THE noise that Pightland-Firth makes among many who only have heard thereof, as being noted and famous for its danger to passengers, and the causes which concur to render it so, awakened us more particularly to enquire concerning it, which we had opportunity to do in our return from Zetland by Orkney to Caithness : and therefore seeing we passed it in our voyage, I shall not altogether pass it in this narrative, but communicate to the inquisitive what I know either from my own or others' observations anent it.
This firth is commonly called Pictland, Pightland, or Penthland-Firth, doubtless from the Picts, whose kingdom of old Orkney was, divided by this firth from the continent of Scotland. Blaw, in his Atlas or Geography, tells us of a certain tradition, shewing how it came first to be so denominated ; that the Picts on a time being defeated by the Scots, who pursued the victory unto Caithness and Dungisby-head, where the vanquished remnant, so hotly pursued, not judging themselves safe, were forced to take boats and go over the firth to Orkney ; but the Orkney-men convening upon the alarm of their landing, did so warmly receive them with a sharp conflict, that the Picts were obliged to retire and take themselves to their boats again, with which they going off, and not acquainted with the running of the tides, they all perished ; upon which sad catastrophe, so fatal to the Pictish nation, this firth ever since was called Pictland or Pightland-Firth. Buchanan calls it Penthland-Firth, as it is commonly pronounced, from one Penthus ; but who this Penthus was, our historian hath hot been pleased to impart unto us : Nam Penthlandici montes et fretum Penthlandicum a Pentho non a Picto composita videri pos-sunt. Some historians relate that the Picts coming first out of Germany into Orkney, which they inhabited for a season, thence they passed over to Caithness and other parts of the north of Scotland ; so that hence this firth is called Pictland-Firth.
The firth is said to be twelve miles broad, and I think they are but short ; but this may be abundantly compensed by the danger of the passage : it is bounded on the north by the isles of Orkney, and on the south by Dungisby-head in Caithness ; to the west is the Deucaledonian Ocean, whence the flood comes ; and to the east is the German Ocean, whence the ebb runneth. The landing-places are Burwick, the southernmost point of South Ronaldsha in Orkney, and Dungisby-head, the northernmost in Caithness, called also John Grott's House, the northernmost house in Scotland ; the man who now liveth in it and keepeth an inn there is called John Grot, who saith this house hath been in the possession of his predecessors of that name for some hundreds of years ; which name of Grot is frequent in Caithness. Upon the sand by John Grot's house are found many small pleasant buckies and shells, beautified with divers colours, which some use to put upon a string as beads, and account much of for their rarity. It is also observed of these shells, that not one can be found altogether like another ; and upon the review of the parcel I had, I discerned some difference among them, which variety renders them the more beautiful.
In the firth are the isles of Swinna, Stroma, and Pightland-Skerries. From Burwick to the west-north-west lies Swinna, one of the isles of Orkney; a little isle, wherein are some inhabitants, who have a good fishing about the isle, but often with great danger, not only because it is in Pightland-firth, where many tides do go, but because of some dangerous well s or whirlpools which are nigh unto it. From Burwick about five or six miles to the south-east lies Pightland-Skerries, dangerous to seamen ; these Skerries being in the mouth of the firth to the cast, upon which both in ebb and flood there goes a great sea; therein is some good pasture, but not inhabited, save sometimes in the summer season. In the firth also is the isle of Stroma, a little pleasant isle, abounding with corns, about a mile and an half long, and half a mile broad, and though it be in the firth, yet it is not reckoned as one of the isles of Orkney, because of its vicinity to Caithness, from which it is but about two miles distant, and this is the only isle which belongs unto Caithness, and is still under the jurisdiction of the lords of that country.
Besides the isles there are some skerries, as before Burwick ; not half a mile from land, there is one seen at an ebb, upon which three years ago was cast away a ship belonging to Aberdeen, and all the men in her, as they say, were lost.
Although the sea in this firth floweth and ebbeth twice in the twenty-four hours, as it doth in other places, yet there is a meeting of many tides here, which, running contrary one to another, cause that great rage, and as it were a conflict of waters, which is terrible to behold, and dangerous to engage with : what is the number of these tides cannot well be condescended upon, some say thirteen, others eighteen, and others twenty-four. Blaw, in his Geography, hinteth at this, and the reason thereof, shewing that the sea running among the Orkney Isles is thereby restrained, and made to go through the isles as so many water-spouts, which meeting in this firth render it so formidable and dangerous. But because of the pertinency and elegancy of the historian upon this head, I shall give his own words : Fretum hoc navigantibus formidabile, neque nisi stads temporibus, quanquam positis ventis, trajectui opportunum. Causa est cum œstus maris quotidie a septentrionibus inciteturin hislocisOrchadas circumfusus iisque interfusus, hic primum object uterrarum coercetur, undevisilla immensa aquarum multiscanalibus insulas illas permeans,deinreliquo mari in hoc freto effusa, luctantibusetiam maris Vergivii et Orientalis undes formidabilesaquarum vortices cum summonavium periculocreat. And indeed when we see the many impetuous tides coming out into this firth, from among the isles of Orkney, each hearing that course to which they are determined by the land and isles they wash and beat upon, we will not judge it strange, that there should be such a meeting of tides in this firth ; for, as some express it, " Every craig-lug makes a new tide :" and many craigs and lugs are there here.
Hence it is clear that the tide will run with a greater rapidity and force in some places than in others ; as when we pass that part of the firth, where we meet with the tide in the ebb running off the sides of Pightland Skerries from south-east, down into the Swelchie of Stroma, then the men must ply their oars and work hard, lest they be borne down into the Swelchie, a dangerous place. When also we are three or four miles from Caithness, there, is another such rapid current coming from the south of Dungisby-head out of Murray-firth, running upon Stroma, both into the Swelchie on the north, and into the Merry-men of May, on the south end of the isle. In our passage through this current, for half an hour, we made not, as we could observe, one foot of way, though there were four men tugging at the oars, and no wind blowing ; and in all probability we had been carried down upon Stroma, if an able man, a passenger, had not taken an oar, so that then there were three oars upon our starboard ade. Hence in some places there is a swift, and in others a soft running tide, which the boatmen being well acquainted with, they will sometimes rest from their hard labour, and refresh themselves a little.
In our passage we see the currents before we engage with them, running like the torrents of some great rivers, and in some places we will see the waters smooth, and rough round about ; the reason wherefore of I know not, if it be not because of some tides meeting there, and, as it were, for some time quiescent in their centre, something like unto which I have observed in the meeting of several rivers in one place.
In the firth are several places remarkable for their danger, as the wells of Swinna, whereof some are on the east side and others on the west side of the isle, they are like unto whirlpools, turning about with such violence, that if any boat come nigh unto them, they will suck or draw it in, and then turneth it about until it be swallowed up : but these wells are only dangerous in a calm, and seamen or fishers, to prevent their danger thereby, use, when they come near them, to cast in an oar, barrel, or such like thing, on which the wells closing, they safely pass over. The minister of the place told me, that about twenty years ago there were two fisher-boats there, who coming nigh the wells, the men in the one boat seeing their danger, "one of these men thus afraid took hold of the other boat by them, and both boats were swallowed up. One of the ministers of Zetland told me there were three of these boats, it so falling out, that he passed the firth the very day after they perished : yet notwithstanding of these dangers the fishers will not desist from fishing about these wells ; for they observe, the nearer they come to them, they have the fishes both greater, better, and more numerous, so the fishes draw the men, and the wells draw both.
Near to these Skerries before Bur wick, formerly mentioned, are also two or three wells, called the Wells of Tiftala, only dangerous in a flood, as the wells of Swinna are in an ebb ; these wells, as some do judge, are caused by an hiatus or gap in the earth below : further I would offer this consideration, that whereas all these wells are nigh unto ragged rocks, constantly beat upon by the tides, there may be some secret conveyances of the water into caverns at the bottom of the rock, from which they may pass into some other places, where they rise again, and that even in the same firth, though such places be unknown, as it is storied of many rivers, which fall into and run many miles below the earth, and come out .again in other places. But that which I judge to be more simple is, that several tides running upon the rocks, and thence returning and meeting with other tides, cà use auch a whirl as we see behind mill-wheels, some of the water coming from, and another part as it were appearing to return upon the wheel, which cause such a whirl, and no more doth the whirls in the firth require a hiatus in the earth, or a subterraneous passage, than the whirls in the mill's watercourses : as for their swallowing up of boats, which are no more seen, this doth not prove it ; for these boats may be broken beneath the water upon rocks or the like, and the broken timber go to the sea, of which there is enough found cast ashore upon these isles. But many things of this nature are hidden to us, and we can only give our conjectures anent them.
There is also in this firth the Swelchie of Stroma, a very dangerous place at the north end of the isle of Stroma, where there is a meeting of several tides, which causeth the water to rage and make a dreadful noise, heard at some distance ; as likewise the sea-billows are raised high, and appear white and frothy, very terrible to behold, especially if any storm be lying on, falling unto which all passengers carefully labour to avoid ; as a gentleman related to me, that once he was in great danger, the seamen giving themselves over for lost, though three miles from the Swelchie, and that in a dead calm, when within two or three pair of butts to Stroma, and though so near land, they had been carried down into, and perished by this Swelchie, as they all laid their account, if the Lord had not speedily caused a northern wind to blow, whereby they got hold of Stroma.
There is another dangerous place at the south end of this isle of Stroma, where is also a great conflict of water, called the Merry-men of May, so called from the house of Mey, a gentleman's dwelling in Caithness, opposite to this isle, and called Merry-men, because of the leaping and dancing, as it were, of the waters there, though mirth and dancing be far from the minds of the seamen and passengers, who shall be so unhappy as to fall in among them, especially when any sea is going.
Seeing from what hath been said this firth is so very dangerous to pass, no wonder that the mariners and others be very careful to lay hold on the fittest occasion for a safe passage, which they find to be a little before the turning of the tide, when it is beginning to ebb on the shore, but the flood is yet running in the sea, then they use to go off, that so, when they are in, or nigh unto, the middle of the firth, the tide may be upon the turn, which causeth for some time a still and quiet sea (as to the running of the tides) and the seamen are not so put to it, in wrestling either against flood or ebb. Buchanan, speaking of these seas and the rapid tides, elegantly expresses himself : Duse sunt tempes-tatesquibus hae angustia? sunt su perabiles, autcumœstuum relapsu cessante undarum con-flictu, mare tranquillatur, aut ubi pleno alveo aequor ad summum incrementi pervenit, lan-guesccnte utrinque vi illa, qae undas concitabat, veluti receptui, canente oceano procellis et vorticcsis pelagi commoti molibus se velut in sua castra recipientibus.
Any wind, they observe, will take them over from Burwick to Caithness, if tided right, and the wind not in south-west, or nigh to that point, and so from Caithness to Burwick, if not in the north-east, or nigh to it. But the north-west wind they call the king of the firth, not only, I judge, because it will both take them from Caithness to Orkney, and from Orkney to Caithness, but also because, if it blow any thing, it keepeth them up in an ebb from falling into the wells of Swinna, the Swelchie of Stroma, and the Merry-men of May. By tiding right also they can come over by the help of oars, though there be no wind : and at any time, though they observe not the tide, they can pass from Orkney to Caithness, if it blow a good gale from north-east, and so from Caithness to Orkney, if the like blow from south-west. The boatmen, who use to pass the firth, from their experience know it best, and can avoid the swell of a sea, when persons of greater skill cannot do it.
At no time is there any anchoring in this firth for if any through ignorance or otherwise attempt it, within a little time they must either cut their cables, as some have done, and begone ; or else, if their anchors or cables break not, they will be ridden under : the experience whereof one of our ships lately had, who casting anchor even in the mouth of the firth, where the tides are not so strong, their anchor within a little time broke, and they behoved to go to sea.
In a storm, especially if it blow from south-east (which, they say, in the firh causeth the greatest sea) and the tide be running in the wind's eye, the roaring and swelling waves are very terrible, and mount so high, that they could wash, not only the deck, but the sails and topmasts of the biggest ships.
The house of Mey, formerly mentioned, is a myth, sign, or mark, much observed by sailors in their passing through this firth between Caithness and Stroma ; for they care-fully fix their eyes upon the lums, or chimney-heads, of this house, which if they lose sight of, then they are too near Caithness, and so ready to run upon sand-backs, but if they get also sight of the house, then they are too near Stroma, and so may split upon the rocks which lie off the south end of Stroma.
Hence we see, " They who go down to the sea in ships, and do business in the great waters, these see the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the depths ; that he is a God glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders ; he causeth the wind to blow, and the sea to flow, at his pleasure ; bounding the impetuous tides with the rocks and sand, saying, Hitherto shall ye come, and no further, and here shall your proud waves be stayed ; which, though they roar, yet shall they not prevail." His goodness and power putting a restreint upon them ; his wisdom and counsel directing their turning and returning, for his own glorious ends. Glory to his name !
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