Castletown, Highland

For other places with the same name, see Castletown (disambiguation).
Castletown
Scottish Gaelic: Baile a' Chaisteil
Castletown
 Castletown shown within the Caithness area
Population 798 [1] (2001 census)
est. 800[2] (2006)
OS grid referenceND196678
Civil parishOlrig
Council areaHighland
Lieutenancy areaCaithness
CountryScotland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post town THURSO
Postcode district KW14
Dialling code 01847 821
Police Scottish
Fire Scottish
Ambulance Scottish
EU Parliament Scotland
UK ParliamentCaithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross
Scottish ParliamentCaithness, Sutherland and Ross
List of places
UK
Scotland

Coordinates: 58°35′N 3°23′W / 58.59°N 3.38°W / 58.59; -3.38

Castletown (Scottish Gaelic: Baile a' Chaisteil) is a village on the north coast of the Highland council area of Scotland, situated near Dunnet Bay. It is within the civil parish of Olrig, where it is the main settlement, and within the historic county of Caithness. The A836 links the village with Thurso and Tongue in the west and with John o' Groats in the east. The B876-A99 links the village with Wick in the southeast.

Olrig Parish Church, Castletown

Much of the village is built on the old townland (or fermland) of Stanergill. The Stanergill Burn was the eastern boundary of the townland. It flows now through the eastern end of the village and so into Dunnet Bay and the Atlantic Ocean.

The name Stanergill can be read as meaning Stone Valley and much of Castletown was built during the 19th century boom years of Caithness as a source of flagstone. Much of the stone was processed in the harbour area of the village, known as Castlehill, and many of the streets of London, Sydney, Edinburgh and the financial district of New York City are paved with it. The harbour was built by James Bremner. Castletown's main building is the 'Drill Hall'. This is mainly used for parties, discos and small clubs such as the indoor bowls. The building that was used for these functions was the 'Traill Hall', a gift to the Village by the Traill family, owners of the flagstone quarry at Castlehill. Traill House, a large and imposing country home was the residence of the Traill family. It was located in the woods at Castlehill, in later years it was owned by the Crumb-Ewing family, it became derelict after WW2 and burned down in the late 50's. The remains of the gatehouse can be seen on the side of the A836 at Castlehill plantation.

Industry in the village included manufacture of domestic food storage freezers, under the Norfrost brand. However, the company closed in 2013; Ebac in County Durham now produce the freezers.[3]

Local government

Castletown is in the Landward Caithness ward of the Highland Council. The ward elects four councillors by the single transferable vote system of election, which produces a form of proportional representation. It is one of seven wards within the council's Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross corporate management area and one of 22 wards within the council area.

Notable people

Television presenter Colin Stone[4] and Scot Squad star ML Stone[5] both hail from Castletown, where their father is the local Free Church of Scotland minister.[6]

Sport

Castletown has a football team, Castletown FC, who wear a strip almost identical to the strip worn by Celtic FC. The pitch is regarded as the best in Caithness and Sutherland, and many Highland finals are held at the venue. Castletown play in the Caithness Division 2 following relegation from Division 1 in the 2014 season.

Castletown also have bowls and badminton teams who play in the local 'Drill Hall'.

Facilities

Castletown has a small hotel (The Castletown Hotel, was The St Clair Hotel), a large guest house (Greenland House), a well-stocked licensed grocery, a butchers (Castletown Meat Co.) that also sells groceries and fruit and vegetables, a fish and chip shop, a takeaway Euro - Asia, a garden centre, a garage with petrol and diesel pumps, two hairdressers, a beauty therapist, a primary school with nursery and an after-school club and a branch of The Royal Bank of Scotland, which is open Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 10.30am to 2pm. There is also a Free Church on the Main Street, with services at 12pm and 6.30pm on a Sunday. Most businesses are located on the main street, the A836.

References

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Tuesday, April 19, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.