Saturday 11th September 1819
Saturday Sept 11th The gentleman went to Thurso 26 miles from Wick My Mother and myself remained at Wick they returned late in the evening
OBSERVATIONS & COMMENTS:
Thurso functioned as an important Norse port, and later traded with ports throughout northern Europe until the 19th century. A thriving fishing centre, Thurso also had a reputation for its linen-cloth and tanning activities. Old St Peter's Kirk is said to date from circa 1220 and the time of Caithness Bishop Gilbert Murray, who died in 1245. In 1649, the Irish, led by Donald Macalister Mullach, attacked Thurso and were chased off by the residents, headed by Sir James Sinclair. One of the locals, a servant of Sinclair was said to have killed Mullach by "cutting a button from his master's coat and firing it from a musket".
1820: Thurso Castle. Artist and Engraver William Daniell, from the series Daniell's Voyage round GB published by Longman & Co & W. Daniell http://www.rareoldprints.com/z/22272
1826: Thurso Castle, Caithness, enraved by T. Jeavons after J.P. Neale. https://antique-prints-maps.com/acatalog/ref1.php?imagefile=../largeimages/SEThursoCastleJPN12.jpg
In 1811, the parish had 592 houses with a population of 3462. Much of the town is a planned 19th-century development. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thurso
2005: Thurso from the hill at Mountpleasant. Looking down Mountpleasant into Thurso, by Dorcas Sinclair. This image was taken from the Geograph project collection. The copyright on this image is owned by Dorcas Sinclair and is licensed for reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Thurso_from_the_hill_at_Mountpleasant_-_geograph.org.uk_-_8869.jpg
Can you help us?
Old Regency Prints, Pictures an Coaching maps: Do you have access to any prints or pictures showing what town and country would have looked like when Lucy travelled through? Any illustrations of what she would have seen in 1819 will enliven our research.
New Pictures: Do you have any modern pictures of the streets, buildings, gardens and views that would enable us to see the changes that two centuries have wrought?