Old Photograph Langwell House Scotland

Old photograph of Langwell House in Caithness, Scotland. The modern estate of Langwell was formerly known as Berriedale, and was possessed by two families of Sutherlands .Those of the first family, descended from John Begg, son of Nicolas, Earl of Sutherland, were known as " Sutherlands of Berriedale ", and the other family, whose immediate progenitors were the Sutherlands of Forse, descended from Kenneth, a younger brother of John Begg, were known as the " Sutherlands of Langwell ". Berriedale originally belonged to the Cheynes, and it, together with Dove House, in Morayshire, was acquired by the Sutherlands through the marriage of one of the daughters and co-heiresses of Ranald, " Lord Cheyne ", to Nicolas Sutherland, brother to William, Earl of Sutherland. From the Sutherlands the lands came, also by marriage, into the family of Oliphant; and they were thereafter acquired by the Caithness family of Sutherlands. In the seventeenth century the estate then known as Langwell was acquired from Lord Breadalbane by William McIan or Sutherland, grandson of Alexander Sutherland of Forse. In 1451 there was a William Sutherland of Berriedale, the son and apparent heir of Alexander Sutherland of Duffus, and whose second son, William, was laird of Quarrelwood. Quarrelwood had also a son, William, who was fifth Baron of Duffus, and his son and heir, William, was killed at Thurso in 1529, that being the same year in which, according to Calder, William Sutherland of Berriedale was slain in Orkney. But even if there really had been a William Sutherland of Berriedale in the Orkney expedition, he was not an ancestor of the Sinclair Sutherlands of Brabster, for, beyond question, their Sutherland connection is derived from the Forse branch of the Sutherlands of Langwell. Of interest to folks with ancestry, genealogy or Scottish Family Roots in Scotland who may wish to visit one day.



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