Huna, Caithness

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Huna
Huna Harbour - geograph.org.uk - 1030222.jpg
Huna harbour
Caithness UK location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Huna
Location within the Caithness area
Population139 
OS grid reference ND369732
Council area
Lieutenancy area
Country Scotland
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Post town WICK
Postcode district KW1 4YL
Dialling code 01955
Police Scotland
Fire Scottish
Ambulance Scottish
UK Parliament
Scottish Parliament
List of places
UK
Scotland
58°38′31″N3°05′13″W / 58.642°N 3.087°W / 58.642; -3.087

Huna is a small remote crofting township, located 1 mile northeast of Canisbay and 1.5 miles west of John o' Groats in Caithness, in Scotland. [1] It is currently part of the Highland Council area.

Contents

History

Huna is likely to have been an important sheltered port from Norse times and it has been suggested that it equates to Hofn, the burial place in 980 of Hlodvar Thorfinnsson, the Norse Jarl of Orkney. In The Place-Names of Canisbay, Caithness, Huna is described as:

A crofting township two miles west from John o' Groat's, situated at the foot of the Mool Hill. Bordered on the west side by the burn of Huna, and on the east side by the Ness of Huna, a small crest–like peninsula which terminates in a beach. On Huna links are the remains of a Picts' village and several burial cairns. It is supposed to be the burial place of earl Hlǫðver, who, the saga states, was buried at Hǫfn in Katanes, about 975. The haven of Huna is a sandy beach. O.N. hǫfn > ham in Orkney and Shetland, and there is a Ham in Dunnet adjoining an earth-house. Myrkkol, now Murkle, where Hlǫðver’s brother, earl Arnfinnr, lived, is much nearer Ham than Huna. In Caithness charter, 1574, Hwnaye; 1777 Houna. Cf. Huney in Shetland, O.N. Húna-ey, the island of a man Húni. O.N. *Húna-á, the burn of Húni. Cosmo Innes in Orig. Par. Scot. suggested, "Huna appears to be the Hofn where earl Hlodver was buried" a suggestion which apparently arose from an impossible derivation. [2]

John o' Groat (Jan de Grot) ran a ferry from Huna to Orkney c. 1500 and a mail service between Huna and South Ronaldsay began in 1819.

Archaeology

The following sites are recorded on Highland Council's Historic Environment Record (HER)

The first four of these sites occupy the crest of the rise from the shoreline to the west of Huna House, while the last is in the field to the NE of the field in which the present development is located.

Property ownership

Over the last 2000 years Huna has been owned as a part of the greater area of Caithness under wider ownership such as the Pictish Kingdoms and later the Estates of Mey. The possibility of individual ownership of land and property within Huna and nearby townships didn't occur until 1952 when the estates of Mey were broken up and sold by Captain Fredrick Bouhier Imbert-Terry, including the sale of individual crofts within Huna.

Approximate DatesOwnersNotes
25 - 871 AD Kingdom of Cat (Cait), Pictish Kingdom Kingdom Waned from 697AD After the death of King Taran mac Entifidich
871 AD - UnknownWider Pictish Kingdom
UnknownNorse Kingdomspossible burial place in 980AD of Hlodvar Thorfinnsson the Norse Earl of Orkney
UnknownEarls of Orkney (Norway) Caithness Disputed as part of Norway and Scotland
UnknownBishops of CaithnessAs part of the Bishoprics of King David 1st
1334 - 1335 Earls of Caithness (1st Creation)Forfeited to the Crown
1335 - 1375Scottish Crown
1375 - 1437 Earls of Caithness (2nd Creation)Awarded to Son of Robert II of Scotland later Forfeited by 3rd Earl
1437 - 1452Scottish Crown
1452 - August 1454George Crichton Earls of Caithness (3rd Creation)Passed to Crown by Agreement upon death [3]
August 1454 - 1455Scottish Crown
1455 - 18891st - 15th Earls of Caithness (4th Creation)Grant unto William Sinclair, 1st Earl of Caithness Builder of Rosslyn Chapel
1889Mr F.G. Heathcote (Sinclair)Estate of Mey Bequeathed by 15th Earl of Caithness
UnknownCaptain Fredrick Bouhier Imbert-TerryPurchased the Estates of Mey from the widow of Mr F.G Heathcote (Sinclair)
1952Individual OwnershipMey Estate broken up and sold including Castle of Mey and Crofts of Huna

Sources

  1. "Huna". The Gazetteer for Scotland. School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh and The Royal Scottish Geographical Society. Retrieved 4 July 2018.
  2. Mowat, John (1931). The Place-Names of Canisbay, Caithness: With Map (PDF). p. 27. Retrieved 4 April 2020.
  3. "4 June 1452". Archived from the original on 16 July 2011. Retrieved 14 June 2009. 1