Nucleus: The Nuclear and Caithness Archive

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Nucleus: The Nuclear and Caithness Archive Our mission is to collect and preserve the documentary heritage of Caithness SC407011 and is a registered Scottish charity No. SC042593

Nucleus: The Nuclear and Caithness Archive is home to the archives of the UK civil nuclear industry and the historical archives of the county of Caithness and its people. Our collections include: Wick and Thurso Burgh minutes, Caithness County Council (school records, poor law records and planning applications), Caithness Constabulary, Wick Harbour Trust, and many more...

High Life Highland is a company limited by guarantee registered in Scotland No.

22/10/2026

Learn with Lorna 268 – The USA at 250

Part of a series of events to share the collections of the Highland Archive Service.
This livecast is being brought to you by High Life Highland at no cost to the viewer.

High Life Highland is a charity registered in Scotland.

This event does not require any payment or subscription but we welcome donations.
To donate please visit https://shop.highlifehighland.com/products/archives-choose-your-donation

All previous episodes can be seen at https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLyxasYGi8kIcL7OThf1QGsHAMACY_1DGE&si=1u6WUF-hBjP7iV1H

WS/26/5A rare image of “Tudor James” as he did not like his photograph being taken. Ian Sutherland wrote a wonderful des...
21/10/2026

WS/26/5
A rare image of “Tudor James” as he did not like his photograph being taken. Ian Sutherland wrote a wonderful descriptive piece about him.

P283/2Devoid of colour black and white photographs have a way of stopping us in our tracks where the simplest image beco...
18/10/2026

P283/2
Devoid of colour black and white photographs have a way of stopping us in our tracks where the simplest image becomes timeless, drawing our attention to the faces, the light and shadow, and the stories waiting to be discovered. These two photographs from collection P283/2 do just that. In the group image, the gentleman on the left looks as though he is about to burst into laughter, while his counterpart on the right wears a noticeably more serious expression. The annotation on the reverse reads " Chris Sutherlands father, he was their first cousin. Pat Cormack, Grannies brother, Grandad Bob Miller"

The solo image suggests the gentleman is enjoying a well- earned cup of tea after working outdoors on a cold day going by his layers of clothing. The annotation on the reverse reads "Arthur? 78"

P404/2/13An image of the Phil Ward band with the David Morrison seated front and centre. A black and white image that se...
17/10/2026

P404/2/13
An image of the Phil Ward band with the David Morrison seated front and centre. A black and white image that sets the scene and the era for social norms and fashion styles. Does anyone know the year?

John Dallas was a Weydale school pupil who went on to attend the Miller Institution and Glasgow University. He returned ...
16/10/2026

John Dallas was a Weydale school pupil who went on to attend the Miller Institution and Glasgow University. He returned to Miller Academy as a teacher in 1933 before becoming headmaster of the West School in Thurso from 1947 to 1958, when he came back to Miller as headmaster.
He was head of Miller when the school roll topped 1335, when Thurso’s population tripled because of the establishment of an experimental nuclear reactor at Dounreay.
In 2000, a project gathered pupils and teachers’ memories of Miller Academy (CC/5/3/47/6/8). Mr Dallas remembered “Our maximum roll was 1341 in the summer term before Pennyland opened and I suppose that would be when we had 226 in P.1. One year we had three P.6 classes of 50 kids each for the whole year. And they were not neglected!”
Pupils had the following to say about Mr Dallas:
‘I felt the Miller embraced the new changes in the 60’s but with reference to the traditions of the past, this worked well and Mr Dallas must take some credit for this achievement.’
‘He commanded respect yet had a very caring nature and disposition.’
‘Mr Dallas was ‘human’. He used to speak to us more and tell us about the world outside Thurso….he used to teach us country dancing out in the hut at the West Public- the floor used to shake and make the old gramophone needle jump off the record!’
Mr Dallas retired in October 1970. On his retirement he said ‘he had really felt more at home in the classroom than as a headmaster, as he always enjoyed the closer contact with the pupils. Looking back over the conditions which had developed in Thurso with the creation of the atomic industry at Dounreay, he recalled the struggle to accommodate all those children who came on the “relentlessly” rising roll, a situation that had been satisfactorily dealt with in a surprisingly short period of years’ (JOGJ 28 Oct 1970).
He passed away at the age of 97 in 2006 in Pentland View Nursing Home.
Image CC/5/3/47/6/8

P778/7/29 Callum Allan and his band were a popular choice for weddings, ceilidhs and the Scottish Country Dance Soci...
16/10/2026

P778/7/29
Callum Allan and his band were a popular choice for weddings, ceilidhs and the Scottish Country Dance Society in the early 1960s. The image features Callum on double bass and he also played the fiddle, an essential item in Scottish Country dancing. Dennis Manson on accordian and keyboard, Davie Wares on piano and Bill Hunter on drums.
Callum also played in the jazz sessions at the Viewfirth club in Thurso most Thursday evenings in Winter along with his good friend Danny Doohan on trumpet. The rest of the line up was clarinet, saxophone, trombone, piano, drums and Callum on double bass.
Callum spent an enjoyable three years in Caithness working in Dounreay with many good memories of the music scene and recalls a band called the Melotones, who played “modern” as it was called in those days.
Did you attend these music nights?
What memories have you of the music scene in Caithness in the 1960s or 1970s?

15/10/2026

Learn with Lorna 267 – Crops and famine
Part of a series of events to share the collections of the Highland Archive Service.
This livecast is being brought to you by High Life Highland at no cost to the viewer.
High Life Highland is a charity registered in Scotland.
This event does not require any payment or subscription but we welcome donations.
To donate please visit https://shop.highlifehighland.com/products/archives-choose-your-donation
All previous episodes can be seen at https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLyxasYGi8kIcL7OThf1QGsHAMACY_1DGE&si=1u6WUF-hBjP7iV1H

In January 1976, Lyndall (Lyn) Leet was interviewed for the ‘Spotlight’ column in the Caithness Courier (Caithness Couri...
14/10/2026

In January 1976, Lyndall (Lyn) Leet was interviewed for the ‘Spotlight’ column in the Caithness Courier (Caithness Courier, 28th January 1976).
Lyn had decided at the age of ten that she wanted to be an architect, and after five years of study at Bristol School of Architecture, two years in practice as a probationary period, and a professional practice exam, she fulfilled her dream and could add the letters ARIBA (Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects), to her name.
She married Geoff Leet and the couple moved to Thurso in 1957 when Geoff got a job at Dounreay. Lyn designed their house at Burnside in 1968 (pictured, BT/6/2/1/356).
Despite female architects being rare at that time, she found acceptance in Caithness and described local contractors as “straightforward and pleasant” and added “I get known as ‘the architect wifie/lassie,’ depending on the age of the contractor.”
Professional codes prevented architects from advertising their services, but Lyn acknowledged that “one of the beauties of living in Caithness is that people get to hear about you as everyone knows everyone else”.
She was delighted to find that once she had children she was able to carry on working. She worked from home and could take the children round building sites. “We would take a bucket and spade with us and they would solemnly fill the bucket with sand and give it to the man working the cement mixer, when it had to be carefully added to the mix”.
Her work took her all over Caithness and Sutherland, both new buildings and conversions, and included houses, churches, shops offices, hotels, clubs, youth clubs, veterinary and farm buildings. The variety appealed to Lyn and she remarked “I meet so many interesting people with such different requirements and I enjoy seeing their buildings taking shape”.
The Leet Rodgers Practice Collection (P1127) has recently been deposited with us and will be available to the public once it has been catalogued.
Lyn Leet can be seen in the image (P953/3/1) at the opening of Waterlines in Lybster, one of the projects she was involved with (she is in a beige jacket and skirt, in front of the left hand pillar of the gazebo).

John Donaldson was born in 1906 at West Park in Wick. He studied at Aberdeen and Oxford Universities, gaining M.A. and B...
12/10/2026

John Donaldson was born in 1906 at West Park in Wick.
He studied at Aberdeen and Oxford Universities, gaining M.A. and B.A. degrees. He returned to Wick in the early 1930s and started a freelance journalism business that continued into the 1960s.
As a journalist, Donaldson covered news in Caithness and reported many events of national importance in the north of Scotland. He was affectionately known locally as ‘Hot News’. Here, his son Noel, who followed him into journalism, explains ‘How “Hot News” got his Handle’ (P998/7/3 Edinburgh Caithness Association magazine)
Image of John Donaldson (left) and Tommy Bean (right) (P390/5/21).

P1032/2/3Wick High School pupils in 1958. Do you recognise any of these faces?
11/10/2026

P1032/2/3
Wick High School pupils in 1958. Do you recognise any of these faces?

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