Halkirk, Caithness : Historical writing

Descriptive gazetteer entries

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

Place Type of entry Source
Halkirk parish and village with railway station Bartholomew
Halkirk a village and a parish Groome

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

Place Type of entry Source
Acharainey hamlet Bartholomew
Achardale a hamlet Groome
Achavarn a mansion Groome
Achnavarn a ruined ancient castle Groome
Ben Alisky mountain Bartholomew
Ben Alisky a mountain Groome
Braal or Brawl an ancient castle Groome
Braal, or Brawl ancient castle, now a residence for sportsmen Bartholomew
Calder loch, hill, and hamlet Bartholomew
Dirlot Castle an ancient fortalice Groome
Georgemas junction a station Groome
Georgemas Junction railway station Bartholomew
Glutt Lodge Bartholomew
Harpsdale school Bartholomew
Leurery place with school Bartholomew
Scotscalder railway station Bartholomew
Spittal hamlet Bartholomew
Strathmore valley Bartholomew
Westerdale a place with a post office, Free church, and public school Groome
Westerdale hamlet Bartholomew

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 Halkirk 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 5

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
Braal 2 2
Skinnet 1 1
Harpsdale 1 1
Calder 0 2
Spittal 1 1
Westerdale 0 2
Dunn 1 2
Westfield 1 1
Thurso 17 3
Thurso East 4 0
Shurrery 1 1
Olrig 1 2
Murkle 4 2
Dirlot 2 2
Castletown 0 2
Scrabster 3 1
Bower 1 2
Halsary 1 1
Shebster 1 1
Watten 5 2

Names from historical writing

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

Name Author Source
HALKIRK 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.