Tidy-up plan for historic area linked to Wick executions
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Efforts could be made to tidy up a historic corner of Wick – including the spot where executions are reputed to have been carried out.
Parliament Square, just off the eastern end of High Street, is one of the oldest parts of the town but it has a forgotten look to it.
The surrounding area includes a site where it is understood the gallows once stood. Edged by a low drystone wall about a foot high, it is badly overgrown with weeds.
The idea of a clean-up was put forward at the monthly meeting of the Royal Burgh of Wick Community Council (RBWCC) on Monday night by newly appointed treasurer Joanna Coghill.
Describing it as "a wee project at the back of Parliament Square", she said the aim would be to "tidy it up, do a litter pick, tidy up the cobbles".
She added: "I know so many people that own bits of it are really keen to help out too, because it's an important part of Wick's history. It could be a community garden, there's so much potential there."
Members agreed to write to nearby business owners outlining the proposal.
At the annual general meeting of RBWCC immediately beforehand, Mrs Coghill had stood down as chairperson after six years in the role but she continues to serve as a community councillor.
Speaking in 2017, local historian Harry Gray said Wick's first town hall would have been in the Parliament Square area, along with the first jail.
He also said he believed that a nearby church had its doors nailed shut after it was the scene of a 16th-century murder. A grassy slope that still survives could have been a graveyard.
Mr Gray's research suggested that the local executioner lived in an area of Whitehouse Park known as Hangman’s Rig.
Meanwhile, Mrs Coghill says progress is being made on another RBWCC project linked to local history.
It involves copying all the names from the Distinguished Visitors' plaque onto one side of a new monolith placed beside the riverside fountain. The other side will contain a set of facts about the history of Pulteneytown.
At the same time, the original plaque – located in nearby Station Road and dating back 100 years – will be cleaned up. Edward VII and Queen Alexandra, William Gladstone, David Lloyd George, Sir Ernest Shackleton, Robert Louis Stevenson, Sir Henry Rider Haggard and General Ulysses S Grant, 18th president of the United States, are just some of those listed on it.
Community council member Roy Mackenzie has advised on the historical information about Pulteneytown.
Mrs Coghill told fellow members this week: "There is some really cool stuff about Pulteneytown being a burgh in its own right and having the smallest police force in Britain at one time. Wick harbour was the biggest herring port in the whole world, not just Europe."
The information will also highlight attractions such as Pulteney Distillery, Wick Heritage Museum and the shortest street in the world at Ebenezer Place.
The monolith is being made by Norse Stone. Mrs Coghill said: "It's hopefully going to be finished soon."
