Editing Sutherland (section)

==History==
In [[Scottish Gaelic|Gaelic]], the area is referred to according to its traditional areas: ''{{lang|gd|Dùthaich MhicAoidh}}'' (or ''{{lang|gd|Dùthaich 'IcAoidh}}'') (MacAoidh's country) in the north (also known in English as Mackay Country), ''{{lang|gd|Asainte}}'' ([[Assynt]]) in the west, and ''{{lang|gd|Cataibh}}'' in the east. ''{{lang|gd|Cataibh}}'' is also sometimes used to refer to the area as a whole.{{efn|''Cataibh'' can be read as meaning ''among the Cats'' and the ''Cat'' element appears as ''Cait'' in ''Caithness''. The Scottish Gaelic name for Caithness, however, is ''Gallaibh'', meaning ''among the Strangers'' (i.e. the Norse who extensively settled there).}}

Much of the area that would become Sutherland was anciently part of the [[Picts|Pictish]] kingdom of [[Kingdom of Cat|Cat]], which also included Caithness. It was conquered in the 9th century by [[Sigurd Eysteinsson]], Jarl of Orkney. The Jarls owed allegiance to the [[Monarchy of Norway|Norwegian crown]]. It is possible that Sigurd may have taken [[Ross, Scotland|Ross]] to the south as well, but by the time of his death in 892 the southern limit of his territory appears to have been the [[River Oykel]]. The Scottish crown claimed the overlordship of the Caithness and Sutherland area from Norway in 1098. The Earls of Orkney thereafter owed allegiance to the Scottish crown for their territory on the mainland, which they held as the [[Mormaer of Caithness]], but owed allegiance to the Norwegian crown for Orkney.<ref name=Grant>{{cite book |last1=Grant |first1=Alexander |editor1-last=Cowan |editor1-first=Edward J. |editor2-last=McDonald |editor2-first=R. Andrew |title=Alba: Celtic Scotland in the Middle Ages |date=2000 |publisher=Tuckwell Press |location=East Linton |isbn=1 86232 151 5 |pages=98–110 |url=https://archive.org/details/albacelticscotla0000unse/page/98/mode/2up |access-date=28 August 2024 |chapter=The Province of Ross and the Kingdom of Alba}}</ref>

[[File:Dornoch Cathedral - geograph.org.uk - 2302398 (lightened).jpg|thumb|left|[[Dornoch Cathedral]]]]
The [[Diocese of Caithness]] was established in the 12th century. The bishop's seat was initially at [[Halkirk]], but in the early 13th century was moved to [[Dornoch Cathedral]], which was begun in 1224.<ref>{{Historic Environment Scotland|num= LB24632|desc= Dornoch Cathedral |access-date=23 September 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Farmer|first=David Hugh|title=The Oxford Dictionary of Saints|year=1997|publisher=Oxford University Press Press|location=Oxford|isbn=0-19-280058-2|pages=208–209|edition=4}}</ref> Around the same time, a new earldom of Sutherland was created from the southern part of the old joint earldom of Orkney and Caithness.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Fraser |first1=William |title=The Sutherland Book |date=1892 |location=Edinburgh |page=1 |url=https://archive.org/details/sutherlandbook01fras/page/102/mode/2up |access-date=23 September 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Pulsiano |editor1-first=Phillip |title=Medieval Scandinavia: An Encyclopedia |date=1993 |publisher=Garland Publishing |location=New York and London |isbn=0824047877 |pages=63–65 |url=https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Medieval_Scandinavia/d-XiZO8V4qUC?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA63&printsec=frontcover |access-date=23 September 2024}}</ref>

In terms of shires (areas where justice was administered by a [[Sheriff principal|sheriff]]), the north of mainland Scotland was all included in the [[Inverness-shire|shire of Inverness]] from the 12th century.<ref name=Grant/><ref>{{cite book |last1=Taylor |first1=Alice |title=The Shape of the State in Medieval Scotland, 1124–1290 |date=2016 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |isbn=9780198749202 |pages=144, 234–235 |url=https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_Shape_of_the_State_in_Medieval_Scotl/2XvnCwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA144&printsec=frontcover |access-date=30 August 2024}}</ref> An act of parliament in 1504 acknowledged that the shire of Inverness was too big for the effective administration of justice, and so declared Ross and Caithness to be separate shires. The boundary used for the shire of Caithness created in 1504 was the diocese of Caithness, which included Sutherland. The [[Sheriff of Caithness]] was directed to hold courts at either Dornoch or [[Wick, Caithness|Wick]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Brown |first1=Keith |title=Legislation: final legislation published outwith the parliamentary register, Edinburgh, 11 March 1504 |website=The Records of the Parliament of Scotland to 1707 |url=http://www.rps.ac.uk/trans/A1504/3/105 |publisher=University of St Andrews |access-date=30 August 2024}}</ref> That act was set aside for most purposes in 1509, and Caithness (including Sutherland) once more came under the sheriff of Inverness.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Brown |first1=Keith |title=Legislation, 8 May 1509 |website=The Records of the Parliament of Scotland to 1707 |url=http://www.rps.ac.uk/trans/A1509/5/3 |publisher=University of St Andrews |access-date=23 September 2024}}</ref>

In 1633 a new shire called Sutherland was created. It covered the earldom of Sutherland plus the provincial lordships of Strathnaver on the north coast and Assynt on the west coast. Dornoch was declared to be the head burgh of the new shire. The position of [[Sheriff of Sutherland]] was a hereditary one, held by the Earls of Sutherland.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Brown |first1=Keith |title=Act in favour of John Gordon, Earl of Sutherland, 28 June 1633 |website=The Records of the Parliament of Scotland to 1707 |url=http://www.rps.ac.uk/trans/1633/6/74 |publisher=University of St Andrews |access-date=23 September 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Chamberlayne |first1=John |title=Magnae Britanniae Notita: or, the Present State of Great Britain |date=1748 |location=London |page=314 |url=https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Magnae_Britanniae_Notitia/7re2keiml2YC?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA314&printsec=frontcover |access-date=23 September 2024}}</ref>

Over time, Scotland's shires became more significant than the old provinces, with more administrative functions being given to the sheriffs. In 1667 [[Commissioners of Supply]] were established for each shire, which would serve as the main administrative body for the area until the creation of county councils in 1890. Following the [[Acts of Union 1707|Acts of Union]] in 1707, the English term 'county' came to be used interchangeably with the older term 'shire'.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Brown |first1=Keith |title=Act of the convention of estates of the kingdom of Scotland etc. for a new and voluntary offer to his majesty of £72,000 monthly for the space of twelve months, 23 January 1667 |url=http://www.rps.ac.uk/trans/1667/1/10 |website=Records of the Parliament of Scotland |publisher=University of St Andrews |access-date=25 February 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Scottish Counties and Parishes: their history and boundaries on maps |url=https://maps.nls.uk/geo/boundaries/history.html |website=National Library of Scotland |access-date=2 September 2024}}</ref>

[[File:Dornoch, The Carnegie Courthouse information centre and cafe - geograph.org.uk - 5054062 (lightened).jpg|thumb|right|[[Dornoch Sheriff Court]]]]
Following the [[Jacobite rising of 1745]], the government passed the [[Heritable Jurisdictions (Scotland) Act 1746]], returning the appointment of sheriffs to the crown in those cases where they had become hereditary positions, as had been the case in Sutherland.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Whetstone |first1=Ann E. |year= 1977|title=The Reform of the Scottish Sheriffdoms in the Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries |journal=Albion: A Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies |volume=9 |issue=1 |pages=61–71 |doi=10.2307/4048219 |jstor=4048219}}</ref> From 1748 the government merged the positions of Sheriff of Sutherland and Sheriff of Caithness into a single post. Although they shared a sheriff after 1748, Caithness and Sutherland remained legally separate counties, having their own commissioners of supply and, from 1794, their own [[Lord-lieutenant|lord lieutenants]].<ref>[[Sheriffs (Scotland) Act 1747]]</ref>

The sheriff courts for Sutherland were held at [[Dornoch Castle]] until 1850, when they moved to the purpose-built [[Dornoch Sheriff Court]], also known as 'County Buildings', which also served as the meeting place for the Sutherland Commissioners of Supply.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.theoldhometown.com/historylinksarchive.org.uk/pictures/document/5360.pdf |title=Dornoch Castle A Brief History |access-date=19 July 2011 |archive-date=4 October 2011 |page=8|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111004043010/http://www.theoldhometown.com/historylinksarchive.org.uk/pictures/document/5360.pdf |url-status=usurped }}</ref><ref>{{Historic Environment Scotland|num=LB24637|desc= Former Dornoch County Buildings and Court House, Castle Street, Dornoch |cat=B|access-date=17 September 2024}}</ref>

===Highland Clearances===
{{main|Highland Clearances}}
[[File:Abandoned House in Glen Loth, Sutherland - geograph.org.uk - 6350227.jpg|thumb|Abandoned house in Glen [[Lothbeg|Loth]]]]
Sutherland, like other parts of the Highlands, was affected by the [[Highland Clearances]], the eviction of tenants from their homes and/or associated farmland in the 18th and 19th centuries century by the landowners. Typically, this was to make way for large sheep farms.  The Sutherland Estate (consisting of about two thirds of the county) had the largest scale clearances that occurred in the Highlands, much of this being carried out in 1812, 1814 and 1819–20. In this last period (the largest of the three listed), 1,068 families were evicted: representing an estimated 5,400 people. This population was provided with resettlement in coastal areas, with employment available in fishing or other industries. However, many instead moved to farms in Caithness or left Scotland to emigrate to Canada, the US or Australia.<ref name="Richards 2013">{{cite book|last1=Richards|first1=Eric|title=The Highland Clearances People, Landlords and Rural Turmoil|date=2000|publisher=Birlinn Limited|location=Edinburgh|isbn=978-1-78027-165-1|edition=2013}}</ref> The population has continued to decline since the mid-19th century.<ref name=VoB/>

One effect of the clearances was that it concentrated Gaelic speakers in the newly created fishing villages, so extending the survival of the language in these communities. The area on Sutherland's east coast around Golspie, Brora and [[Embo, Sutherland|Embo]] had its own dialect, [[East Sutherland Gaelic]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Dorian |first1=Nancy C. |title=Investigating Variation: The effects of social organization and social setting |date=2010 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |pages=40–42 |url=https://archive.org/details/investigatingvar0000dori/page/40/mode/2up?q=clearance |access-date=25 September 2024}}</ref> This was the last area on the east coast of Scotland where a Gaelic dialect was commonly spoken. Work by the linguist [[Nancy Dorian]] from the 1960s onwards studied the gradual decline of East Sutherland Gaelic.<ref>[http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7647046783946085652] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110418021411/http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7647046783946085652|date=18 April 2011}}</ref> The last known native speaker of the dialect died in 2020.<ref name="Wilma Ros">{{cite news |title=Wilma Ros, Eurabol, air bàsachadh |url=https://www.bbc.com/naidheachdan/42150024 |access-date=4 September 2018 |work=BBC Naidheachdan |date=28 November 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=ROSS |url=https://www.northern-times.co.uk/family-notices/death-notices/ross-aa110327-v1-27/ |website=Northern Times |access-date=10 November 2023 |language=en |date=2020}}</ref>

===County council===
{{See also|Politics of the Highland council area}}
[[File:Sutherland coat of arms.png|thumb|right|150px|Coat of arms of the former Sutherland County Council, granted 1957<ref>{{cite book |last1=Urquhart |first1=Robert Mackenzie |title=Scottish Burgh and County History |date=1973 |page=59 |url=https://www.historylinksarchive.org.uk/pictures/document/12115.pdf?r=1245501 |access-date=24 September 2024}}</ref>]]
Elected county councils were established in 1890 under the [[Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889]], taking most of the functions of the commissioners of supply (which were eventually abolished in 1930). The first provisional meeting of the council was held on 13 February 1890 at the County Buildings in Dornoch, but it was decided that a more accessible location was needed for the council's meetings. Although Dornoch was the county's only [[burgh]], it was in the extreme south-eastern corner of the county and lay some seven miles from its then nearest railway station at [[The Mound railway station|The Mound]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Sutherland County Council |url=https://www.findmypast.co.uk/search-newspapers |access-date=17 September 2024 |work=Highland News |date=15 February 1890 |location=Inverness |page=3}}</ref> The council's first official meeting was held on 22 May 1890 at [[Bonar Bridge]], and subsequent meetings were generally held in [[Lairg]], with occasional meetings in other places, including Dornoch, Golspie, [[Brora]] and [[Lochinver]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Sutherland County Council |url=https://www.findmypast.co.uk/search-newspapers |access-date=17 September 2024 |work=Inverness Courier |date=23 May 1890 |page=5}}</ref>

[[File:County Offices, Golspie.jpg|thumb|left|[[County Offices, Golspie]]: Main offices of Sutherland County Council, built 1892]]
Although the county council generally met in Lairg, from its creation in 1890 the county council's clerk was based in Golspie, and in 1892 the council moved its main administrative offices to a new building on Main Street in Golspie called [[County Offices, Golspie|County Offices]], initially sharing the building with the village post office.<ref>{{cite news |title=Notes from Golspie |url=https://www.findmypast.co.uk/search-newspapers |access-date=17 September 2024 |work=Northern Ensign |date=13 December 1892 |location=Wick |page=3}}</ref><ref>{{London Gazette|issue=18541|page=179|date=3 March 1967|city=e}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://cosuthgolspie.blogspot.com/2016/02/main-street-101-to-end.html|title=Main Street|access-date=16 September 2024}}</ref>

The 1889 Act also led to a review of boundaries, with parish and county boundaries being adjusted to eliminate cases where parishes straddled county boundaries. The parish of [[Reay]] had straddled Sutherland and Caithness prior to the act; the county boundary was retained, but the part of Reay parish in Sutherland was transferred to the parish of [[Farr, Sutherland|Farr]] in 1891.<ref name=Hay>{{cite book |last1=Shennan |first1=Hay |title=Boundaries of counties and parishes in Scotland as settled by the Boundary Commissioners under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889 |date=1892 |publisher=W. Green |location=Edinburgh |page=130 |url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_meygAAAAMAAJ/page/n167/mode/2up |access-date=10 September 2024}}</ref>

===Since 1975===
[[File:The harbour at Helmsdale - geograph.org.uk - 115307.jpg|right|thumb|The harbour at [[Helmsdale]]]]
Local government was reformed in 1975 under the [[Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973]], which replaced Scotland's counties, burghs and [[landward district]]s with a two-tier structure of upper-tier regions and lower-tier districts. Sutherland became part of the [[Highland Region]]. At the district level, most of Sutherland was included in the '''Sutherland District'''. The differences between the post-1975 district and the pre-1975 county were that the district excluded the parishes of [[Farr, Sutherland|Farr]] and [[Tongue, Sutherland|Tongue]] (which both went to the Caithness district), but included the parish of [[Kincardine (Ardgay and District)|Kincardine]] from Ross and Cromarty.<ref name=1973act>{{cite legislation UK|type=act|act=Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973|year=1973|chapter=65|accessdate=17 April 2023}}</ref><ref name=OSsheet3>{{cite web |title=Quarter-inch Administrative Areas Maps: Scotland, Sheet 3, 1968 |url=https://maps.nls.uk/view/222075455 |website=National Library of Scotland |publisher=Ordnance Survey |access-date=24 September 2024}}</ref><ref>{{London Gazette|issue=14590|page=1188|date=11 October 1929|city=e}}</ref> The transfer of Farr and Tongue to Caithness district was not popular; less than two years later, in 1977, they were transferred to the Sutherland district, after which the border between the Sutherland and Caithness districts followed the pre-1975 county boundary.<ref>{{cite legislation UK|type=si|si=The Caithness and Sutherland Districts (Tongue and Farr) Boundaries Order 1977|year=1977|number=14|access-date=1 August 2024}}</ref>

As part of the 1975 reforms, the area served by the [[Lord Lieutenant of Sutherland]] was redefined to be the new district, having previously been the county.<ref name=1975order>{{cite legislation UK|type=si|si=The Lord-Lieutenants Order 1975|year=1975|number=428|access-date=1 September 2024}}</ref>

Sutherland District Council was based at the former county council's headquarters at the County Offices in Golspie.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=23939|page=397|date=20 February 1996|city=e}}</ref> Throughout the district's existence from 1975 to 1996, a majority of the seats were held by [[Independent politician|independent]] councillors.<ref>{{cite web |title=Compositions calculator |url=https://www.electionscentre.co.uk/?page_id=3825 |website=The Elections Centre |access-date=14 September 2024}}</ref>

[[File:County boundary marker - geograph.org.uk - 482808.jpg|thumb|County boundary sign on the [[A9 road (Scotland)|A9]] north-east of Helmsdale]]
Further local government reforms in 1996 under the [[Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994]] saw the regions and districts created in 1975 abolished and replaced with single-tier [[council area]]s. The former Highland region became one of the new council areas.<ref>{{cite legislation UK|type=act|act=Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994|year=1994|chapter=39|accessdate=17 April 2023}}</ref> The Sutherland [[Lieutenancy areas of Scotland|lieutenancy area]] continues to be defined as the area of the pre-1996 district, despite the abolition of the district itself.<ref>{{cite legislation UK|type=si|si=The Lord-Lieutenants (Scotland) Order 1996|year=1996|number=731|access-date=1 September 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Lord-Lieutenant of Sutherland |url=https://www.lordlieutenantsutherland.co.uk/ |access-date=24 September 2024}}</ref> The boundaries of the historic county (as it was following the 1891 boundary changes) are still used for some limited official purposes connected with land registration, being a [[registration county]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.ros.gov.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0017/14921/LandMassCoverageReport2015-proofed.pdf |title=Land Mass Coverage Report |publisher=Registers of Scotland |access-date=2015-05-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303232505/https://www.ros.gov.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0017/14921/LandMassCoverageReport2015-proofed.pdf |archive-date=3 March 2016 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The [[Highland Council]] has an [[area committee]] called the Sutherland County Committee, comprising the councillors representing the wards which approximately cover the Sutherland area. The council also marks some of the historic county boundaries with road signs.<ref>{{cite web |title=Sutherland County Committee |url=https://www.highland.gov.uk/info/20003/committee_information/670/sutherland_county_committee |website=The Highland Council |access-date=24 September 2024}}</ref>