Viking spectacle to light up Caithness
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A SPECTACULAR festival celebrating the county’s Norse heritage will held next month due to public demand.
Following the successful staging of last year’s inaugural event in Thurso, the local Rotary clubs have decided to hold the second Da Doonie Day 2011 on Friday, November 25 – this time in Wick.
“There is a long history of Viking culture that is embedded in the past here,” said Thurso Rotary Club president Kevin Sutherland.
“To bring it to life is good for the adults but even better for teenagers and children who get to experience that little clip of what life was like thousands of years ago.”
Although the main event will take place in Wick, other places in the county will also get a taste of the event, Mr Sutherland explained.
“As far as I’m aware our original plan was to hold it every couple of years or so in Thurso but I think with it being such a big success last time around there have been quite a few people making enquiries as to why we couldn’t do it more often.”
Thurso Rotary liaison officer James Simpson has been working with Thurso High’s Interact club to try and bring this year’s Da Doonie Day to other parts of Caithness.
“It brings the various communities together by doing different bits around the county and it helps broaden our culture,” said Mr Sutherland. “The other thing as well is that it raises the profile of the club and how it assists the community.”
Starting things off on Thursday, November 24, will be “Varnandag” – Warning Day in old Norse – which will feature torchlight marches by the Lerwick Jarl Squad and the Thurso High School Junior Jarl Squad (the “Doonies”) in Thurso and Halkirk.
The marches, which will take place in the late afternoon in Thurso and in the early evening in Halkirk, will culminate with the lighting of warning beacons.
In Wick, Da Doonie Day activities will include visits to schools, a torchlight procession, the delivery and burning of a Viking galley, and an evening of entertainment in Wick Assembly Rooms, the designated Guiser Hall for the day.
The galley will start its journey through Wick at 1pm from St Fergus Road. It will then make its way up Whitechapel Road and along High Street, Bridge Street, River Street and Martha Terrace to the burning site at Wick harbour. The torchlight procession will be led by the Lerwick 2011 Jarl Squad and the Doonies. It begins around 6.30pm from St Fergus Road and will follow almost the same route as the galley apart from a brief stop at the Market Square for the switching on of the town’s Christmas lights at 7pm.
Members of the public are also being invited to form fancy-dressed Guiser squads and there will be a trophy for the best one, as judged by a panel of Rotarians. Any group interested in forming a Guiser squad can contact Mr Simpson at Arch Henderson on (01847) 896896 for more information.
The evening’s entertainment in the Assembly Room will include dancing to a Scottish band and songs from the Jarl and Guiser squads.
Tickets for the Assembly Rooms events are available from members of the Wick and Thurso Rotary Clubs and from Arch Henderson LLP, 68 Princes Street, Thurso.
More information and an updated timetable will be released closer to the time.
Da Doonie Day: Why November 25?
DA Doonie Day is returning to Caithness this year as a local celebration of the county’s Norse heritage.
Thurso Rotary Club interact liaison officer James Simpson explained why the club picked November 25 as the day of the festival.
He said that Scotland’s official bank holiday and celebration of the country’s patron saint, St Andrew’s Day, “provides an obvious link with modern and traditional Scottish culture”. It also typically heralds the beginning of the Christmas festivities and the Da Doonie Day procession will incorporate the switching on of the Wick Christmas lights.
Mr Simpson said there was also some evidence to suggest that the 12th-century Norseman Sweyn Asleifsson, termed the “ultimate Viking”, who had a residence in Freswick, returned home at the end of November from his annual winter pillaging trip, typically to Ireland and the Hebrides.
Mr Simpson said: “Therefore it was felt that the last Friday in November had some significance with regard to both the Norse heritage of Caithness and general Scottish traditions – and that it is an appropriate date for Da Doonie Day.”
