Da Doonie Day in Thurso

The first ever "Da Doonie Day" was held in Thurso today (Friday). It was organised by Thurso Rotary Club and Thurso High School's Interact Club and celebrated Scottish and Viking heritages in the far north.

There was a special appearance of the Sigurd "Snake Eye" Ragnarsson - Lerwick 2010 Jarl Squad.  36 squad members travelled by sea from Shetland for a whole day of events. The highlight was the burning of the impressive Viking Galley at the riverside. 

I nearly missed the galley burning as my car got stuck in the snow and I got caught in the traffic gridlock in Thurso.  With the town centre closed to traffic, drivers found it hard to find a car parking space and Janet Street was at a standstill with huge queues in both directions.

The Jarl squad met up with officials from Thurso FC who are nicknamed "The Vikings" and some brave souls had a kickabout at the Dammies in the snow.

St Peters & St Andrews church had a Christmas concert after the burning and the Jarl squad made a special appearance to sing two of their squad songs.

There are 8 local squads that are all dressed up and they are travelling around various venues in Thurso to perform sketches and songs. I didn't manage to take pics of the other squads apart from the Interact Club who were at the civic reception in the Pentland Hotel.

Comm Bar

Thurso's Comm Bar is setting up a new website and Scott Youngson asked me to take some pics for it on Saturday night.  During the evening I took some group photos (above). 

There were two hen parties and both were dressed up with a sailor theme. The bottom pic shows bride to be Tanya Horne (front 2nd left) from Wick with her "hens". In the other pic, Samantha Smart (front row, second right) from Portmahomack, celebrates her last days of freedom with 16 hens from the Portmahomack/Tain area.  They travelled by train to Thurso for the weekend.

More website problems

Having fixed the website problem last week, I now have another problem, which means I cannot update my website's gallery.

Loch More Caithness

Some recent pics of Loch More which feeds the River Thurso. The river had one of its best ever years for salmon with 3,022 caught in the season from 11 Jan to 5 Oct.  See the excellent website http://www.thursoriver.co.uk/.

Wick Academy vs Turriff Utd

I caught the 2nd half of the Wick Academy vs Turriff Utd match yesterday. Wick were 2-0 up at half time but Turriff turned it on in the 2nd half and scored 5 goals.  I think they are now top of the Highland League.

Sub No.14 Grant Noble scored two goals.

Caithness RFC vs Aberdeenshire

Caithness beat Aberdeenshire 19-12 at Milbank today, to record their 5th straight win.  Glasgow Accies lost to Newton Stewart so the Greens move up into 5th position in the league.  Local rivals Highland beat Kilmarnock.

The Aberdeenshire team was big, rough and tough and decided to slug it out rather than play good rugby. They may have won if they fed their very fast winger with more ball. Shire scored two tries and a conversion. There was a couple of fights and lots of frayed tempers on show. The sides meet again in the cup in January.

The Greens had most of the possession but couldn't get points on the board. Evan Sutherland scored their only try and Liam Brims was on top kicking form with three penalties, a conversion and a superb drop goal.

The team is away to Kilmarnock next week - a tough match.