John O’Groats Book Festival talk will give insight into 300 years of Dunbar family
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A family that had a major role in the history of Caithness will be the focus of a talk next month as part of the fourth John O’Groats Book Festival.
Author James Miller will be in Groats to discuss his new book, The Dunbars of Ackergill and Hempriggs, on Saturday, June 18, at 2.30pm.
Having been given access to the Dunbar family papers, James has been able to provide a detailed account of the social and economic life of the county over a period spanning 300 years.
The Dunbars emerged in the late 1600s as one of the largest landowning families in Caithness. James searched through a wide variety of documents, including personal letters and legal missives, in order to tell their story.
He will talk about the selling of Caithness grain to the Lowlands, coping with the effects of the last Jacobite rising, handling disputes with neighbours, arranging elections and dealing with debt – and those events were in the 18th century alone.
During the Napoleonic Wars the Dunbars recruited a fencible regiment called the Caithness Legion that saw action in Ireland. Around the same time, the British Fisheries Society acquired land from the family and began to develop Pulteneytown as a major herring port.
An agricultural revolution swept over the estates, leading to the enclosing of fields, disputes over common land, evictions and the refurbishment of farms.
In the mid-19th century, when the family home at Ackergill Tower was refashioned by architect David Bryce, the Dunbars adopted the lifestyle of the Victorian country gentry as well as finding careers in the empire.
James said: “It was a great privilege to be able to work on the Dunbar family papers as it was clear that many of them had not been looked at for many years and had never been used by historical researchers before.
“The documents, which are now safely in the Nucleus archive centre in Wick, are a valuable record of the past in Caithness and give many insights into events that have now been forgotten.
“I hope that readers will find my account of the Dunbar family over the last 300 years of interest.
“I look forward to taking part again in the John O'Groats Book Festival.”
Originally from Keiss, James studied zoology in Aberdeen and marine biology in Montreal. After working for the British Council, he became a full-time freelance writer.
He has written a number of acclaimed books, including Scapa, The Dam Builders, The North Atlantic Front, The Foresters, A Wild and Open Sea, The Gathering Stream, Swords for Hire and The Finest Road in the World.
James’s talk will take place in the Together Travel corporate lounge at John O'Groats. Tickets can be ordered through the Lyth Arts Centre website, priced £7.50.
Festival organisers say they are grateful to Together Travel and Foundation Scotland.
The Dunbars of Ackergill and Hempriggs, by James Miller, is published by Whittles Publishing, priced £18.99 (256 pages).
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