The Latheron Parish Church
Now Clan Gunn Museum

But was it fact or fiction? history or humbug?  Was this Genoese navigator really the first European to discover the New world or was he 100 years too late?

Recently, evidence has turned up which indicates that Christopher Columbus was. after all, just an also ran, that he came a not very close second; and an increasing body of research is showing that credit for the discovery of America should really go to a Scot.  Why not come to the Clan Gunn Heritage Centre and Museum at Latheron, in Caithness and see the evidence for yourself? Perhaps you can throw some light, for instance, on the 600-year-old portrait of a Scottish knight, marked out in stone, on a quiet roadside in Massachusetts

How did he get there?  After all, America was still undiscovered by Europeans at the time and a further 94 years was to pass before Columbus could arrive.  and what about the evidence on the knight's shield?
What was the connection between a tribe of wild Indians and an order of powerful Scottish knights and what about the grave in a chapel near Edinburgh and the architecture of a strange round tower in Newport, Rhode Island?

The Clan Gunn Heritage Centre was established by the Clan Gunn Heritage Trust in 1985 in the 18th Century Old Parish Church of Latheron.
The remains of Castle Gunn, the original seat of the chief's of the Clan, and of Halberry Castle, the later stronghold, are situated on the Caithness coast seven miles north of the Heritage Centre. Neil Gunn's "Highland River", which was the basis for a number of his works, is at Dunbeath four miles south.

The Centre has a Clan Shop and is the base of the Clan Gunn Society, which maintains the traditions of the Clan throughout the world.  There are also Clan Gunn Societies of North America, Nova Scotia and New Zealand open to members of Clan Gunn and its septs.

Among 77 septs traditionally associated with the Gunns are the Hendersons, Johnsons, MacWilliams, Mansons, Robsons, Robinsons, Thomsons, Williamsons, Wilsons and Wyllies. Is your family name related to our clan? Why not come along to the Clan Gunn Heritage Centre and find out?

The Clan Gunn Heritage Centre and Museum is set in a magnificent location on the A99 Road north, in a high position overlooking the sea and the East coast fishing grounds.

This is crofting and fishing country, a land traditionally peopled by hardy and forthright Highlanders.  Our centre is dedicated to these people, who shared their burdens of toil and care and who were knit together, and who are knit together still, by proud ties of kinship and clan.

Here you can see the life and times of a great and ancient people, in peace and in war.

Come to Latheron, then to the small parish church at the top of the hill and meet the men and women of Gunn.

See More Of Latheron
Satellite View Of Clan Gunn Centre At Google Maps
Gunn Connections