great-grandson of the original Freskyn,[28] and ancestor of
the Lords of Duffus, who obtained lands, which were mainly in modern
Caithness, and also in the upper portion of the valley of the Naver
and the valley of Coire-na-fearn in Strathnavern, by marriage with the
Lady Johanna of Strathnaver about 1250.[29] This latter portion
was immediately north of the land granted to Hugo Freskyn; and the
Caithness portion of Johanna's lands marched with Hugo's land on its
eastern boundary. Nor must we forget that a large area of the modern
county of Sutherland, consisting of part of the present parishes
of Eddrachilles and Durness and some part of Tongue and Farr in
Strathnavern, was constantly used as a refuge by Pictish refugees of
the race of MacHeth or MacAoidh, displaced and frequently driven forth
from Moray after the bloody defeat of Stracathro in 1130 and in later
rebellions as part of the policy of the Scottish kings, and first
known as the race of Morgan and then to us as the Clan Mackay.

They chose, indeed, for their refuge and ultimately for their
settlements a rugged and sterile land, to which their original title
was no charter, but their swords. Difficulties, it is said, make
character, and nowhere is this proverbial saying better illustrated
and proved than in the Reay country by its men and women. They
have given their own and other countries many fine regiments and
distinguished generals and statesmen, and none more so than the late
Lord Reay. Their history is to be found in the _Book of Mackay_, a
piece of good pioneer work from original documents by the late Mr.
Angus Mackay, and also in his unfortunately unfinished _Province of
Cat_.

Yet another family, of Norse and Viking lineage, which was settled in
Orkney from the earliest Norse times and afterwards in Caithness and
Sutherland, was that of the Gunns, who were descended in the male line
from Sweyn Asleifarson the great Viking, and on the female side from
the line of Paul, and later were by marriage connected with the Moddan
clan and with the line of Erlend. They have for nine centuries lived
and still live in Sutherland and Caithness, and have been noted
alike for the beauty of their women, and for the high attainments and
character and the distinction of their men, particularly in the art of
war, both by land and sea.

Their descent from Jarl Paul and Sweyn is clear in the Sagas as far as
Snaekoll Gunnison and no further. It was as follows:--Paul Th