undations are visible on the surface there. From
the frequent burnings in the Saga we know that such houses were of
highly inflammable materials which would soon perish. The place-name,
"Skaill," remains both in Sutherland and Caithness. But no skilled
antiquary, has as yet laid bare by excavation the secrets of likely
sites of Norse dwellings in these counties, as Mr. A.W. Johnston has
done at The Jarls' Bu at Orphir, in Orkney.[9] And yet, if Drumrabyn
or Dunrabyn, Rafn's Ridge or Broch, be the true derivation of Dunrobin
(and the name is found at a time when as yet no Robin had inhabited
the place) possibly the Norse Lawman Rafn had a house of consequence
there like his Pictish predecessors, if, indeed, he did not inhabit
the Pictish broch whose foundations were found on or under the present
castle's site. There was also a castle of note on the northern shore
of the modern port of Helmsdale, which is probably the castle of
Sorlinc of Mr. Collingwood's _William the Wanderer_, also called
Surclin, both words being a corrupt form, it is suggested, of
Scir-Illigh, the old name of the parish of Kildonan.

In Caithness especially, we have many a Norse castle site, such as
Earl Harold's borg at Thurso, and Lambaborg, the modern Freswick,
which we know to have been inhabited by noted Norsemen, while, in
Sutherland, Borve near Farr, and Seanachaistel on the Farrid Head near
Durness seem to be ideal Viking sites. _Breithivellir_[10] or Brawl
Castle was a known residence of Earl John and later earls, and search
for foundations might well be made on the coasts of Caithness, and
round Tongue and at the mouths of the Naver and of the Borgie and
other rivers, and at or near Unes or Little Ferry, possibly at Skelbo,
(Skail-bo) and in Kildonan at Helmsdale. That the Norsemen used many
of the Pictish brochs as dwelling-places is more than probable, and
is proved by the Sagas in certain instances.[11] At the same time few
articles used distinctively by Norsemen have been found in them.

No stately church like the Cathedral of St. Magnus at Kirkwall, itself
the finest specimen of Norman architecture in Scotland, survives on
the mainland from Viking days; nor, so far as is known, was any such
edifice built there by any Norseman; but the original High Church of
Halkirk, and also the old church of St. Bar at Dornoch, which preceded
and is believed to have occupied a site immediately to the east of St.
Gilbert's later Cathedral, may have b