The Orkneyinga Saga says that Thorfinn was raised at Máel Coluim's court and was given the Mormaerdom of Caithness by his grandfather.

The possessions of the Earldom included the Mormaerdom of Caithness and, until 1194, the Shetland Islands.

The modern reconstruction of holders of peerage earldoms do not usually include those of Mormaerdom of Caithness, although there is no essential difference between them and, for example, those of mormaers of Lennox, mormaers of Strathearn and mormaers of Angus.

Among the entities established or possessed by Norwegians, were the Kingdom of Dublin ( 839 – 1171 ), the Kingdom of Mann and the Isles ( 836 – 1164 ), the Earldom of Orkney ( 800s – 1470 ), and the Mormaerdom of Caithness ( 900s – 1476 ).

* For Mormaerdom of Carrick, See Earl of Carrick

* For the Anglo-Scottish Mormaerdom of Lothian / Dunbar, See Earl of Dunbar

* Back to Basics, a government policy slogan portrayed by opponents and the press as a morality campaign to compare it with a contemporaneous succession of sex scandals in John Major's government which led to the resignation of Tim Yeo and the Earl of Caithness, among others ( 1994 )

The wife of the Earl of Caithness committed suicide amongst rumours of the Earl committing adultery.

The Orkneyinga Saga says that a dispute between Thorfinn Sigurdsson, Earl of Orkney, and Karl Hundason began when Karl Hundason became " King of Scots " and claimed Caithness.

In 1470 William Sinclair, 1st Earl of Caithness ceded his title to James III and the following year the Northern Isles were directly annexed to the Crown of Scotland, a process confirmed by Parliament in 1472.

** William Sinclair, 1st Earl of Caithness ( d. 1484 )

** William Sinclair, 1st Earl of Caithness ( b. 1410 )

* Maol Íosa V, Earl of Strathearn, 1330-4, Earl of Caithness & Orkney, 1331 – 50

* Harald Maddadsson, Earl of Orkney and Mormaer of Caithness ( 1139 – 1206 )

William Sinclair, 1st Earl of Caithness, was at that time the Norse Earl of Orkney.

The Castle of Mey was built between 1566 and 1572, possibly on the site of an earlier fortification, by George Sinclair, 4th Earl of Caithness.

* The Earl of Caithness 1989 – 1990

* William Sinclair, 3rd Earl of Orkney & Caithness ( d. 1480 ), Justiciary North of the Forth for King James II

## Lord Berriedale, eldest son of the Earl of Caithness

## Lord Berriedale, eldest son of the Earl of Caithness

He was the grandfather of William Sinclair, 1st Earl of Caithness, the builder of Rosslyn Chapel.

William Sinclair ( 1410 – 1484 ), 1st Earl of Caithness ( 1455 – 1476 ), 3rd Earl of Orkney ( 1455 – 1470 ), Baron of Roslin was a Scottish nobleman and the builder of Rosslyn Chapel, in Midlothian.

King James III gained his hold and rights of the Norwegian Earldom of Orkney for the Scottish Crown in 1470 ( see History of Orkney ), against a promised compensation ( it turned out to be lands of Ravencraig, in 1471 ); and William Sinclair was thereafter Earl of Caithness alone until he resigned the Earldom in favour of his son William in 1476.

He fathered four known children with Marjory Sutherland: Eleanor Sinclair, Catherine Sinclair, Sir Oliver Sinclair, and William Sinclair, 2nd Earl of Caithness.

The earl's third son of his second marriage, William Sinclair, 2nd Earl of Caithness, became the designated heir of the Earldom of Caithness and continued that title.

* Norn, an extinct North Germanic language that was spoken in Shetland and Orkney, off the north coast of mainland Scotland, and in Caithness.

Norn is an extinct North Germanic language that was spoken in the Northern Isles ( Orkney and Shetland ) off the north coast of mainland Scotland and in Caithness in the far north of the Scottish mainland.

Even less is known about " Caithness Norn " than about Orkney and Shetland Norn.

In 1179, meanwhile, William and his brother David personally led a force northwards into Easter Ross, establishing two further castles, and aiming to discourage the Norse Earls of Orkney from expanding beyond Caithness.

It separates the Orkney Islands from Caithness in the north of Scotland.

Whatever the exact chronology, before Máel Coluim's death a client of the king of Scots was in control of Caithness and Orkney, although, as with all such relationships, it is unlikely to have lasted beyond his death.

The Pentland Firth (, meaning the Orcadian Strait ), which is actually more of a strait than a firth, separates the Orkney Islands from Caithness in the north of Scotland.

On the Caithness ( southern ) side the Firth extends from Dunnet Head in the west to Duncansby Head in the east, while on the Orkney ( northern ) side from Tor Ness on Hoy in the west to Old Head on South Ronaldsay in the east.

Before 1800, it had a disjunct range in the British Isles, absent from central and southern Scotland, with S. vulgaris zetlandicus in the far north and northwest ( Shetland, Orkney, Caithness, Outer Hebrides ), and S. vulgaris vulgaris south of the Scottish-English border ; it was also rare or regionally absent in Ireland, western Wales and western and northernmost England.

In the British Isles it breeds in Scotland, particularly around Shetland, Orkney, the Outer Hebrides as well as the mainland at Sutherland and Caithness.

It encompasses the Moray Firth and adjoining land areas, Caithness, Orkney and parts of Shetland.

In the British Isles, they breed in Shetland and Orkney, the Outer Hebrides, Sutherland, Caithness, and some islands in Argyll.

Although it contains some of the northernmost land in the island of Great Britain, it was called Suðrland (" southern land ") from the standpoint of Orkney and Caithness.

Three cousins – Alexander de L ' Arde, Lord of Caithness ; Malise Sparre, Lord of Skaldale ; and Henry Sinclair – were rivals for the succession to the earldom of Orkney.

William Sinclair 3rd Earl of Orkney, Baron of Roslin and 1st Earl of Caithness, claimed by novelists to be a hereditary Grand Master of the Scottish stonemasons, built Rosslyn Chapel.

The Earl of Orkney was originally a Norse jarl ruling Orkney, Shetland and parts of Caithness and Sutherland.