Caithness

Caithness
Historic county
Flag
Coordinates: 58°25′N 3°30′W / 58.417°N 3.500°W / 58.417; -3.500
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Country	Scotland
Council area	Highland
County town	Wick
Area
• Total	618 sq mi (1,601 km2)
	Ranked 14th of 34
Demonym	Caithnesian
Chapman code	CAI

Caithness (Scottish Gaelic: Gallaibh [ˈkal̪ˠɪv]; Old Norse: Katanes^[1]) is a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland.

Caithness has a land boundary with the historic county of Sutherland to the west and is otherwise bounded by sea. The land boundary follows a watershed and is crossed by two roads (the A9 and the A836) and by one railway (the Far North Line). Across the Pentland Firth, ferries link Caithness with Orkney, and Caithness also has an airport at Wick. The Pentland Firth island of Stroma is within Caithness.

The name was also used for the earldom of Caithness (c. 1334 onwards) and for the Caithness constituency of the Parliament of the United Kingdom (1708 to 1918). Boundaries are not identical in all contexts, but the Caithness area as of 2019^[update] lies entirely within the Highland council area. Until its demise in the 15th century, the Norn language was the common language of everyday communication for people in Caithness, before being gradually overtaken by Scots (and later, English).^[2]