In the first of a new regular feature in which readers of the John O'Groat Journal are being asked to share the history of their homes, former North of Scotland Newspapers reporter and freelance riding instructor Jean Gunn (48) reveals more about her home at Sibster Mains, just outside of Wick, which she owns along with her husband, Steven Adamson (46), who works in the oil industry as an offshore construction engineer.
When was your house built? What do you know about its history?
Sibster Mains has been in the family for three generations. When my grandfather, the late Peter Oag Gunn (PO), moved into the farm in 1931 he was under the impression it had been built around 100 years earlier. However, Isla Macleod, of Thrumster House, has since told me Captain David Brodie built the house around 1790 and called it Hopeville. On the Ordnance Survey maps from 1882 it can still be seen under the name of Hopeville.
Captain Brodie was the founder of the village at Sarclet and also had the foresight to go ahead with the building of Whaligoe Steps. He married Helen Sinclair, daughter of James Sinclair, of Harpsdale - son of John Sinclair, of Ulbster. The register of deaths shows Helen died on May 16, 1820, with the couple's second daughter (Jean) dying just six days later.
Someone is believed to have been buried under the grass heart at the front of the house, but I'm not sure if it is Captain Brodie's wife, daughter or both of them. We won't be digging it up to check!
The story goes Captain Brodie later sold Sibster and used the money to build a ship and sailed to Tasmania with his sons.
Another well-known Caithness family, the Rhinds, may have been next to live in the house. Wick banker Josiah Rhind stayed at Sibster and his only surviving son was Alexander Henry Rhind (1833-1863), a lawyer and Egyptologist. He died while working abroad and left the residue of his estate of Sibster to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland; lectures were set up in his name as well as a bursary. Life rent right of Sibster went to a Mr Bremner.
During my time at the Groat doing the old files I would often come across articles relating to Sibster and I know there was another family of Gunns that lived on the property at some point. Alexander Dunnet was the factor here for a number of years prior to my grandfather leasing the farm from Louise Duff-Dunbar, the owner of the Ackergill and Hempriggs estate.
At the time, his brother, Alex Gunn, of Reiss Lodge, spurred him on, saying: "A farm like Sibster does not go on the market every day."
Sure enough PO had strong competition and he always considered his success quite a coup.
Grandpa chuckled when he told me: "She [Mrs Duff-Dunbar] took a notion to me. She was a very nice person. I mind the day I got the lease, it was a Thursday, market day. Mr Rugg, Haster, was my valuator. He saw me in Georgesons and said 'Well, am I going to congratulate you?'"
PO decided not to go to the mart that day and went straight home to North Killimster instead to tell his wife Barbara (Morris) the good news. Mrs Duff-Dunbar was also keen to be first to tell my grandmother and hired a taxi to take her out to the farm near Reiss. She had wanted the lease to be a present on the birth of my grandparents' first child, Frances, who was only a few days old when the papers were signed. A few years later, after the death of Mrs Duff-Dunbar, PO bought Sibster Mains.
My grandparents went on to have twin sons, John and Harry, and their second daughter, Elspeth, who now lives in New Zealand. When PO retired, the farm was taken over by his slightly older son, the late John Gunn, who went on to bring up his family in the house here.
My own brother, John, also spent a number of years working the farm at Sibster and lived in the house with his wife, Karen, and son, Tom. It was when they decided to move my husband, Steven, and I made the decision to buy the house so it could be kept in the family. It was quite a big step for us as we were moving from a two-bedroom cottage at Noss to a very old, large six-bedroom house that needed everything done to it. That was in 1994 and we still haven't finished doing it up, not sure if we ever will.
Sibster means a great deal to lots of people as it has played a very special role in the lives of my relatives, both home and abroad, as well as those who came to live and work here during the Second World War.
I believe it was the summer following Dunkirk the property was requisitioned by the British Army. The soldiers slept out in the byres, two to a cattle stall, while the officers were based in the house. My father said the children ate in the kitchen set up in the cart shed for the soldiers as they had better food than they got at the time. My grandmother shared her kitchen with the officers' cook, and the lobby was set up as a radio room.
Staff from the radio station at Harland were also billeted at Sibster at one point, and two land girls came to live on the farm before the prisoners of war from Watten were sent over to work.
When the war was over some of the prisoners were reluctant to leave, and over the years one German, Gunther, has made return visits - he wanted to check the daffodils he planted in the garden; he had laid them out in the shape of a swastika. No-one ever noticed and it is not apparent now.
What are the most interesting features?
Although the house is not listed, some of the neighbouring farm buildings are, such as the 19th-century kiln (known as the bottle), which was used for drying grain. The walled garden is excellent at keeping the wind at bay so you can work in the garden on days you wouldn't expect to get out and about on.
We love the whole architecture of the house, the stonework around the windows; the large traditional open fireplace in the sitting room; the Caithness flagstone floor in the kitchen and hallways, and of course the Aga, which has been updated over the years. You can see from the thickness of the walls that parts of the house were built at different times, and with each new tenant something was changed.
Can you recall special times you've had there? What were they?
We have had lots of special family occasions, particularly birthdays, and Christmas is always a time we look forward to with lots of friends and relatives coming around. It's a great location for folk popping in which means there are often people stopping by for a coffee.
What's your favourite room and why?
During the dark winter nights I love getting the chance to spend an evening relaxing in the sitting room. It is the room which has been most recently decorated and I am still fascinated by the warm colours and how cosy it all looks. I love to get the chance of a free night when I can light the fire and stretch out on the oversized couch and watch TV or read. However, usually I can be found in the kitchen, it's warmer by the Aga once you've pushed the dog out of the way!
Would you ever consider moving?
I'm a bit of a hoarder and not only have I got all my own stuff, but also lots of things left behind by the many folk who have lived with us over the years. It would be a major job to pack everything up - particularly the horses - so it's easiest for me just to stay put, although it will be an awfully big house for just the two of us once our family leave home for good.
