In recent years these routes have been mapped, opened and re-marked by the Northern Pilgrims’ Way Group [5]. 

The Group has commissioned Dave McGovern of Monikie Rock Art to carve a replica of the Skinnet Stone to be erected on one of the routes [6]. The original was made from sandstone, but no local quarries have survived that could supply similar material. So the slab for the replica was sourced from south of Hadrian’s Wall. Weathering had obscured the detail of the original in parts but careful examination of the stone revealed the shapes of two hippocamps (upper body horse, lower body fish). 

Many great developments therefore in and around Thurso – heritage alive.

Author/contact for this page: geoff.squire@hutton.ac.uk or geoff.squire@outlook.com

Sources | Links

[1] North Coast Visitor Centre at Highlife Highland.

[2] Ulbster and Skinnet Stones: information and photographs at the Canmore web site – Ulbster and Skinnet.

[3] Robert Dick botanist, brief notes: Undiscovered Scotland and Electric Scotland. Biography: Smiles, Samuel (1879) Robert Dick, baker, of Thurso, geologist and botanist. Available free online at several sites including Biodiversity Heritage Library, and Internet Archive (search author). And an update in a scientific journal: Saxon, J., Bramman, J., Campbell, N. Some New Material on Robert Dick, Baker of Thurso, Geologist and Botanist. Nature 210, 253 (1966). https://doi.org/10.1038/210253a0.

[4] Funding for the restoration of the Robert Dick Herbarium: Association of Independent Museums, Museums Galleries Scotland and the Gordon Fraser Charitable Trust. More on repair and conservation at this link to the Scottish Conservation Studio (scroll to see work on the Robert Dick collection).

[5] Northern Pilgrims’ Way. The Pictish Arts Society held an online event in October 2024 in which Jane Coll described progress with regenerating the Northern Pilgrims’ Way: www.northernpilgrimsway.co.uk. Book: Jane Coll (2022) In their footsteps – exploring a Northern Pilgrimage Way, Kindle Books (search the web for sellers).

[6] At the same event, Dave McGovern of Monikie Rock Art described constructing a replica of the Skinnet Stone. To follow progress with the carving, try their Instagram and Facebook pages. 

Pictish Knotwork

Interlaced knotwork of some major Pictish cross slabs found in Scotland, based on triquetra knots [1]

By K Owen

The Living Field welcomes this article and drawings of patterns on stone-carved monuments left by early medieval people based in and around the lowland croplands and grazing lands.

Aberlemno Kirkyard Stone, early 8th Century, Angus

The Aberlemno Kirkyard Stone is an impressive sandstone slab 2.29 m high, 1.27 m wide with stone carved interlacing and fantastic beasts on the front and the carving of the depiction of  a battle scene on the rear. The pattern below is from the front, showing the north quadrant of interlacing that forms the upper part of the cross. The stone had been damaged, so there had to be a bit of interpretation of what it should look like, using the other shapes within it and with reference to similar carvings [2, 3].

The stone now stands in the grounds of Aberlemno Church [4], itself within a landscape that has sustained crops, livestock and trees over thousands of years. The view of arable and grass fields (upper image, below) was taken from the ‘fort’ on Turin Hill, a few km to the south of the church.

Kilduncan Cross Slab, 10th Century, Fife

 The cross slab was found in 2001 lying against the wall of a barn in Kingsbarns, Fife. It is now in St Andrews Museum, Kilburn Park [5]. It is a small slab, only 0.78 m high and 0.53 m wide. There are two S-dragons carved on the face,  framing a circle, with carved interlaced knotwork in the centre of the stone.

The stone was found near the coast on the edge of an extensive area of mixed farmland producing crops and livestock. The coastline is varied: estuaries and inlets, rock extending out into the sea, stony beaches and as in the photograph, great tracts of sand.

Eassie Cross Slab, 8th Century, Angus (near Glamis)

This great stone is an old red sandstone cross slab 2.03 m high and 1.02 m wide. It is protected within the ruins of the Eassie old parish church [6] by purpose-built screens. There are four quadrants to the cross, each with carved interlaced knotwork, together with hunting scenes and angels. This is the west quadrant of the cross.

The ruined church lies several km west of Glamis. Images below show the church in 2021, the cross slab under its protective cover, and a nearby view of spring-sown crops just emerging green from the soil, tree lines and forest plantation beyond.

Ulbster Stone, 9th Century, Caithness

This once stood in an ancient burial ground attached to the ruined Church of St Martin at Ulbster near Thurso. Both sides of the slab are carved with strange beasts, symbols and interlacing. This drawing of interlaced knotwork is taken from the north quadrant of the front.

St Vigeans 1 – Drosten Stone, 9th Century, Angus

This remarkable stone stands 1.84 m high and 0.55 m wide in St Vigeans Museum near Arbroath [7]. On the face shown in the photograph below there are a number of carved animals – a doe with a suckling fawn, a  bear, an eagle feeding on a salmon, a horned animal and an archer with a bow. 

Images below, taken inside the museum show a description of the stone, the stone itself and (inset) a closer view of some of the animals, including ‘a beast with a large curved horn on its head and its tail curved over the back’ [3].

The Boar Stone of Gask, 9th Century, Perthshire

This old red sandstone slab is 1.88 m high and 1.08 m wide and now sited in the grounds of Moncreiffe House. The lower shaft of the cross has this carved interlaced knotwork while carvings of animals such as deer and boar surround it.

Sources | links

[1] Triquetra knot: a figure with three interlacing loops which have no end. Common from about 7th C in insular ornaments such as illuminated manuscripts and stone carvings.

[2] Canmore: Part of Historic Environment Scotland canmore.org.uk. On the site, search for the name of the object, building or place.

[3] Allen JR, Anderson J. 1903. The early Christian monuments of Scotland. Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. Reprinted 1993 by the Pinkfoot Press, Balgavies, Angus.

[4] Aberlemno Pictish stones. Four in total, three on the roadside and the one shown here in the church yard, sculpted between AD 500 and 800. Free to visit. Details on the Historic Environment Scotland web site at Aberlemno Sculptured Stones.

[5] St Andrews Museum, Kinburn Park, Doubledykes Road, KY16 9DP. More on the Visit Scotland web site.

[6] Eassie Old Church: free to visit. Information on the Canmore and VisitAngus web sites.

[7] St Vigeans Museum, near Arbroath, occupies several cottages opposite St Vigeans church. Contains 38 sculptured stones that were found in and around the churchyard. The web site gives opening times St Vigeans Stones and Museum.