Sutherland Totally Explained

Everything about Sutherland totally explained

Sutherland (In Gaelic the area is referred to according to its traditional areas: Dùthaich 'Ic Aoidh (NW), Asainte (Assynt), and Cataibh (East). However, Cataibh will often be heard used as referring to the area as a whole) is a registration county, lieutenancy area and historic administrative county of Scotland. It is now within the Highland local government area.
   The county town, and only burgh of the county, is Dornoch. Other settlements include Lairg, Brora, Durness, Embo, Tongue, Golspie, Helmsdale, Lochinver and Kinlochbervie. The population of the county as at the 2001 Census was 13,466.
The administrative county became a local government area in 1890, and was abolished in 1975, when the Sutherland district was created as one of eight districts of the Highland local government region. The region was created at the same time as the district. The district was abolished in 1996, when the region became a unitary council area.
   The Sutherland name dates from the era of norse rule over much of the Highlands and Islands, especially in the north and west, which was perhaps at its zenith in the early 11th century, when Sigurd the Stout was jarl of Orkney. Suðrland was then land to the south of, or in the south of, Norse Caithness. As a Scottish county, however, Sutherland also includes land which is to the west of the county of Caithness.
   Sutherland,especially the great North-West corner of the County, traditionally known as Strathnaver, was the home,of the powerful and warlike Clan Mackay, and as such was named in Gaelic, Dùthaich 'Ic Aoidh, the Homeland of Mackay. Even today this part of the county is known as Mackay Country, and, unlike other areas of Scotland where the names traditionally associated with the area have become diluted, there's still a preponderance of Mackays in the Dùthaich.
   As well as Caithness to the north and east, Sutherland has North Sea (Moray Firth) coastline in the east, the historic county of Ross and Cromarty (formerly Ross and Cromarty) to the south, and Atlantic coastline in the west and north.
   The inland landscape is rugged and very little populated, being Scotland's 5th largest historic county, but with less population than a medium-size lowland Scottish town. It stretches from the Atlantic in the west, up to the Pentland Firth and across to the North Sea. The sea-coasts boast very high cliffs and deep ords in the east and north, ragged inlets on the west and sandy beaches in the north. As would be expected, much of the population is based in seaward towns, such as Helmsdale and Lochinver, which until very recently made much of their living from the rich fishing of the waters around the British Isles. The remote far north west point of the county, Cape Wrath (pronounced 'rath', rather than 'roth'] is the most north westerly point in Great Britain.
   Transport links are poor: the A9 road main east coast road is challenging north of Helmsdale, particularly at the notorious Berriedale Braes, there are few inland roads, the east coast Far North Line north-south single-track railway line and no airports. Much of the former county is poor relative to the rest of the United Kingdom with few job opportunities beyond government funded employment. There are no colleges or university presence in the former county either.
   Sutherland is perhaps best known for its saddest memory: The Highland Clearances: a long folk-memory of people driven out of their homes in the 18th century by poverty, starvation, desperate clan chiefs, ambitious sheep farmers and rich landowners. Sutherland suffered more than most parts of the Highlands, scattering people with the surname Mackay far and wide across the globe.

Local government

County, burgh and parishes, 1890 to 1975

Sutherland became a local government county, with its own elected county council, in 1890, under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889. At that time, one town within the county, Dornoch, was already well established as an autonomous burgh with its own burgh council. Parish councils, covering rural areas of the county were established in 1894.
Dornoch, a royal burgh, served as the county's administrative centre.
The parish councils were abolished in 1931 under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1929. The county council and the burgh council were abolished in 1975 under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973. The 1973 act also created a new two tier system, with Sutherland as a district within the Highland region.

District, 1975 to 1996

In 1975, under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973, the county was divided between Caithness and Sutherland local government districts within the Highland region, with Tongue and Farr areas of the county of Sutherland becoming part of the Caithness district (which also included the area of the county of Caithness). Also, the Kincardine area of the county of Ross and Cromarty was merged into the new Sutherland district. Shortly after its creation, however the boundary between the districts of Sutherland and Caithness were redrawn to follow that between the counties.
The region was also created in 1975, as one of nine two-tier local government regions of Scotland. Each region consisted of a number of districts and both regions and districts had their own elected councils. The creation of the Highland region and of Sutherland as a district involved the abolition of the one burgh council in Sutherland, Dornoch, as well as abolition of the Sutherland county council.
In 1996 local government in Scotland was again reformed, to create 32 unitary council areas. The Highland region became the Highland unitary council area, and the functions of the district councils were absorbed by the Highland Council.

Management area and area committees, 1996 to 2007

In 1996, Sutherland and the other seven districts of the Highland region were merged in to the unitary Highland council area, under the Local Government etc (Scotland) Act 1994. The new Highland Council then adopted the former districts as management areas and created a system of area committees to represent them.
   Until 1999 the Sutherland management and committee areas consisted of seven out of the 72 Highland Council wards. Each ward elected one councillor by the first past the post system of election.
   In 1999, however, ward boundaries were redrawn but management area boundaries were not. As a result area committees were named for and made decisions for areas which they didn't exactly represent. The new Sutherland committee area consisted of six out of the 80 new Highland Council wards.
   New wards were created for elections this year, 2007, polling on 3 May and, as the wards became effective for representational purposes, the Highland Council's management and committee structures were reorganised. The Sutherland management area and the Sutherland area committees were therefore abolished. The management area is now divided between two of the five new ward management areas of the council's new Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross corporate management area.

Community councils, 1975 to present (2007)

Although created under local government legislation (the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973) community councils have no statutory powers or responsibilities and are not a tier of local government. They are however the most local tier of statutory representation.
Under the 1973 act, they were created in terms of community council schemes created by the district councils which were created under the same act. The Sutherland district scheme was adopted in 1975.
Statutory status for community councils was continued under the Local Government etc (Scotland) Act 1994, and the Sutherland scheme is now the responsibility of the Highland Council.

Constituency

The Sutherland constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom represented the county from 1708 to 1918. At the same time however the county town of Dornoch was represented as a component of the Northern Burghs constituency.
In 1918 the Sutherland constituency and Dornoch were merged into the then new constituency of Caithness and Sutherland. In 1997 Caithness and Sutherland was merged into Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross.
The Scottish Parliament constituency of Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross was created in 1999 and now has boundaries slightly different from those of the House of Commons constituency. In the Scottish Parliament Sutherland is represented also as part of the Highlands and Islands electoral region.

Footnotes

Sutherland derives from a Norse perception of the land as 'southern' (Suðrland meaning "Southland"). The Norse referred similarly to the Western Isles as Suðreyjar (the "Southern Isles"), southern in relation to the "Northern Isles" of Orkneys, Shetlands and Faroes).

Sutherland has two main names in the county's indigenous Scottish Gaelic: Cataibh may be used for the whole county, but tended historically to apply to the south east, and Dùthaich MhicAoidh (Mackay Country) which was used for the north west, sometimes referred to as Reay Country in English. Cataibh can be read as meaning land of the Cat people and the Cat element appears as Cait in Caithness. The Scottish Gaelic name for Caithness, however, is Gallaibh, meaning land of the foreigner or of the Norse.Further Information

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