Thurso, Caithness : Historical writing

Descriptive gazetteer entries

These other entries in our collection of descriptive gazetteers are also about Thurso. You may be able to find further references to Thurso in the descriptive gazetteers by doing a full-text search here.

Place Type of entry Source
Thurso river Bartholomew
Thurso seaport Bartholomew
Thurso a parish, containing a town of the same name, and also a river Groome

This additional information from our descriptive gazetteers is for locations within the parish or parishes associated with Thurso.

Place Type of entry Source
Brimsness a small headland Groome
Brims Ness headland Bartholomew
Clett rocky islet Bartholomew
Clett a rocky islet Groome
Forss seat Bartholomew
Harold's Tower a monumental structure Groome
Holburn Head a magnificent headland Groome
Janetstown village Bartholomew
Scrabster seaport village Bartholomew
Spear Head headland Bartholomew
Weydale hamlet Bartholomew
Weydale a place, with a post office and a public school Groome

Travel writing

This website includes the complete texts of books describing journeys around Britain, written between the twelfth and nineteenth centuries. Selecting one of the links below will take you to the first reference to Thurso within the selected text. This will not always be a description of a visit: travellers often mention places other than where they are, for example as a basis for comparison.

Traveller Section No. of Refs.
Thomas Pennant Appendix V: Of Caithness, Strathnavern, and Sutherland 15
Thomas Pennant August 18-29: Sutherland and Caithness 2

This website includes two large libraries, of historical travel writing and of entries from nineteenth century gazetteers describing places. We have text from these sources available for these places near your location:

Place Mentioned in Travel Writing Mentioned in Historical Gazetteer
Thurso East 4 0
Scrabster 3 1
Murkle 4 2
Skinnet 1 1
Olrig 1 2
Westfield 1 1
Castletown 0 2
Brims 2 2
Braal 2 2
Calder 0 2
Halkirk 5 2
Dunnet 3 2
Shebster 1 1
Harpsdale 1 1
Dounreay 1 1
Bower 1 2
Rattar 1 2
Shurrery 1 1
Dunn 1 2
Spittal 1 1

Names from historical writing

The following appear as names for Thurso. Follow the links for what the author actually said:

Name Author Source
INVER AORSA Thomas Pennant A Tour in Scotland 1769 (London: Benjamin White, 1776).
INVER HORSA Thomas Pennant A Tour in Scotland 1769 (London: Benjamin White, 1776).
THERSO Thomas Pennant A Tour in Scotland 1769 (London: Benjamin White, 1776).
THORS A F.H. Groome Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland (Edinburgh: T.C. Jack, 1882-4).
THORSA F.H. Groome Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland (Edinburgh: T.C. Jack, 1882-4).
THURSO John Bartholomew Gazetteer of the British Isles (Edinburgh: Bartholomew, 1887).
John Bartholomew Gazetteer of the British Isles (Edinburgh: Bartholomew, 1887).
F.H. Groome Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland (Edinburgh: T.C. Jack, 1882-4).

NB: These variant names come from our collections of historical travel writing and descriptive gazetteers:

  • The above links take you to the first reference to this particular version of the name within a book of travel writing, or to the relevant gazetteer entry.
  • Some names may derive from research by antiquarian writers such as William Camden and Thomas Pennant into the Roman, Saxon and medieval names of places. Their claims are not always supported by modern place-name researchers.
  • References by travel writers to the place using its "normal" name are not included. Descriptive gazetteer entries are included only if the name does not appear anywhere else.