Wick’s statue commemorating lost seafarers will be the focus of Caithness Family History Society’s first meeting of 2025.
It takes place in the Nethercliffe Hotel, Wick, on Tuesday, January 14, with speaker Willie Watt giving a presentation about the Seafarers Memorial at the town’s Braehead.
Mr Watt is chairman of the Seafarers Memorial Group, which raised more than £100,000 for the sculpture created by Alan Beattie Herriot.
The memorial was unveiled in May 2023. It commemorates all those lost at sea in, or from, the WK vessel registration area stretching from Talmine across to Stroma and down as far as Golspie.
Speaking at the unveiling ceremony, Mr Watt said the monument “brings the community and the sea together” and described it as “our Angel of the Far North”.
The memorial is a symbol of how ‘the sea gives with one hand and takes away with the other’. Picture: Alan Hendry
The memorial was the focal point for Wick’s involvement in the first National Fishing Remembrance Day in May last year.
It has also been the setting for Remembrance Sunday events.
The statue symbolises how “the sea gives with one hand and takes away with the other”.
Next week’s event is free to attend and all are welcome. Those who have decided that this is the year when they will begin to investigate their family history will be able to have a chat with society members over the after-talk cup of tea and Nethercliffe shortbread.
Caithness Family History Society has a Facebook page and a website, caithnessfhs.org.uk
Mr Watt’s talk will start at 7pm.