Olrig

Olrig is a parish in Caithness, Scotland. The main settlement in the parish is Castletown. Prior to the 19th century, the parish was sub-divided into ten townlands or "fermlands". Townland boundaries were mostly disregarded and lost during the agricultural improvements in the 19th century, but many townland names remain identifiable with farmstead names ending with Mains.

The name Olrig (or Olrick) is thought to signify “the son of Erick,” from one of the Norwegian chieftains prominent in the locale following the invasion of Caithness by the King of Norway at the beginning of the ninth century. The Danes invaded Olrig at a distant period, landing at the bay of Murkle but were defeated by the inhabitants in a conflict on a height called, from the slain, Morthill, which is the origin of the name Murkle.

There are numerous Pictish houses in the parish, and a nunnery is said to have been located on the lands of Murkle, its site perhaps being marked by a small burn called Closters, a corruption of the word cloisters. At the top of the hill of Olrick are the remains of an ancient watchtower, and it is believed that a church called St. Coomb’s Kirk once stood near the eastern boundary of the parish. Its name is derived from its probable dedication to St. Columba. This church is supposed to have been the church of the united parishes of Olrig and Dunnet.

There is a tradition that the kirk and the adjoining manse disappeared overnight when they were suddenly overwhelmed by a sandstorm, but “there is no trace of any structure in an area of consolidated sand dunes.”

Members of Clan Sinclair became associated with Olrig in the mid-seventeenth century. They were as follows:

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