From 1708 to 1832 Caithness and
Buteshire were paired as alternating constituencies: one of the constituencies
elected a
Member of Parliament (MP) to one parliament, the other to the next. The areas which were covered by the two constituencies are quite remote from each other, Caithness in the northeast of
Scotland and Buteshire in the southwest.[1][2][3][4][5]
From 1832 to 1918 Caithness was represented continuously by its own MP.
The constituency elected one Member of Parliament by the
first past the post system until the seat was abolished in 1918.
Boundaries
From 1708 to 1832, the Caithness constituency covered the
county of Caithness minus the parliamentary burgh of
Wick, which was a component of the
Tain Burghs constituency. In 1832, Wick retained its status as a parliamentary burgh and became a component of the
Wick Burghs constituency.
By 1892, Caithness had become a
local governmentcounty and, throughout Scotland, under the
Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889, county boundaries had been redefined for all purposes except parliamentary representation. 26 years were to elapse before constituency boundaries were redrawn, by the
Representation of the People Act 1918, to take account of new local government boundaries.
In 1918, the
Caithness and Sutherland county constituency was created. The Caithness and Sutherland constituency was created to cover the county of Caithness and the
county of Sutherland. The Wick Burghs constituency was abolished and two of its former components, Wick and
Dornoch, were merged into the new Caithness and Sutherland constituency.
Another General Election was required to take place before the end of 1915. The political parties had been making preparations for an election to take place and by July 1914, the following candidates had been selected;