Scanned image of a drawing of a landscape, entitled: 'Noss Head and Sinclair's Bay (from Nybster)'; from David Nicolson's sketchbook. Brother of John Nicolson.

Description Scanned image of a drawing of a landscape, entitled: 'Noss Head and Sinclair's Bay (from Nybster)'; from David Nicolson's sketchbook. Brother of John Nicolson.

Date 26/8/1859

Collection Papers of John Nicolson, antiquarian, Keiss, Caithness, Scotland

Catalogue Number SC 880418

Category On-line Digital Images

Scope and Content Watercolour of Noss Head and Sinclair's Bay, Caithness, Highland Noss Head and Sinclair's Bay lie on the north-east coast of Scotland in Caithness. The area is dominated by sweeping sandy bays and steep cliffs and has been important throughout prehistory and history. This drawing, dated August 26th 1859, is by David Nicolson, John Nicolson's (1843-1934) brother who emigrated to Canada. It is one of a number from a small sketch book found amongst a collection of drawings by John Nicolson and shows the sandy beach at Sinclair's Bay and the cliffs at Noss Head. Ships can be seen sailing into the bay. Castle Girnigoe Sinclair is located on the cliffs in the background on the left. This castle is one of the earliest castle strongholds in Caithness, first built in the late 14th century. John Nicolson was born in Stemster, John O' Groats, and lived most of his life at Nybster. He was a skilled sculptor and artist with a keen interest in the archaeology and history of the area and undertook many excavations. The majority of Nicolson's surviving drawings are of archaeological sites and monuments under excavation or of the artefacts recovered. This is one of only a few landscape drawings. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/880418

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap