New research claims that the Gaelic language was indigenous to many areas of Caithness - surviving into the 20th Century. Opponents of Highland Council's policy on bi-lingual road signs have often claimed that Caithness heritage is more Norse than Gaelic and that the county was never Gaelic-speaking.

Even where it is conceded that the language was spoken in Caithness, it is often claimed to have been hundreds of years ago. But a new breakdown of official census figures for the county's parishes suggests otherwise, showing the remnants of an indigenous Gaelic population still speaking the language into the twentieth century.