Wick (Scotland)

Wick ; Scottish Gaelic Inbhir Ùige
Coordinates	58 ° 27 ′ N , 3 ° 5 ′ W Coordinates: 58 ° 27 ′ N , 3 ° 5 ′ W
	Wick
	Wick
Residents	7155 2011 census
administration
Post town	WICK
ZIP code section	KW1
prefix	01955
Part of the country	Scotland
Council area	Highland
British Parliament	Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross
Scottish Parliament	Caithness, Sutherland and Ross

The port city of Wick ( Scottish Gaelic Inbhir Ùige , Scots : Week and Weik ) is located on the northeast coast of Scotland about 410 km north of Edinburgh and about 1060 km north of London . Wick, with 7,155 residents, is the main town in County Caithness . The name Wick is apparently derived from the Nordic word for bay.

The city extends around the port at the mouth of the small river of the same name. A railway line, the Far North Line , connects Wick to the south and Thurso . To the north of the city there is a small regional airport , which connects the north of Scotland with the Scottish capital Edinburgh and (via the Scottish Aberdeen ) with the English airports East Midlands , Humberside , Norwich and Teesside , there is also a route to Sumburgh on the Shetland Islands .

The history of Wick goes back to the reign of the Vikings and Norwegians . Wick fell to Scotland with the Perth Peace Treaty in 1266. A holdover from this period are the ruins of the Castle of Old Wick , which is about a kilometer south of the city. The castle was believed to have been built by Harald Maddadson, the Earl of Caithness, in the 12th century, making it one of the oldest stone castles in Scotland. At the time, the kings of Norway had more influence over the area than the Scottish ones. Around the only remaining tower were other buildings: halls, accommodations, kitchens, bakery and brewing houses, stables, etc. The small peninsula on which the castle is located is protected by an artificial moat, which is now inconspicuous.

The port of Wick achieved its greatest heyday with the boom in herring fishing at the end of the 18th century; today it serves as an oil and ferry port. The Ebenezer Place in the center is two meters and six centimeters long, according to the Guinness Book of Records as the shortest street in the world.

Wick is the seat of the famous Old Pulteney whiskey distillery , founded in 1826 at the height of the aforementioned herring boom.