Dear Frank I am in Norway at the moment, and so away from my books. To give you something of an idea, Berwick, where the Lairds were first recorded in the 13th Century, when it was Scots, has been in North East England since the 14th Century, just south of the Scottish Border. Peebles is still in Scotland, but not far from Berwick, and is in the Borders. Renfrewshire is on the outskirts of Glasgow over on the south west coast (I am prepared to be corrected by Graeme Laird on its precise limits, as I am more familiar with the east coast!). Caithness is the northermost county of Scotland, situated on the north east coast of the mainland, and has the famous tourist attraction of "John O'Groats". It is in the modern "Highland Region" but is flat terrain and often thought of as north of the Highlands. The Islanders just to the north of Caithness, in Orkney and Shetland do not really think of themselves as Scots, and feel closer to Scandinavia. All these places are therefore some considerable distance apart (in European terms, not US!). It is a feature of Europe and Scandinavia that relatively short distances can produce considerable changes in the perception of identity and position. I am not sure of the basis of the first records of Lairds as a family, but the majority of references to Scots family names give the surname "Laird" as "Berwick and Peebles in the 13th Century". The Highlands start just north of Glasgow in the West from a line which stretches north east to just south of Inverness in the east. I do not know of a "Castle Berwick" in the Highlands. This does not mean that it does not, or did not exist. I will let you have some more information when I get home. And we keep looking. Yours aye Iain