AMONG past generations there are many stories referring to the world of the fairies. Many people have claimed to have seen them, others to have spoken to them, and still more to have been spirited away.

DURING the turmoil of the 17th century one of the most stirring events was the introduction of the new Book of Common Prayer which led to riots that began in Edinburgh's St Giles Cathedral on July 23, 1637.

AT this time of year a thousand or so officially constituted Burns clubs and many informal groups, from Australia to Alaska, get together to celebrate Burns, Scotland's National Bard – the poet for all mankind.

I HAVE mentioned before in these columns that one of my favourite people was the late Ernest Marwick, who was born in Evie, Orkney, in 1915. He left school as a mere 10-year-old and held a number of jobs, including working in a bookshop in Kirkwall.

THE ridge of Ben-a-chielt is the dominant physical feature of the Lybster area, with the Latheron basin to the west and that of the Reisgill Burn to the east.

UP until the early 19th century, travellers in east Sutherland had to use the Meikle Ferry. However, the disaster of 1809, in which a ferry boat sank drowning 99 passengers, led to the call for a bridge.

INLAND from Dornoch and Tain the rocks are generally swathed by the sand and gravel deposits of ice-sheet decay forming knolls (kames) at Rearquhar and ridges (eskers) to the west of Dornoch as well as depressions known as kettle holes.

GEOLOGICALLY, the Helmsdale area is dominated by a large outcrop of granite stretching up Strath Ullie to just beyond Torrish.

THE north and north-east of Caithness is an area of strong physical contrasts, as is shown by three localities: Dunnet Head, Dunnet Links and the small drainage basins to the north and south of the Hill of Stroupster, where there are fine examples of close-knit small streams feeding into the Gill and Kirk burns.

NOW a city, and long-time gateway to the Highlands, Inverness has a spectacular setting and has been a focal point for habitation since prehistoric times.

UP until last week we imagined that the "season of mists and mellow fruitfulness" was here to stay. We should have known better!

THE story of St Magnus is related in the Orkneyinga Saga. He was the son of Earl Erlend of Orkney. At that time the earldom included Shetland and Caithness and formed part of the dominion of the kings of Norway. The islands were divided between Erlend and his brother, Earl Paul.

THE eminent 18th-century naturalist Thomas Pennant began his first Tour in Scotland in 1769, and the resultant publication offered an insight into the people and places of "North Britain" at that time from the perspective of a gentleman traveller.

PROBABLY the earliest couplet I learned was the following literary gem, normally ascribed to William McGonagall, poet and tragedian – although there is no evidence that the good man penned these words:

THE trows (trolls), who lived in underground prehistoric dwellings, were believed to be human-like in a number of their ways.

FAIRIES play a considerable part in our folklore. The fairies are typically small, endowed with greater power than humans, and have mystical prowess.

COAL in Sutherland was exploited as early as 1529, and the mine at Brora is believed to be one of the oldest in the world. In its heyday the existence of the mine led to the development of a considerable amount of industry in the Brora area, including saltpans, spinning and weaving, fishing and distilling, while coal was exported by sea. A brick and tile works was opened to supply building materials for local use. By 1825 competition from the industrialised south, with its higher quality of coal, forced the mine to close and thereafter all the local industries declined.

CONSIDERABLE areas of Caithness and almost the entire Orkney Islands are composed of gently inclined sedimentary strata: sandstones and flagstones of lower and middle Old Red Sandstone age.

THE Statistical Account of Scotland has been used by generations of historians enquiring into the local or national affairs of Scotland in the latter part of the 18th century. The original Account, printed in 21 volumes, is often exasperating to use because Sir John Sinclair published the parish returns as they came in to him so that the reports for a county might be scattered throughout a dozen volumes.

JAMES Hogg, better known as the Ettrick Shepherd, was born towards the end of 1770. For many years his ancestors held property in Ettrick Forest as retainers of the Scotts of Harden, the lineage from which Sir Walter Scott sprang.

JAMES Traill Calder was born in the parish of Dunnet in 1794. He became a schoolmaster at Canisbay, where he was an enthusiastic teacher and poet. He is best known for his monumental Sketch of the Civil and Traditional History of Caithness, which he concluded with these words: “To the County I naturally feel a strong attachment. It is the place of my Nativity; it is the residence of all my best and dearest friends, and it contains within its bosom the ashes of my kindred.”

WHILE watching the well-scrubbed five-year-olds wending their way to school, I was reminded of the poem “The Deserted Village” by Oliver Goldsmith:

THIS week’s article is distilled from a letter sent to the editor of the Northern Ensign in July 1890 by an unnamed native of Badbea who was residing in Glasgow.

SOME 35 years ago I was strolling along the Banffshire coast with a group of 30 people when I heard this piercing shrill cry. It came from a lady who was rapidly gaining ground on our party. Standing akimbo she cried, “Who is in charge of this motley crew?”

THE men who built the earliest canals in Britain were called the navigators, a term which was contracted to navy until The Times introduced the more recent spelling of navvy. Early workers came from the Low Countries to East Anglia before offering their physical prowess throughout Britain and Ireland. They fed their strength by consuming substantial quantities of beef, as much as 18 pounds being quite common in their six-day week.

THE traveller Thomas Pennant’s first tour of Scotland began at Chester in 1769. On his faithful horse he progressed at a leisurely pace, carefully noting the varied landscapes through which he passed.

IN the year 1612 a conversation took place between Colonel Sinclair of Caithness and his young wife, still in her early twenties. The colonel had incurred the displeasure of his clan and country folk in the North by arresting and handing over to justice a fugitive from the Scottish Borders, namely Lord Maxwell of Nithsdale.

'BOUSTIE” was the third and perhaps the most original of all the Thurso “characters” recalled by John Sinclair in his 1890 collection of Scenes and Stories of the North of Scotland.

'MOOZIE” was another of the notable 19th-century characters of Thurso recalled by John Sinclair in his Scenes and Stories of the North of Scotland (1890).

JOHN Sinclair, in his Scenes and Stories of the North of Scotland (published in 1890), recalled three characters who were well known to the people of Thurso in the early part of the 19th century.

TO the north-west of Beinn nam Bad Mor the Sandside Burn is restricted to the narrow confines of Glen Chorcaill, a steep-walled cleft cut by glacial meltwater heavy charged with debris of all sizes.

ORKNEY, having a landmass of 389 square miles, contrasts markedly with its neighbour, Shetland, which geologically has a greater affnity with Caithness. In the Pentland Firth lies the green island of Stroma; the 'island in the stream' would have been a convenient stepping stone for seafarers making their way to the land of the Catti.

CAITHNESS folk should feel it incumbent upon them during this flaming June to visit Lybster harbour and have the soul refreshed. The haven is one of the most picturesque in the Highlands and Islands.

NEAR the farm of Tongside, Calder, there is a large boulder marking the spot where Captain Innes of Sandside and Sinclair of Olrig settled their quarrel.

THE following are extracts from an article in the Canadian Boy, a Toronto youth magazine, written by Donald Dundas of Ontario, a native of Stroma. In pre-war years Mr Dundas was a frequent contributor of Canadian Notes to the John O'Groat Journal under the pen-name Oriole: