Gavin (4th century)

The only recorded saint of this name was an early Christian martyr, an ex–Roman centurion, decapitated in 300 AD and whose head was thrown in the Mediterranean sea before being reunited with his body. There are no known links between him and Caithness.

About ¼ m SE of Dorrery Lodge and within an enclosed graveyard are the ruins of a small chapel called Gavin’s Kirk or Temple Gavin. The surrounding land once belonged to the bishops of Caithness.

See Cat p. 37, Ecc Hist p. 61, Inventory no 90.

George (4th century)

George is associated with Palestine. He may have been a soldier and was probably martyred during the persecutions of Diocletian. Devotion to him flourished during the Crusades after a vision of him was seen just before an important victory during the 1st crusade.

None of the sources listed above mention George but there was a Georgemas Fair near the site of Georgemas Junction railway station. 

Gilbert (d. 1245)

He started his priestly life in Moray. He may have encouraged the cult of St Duthac of Tain and himself worked many miracles. He succeeded Bishop Adam, who had been murdered, as bishop of Caithness in 1222/3. He built an episcopal palace at Burnside, Thurso and the cathedral at Dornoch, which was dedicated to St Finbarr. Gilbert had been given large tracts of Sutherland by a relative as a personal gift and presumably felt safer here than in the rebellious North. The bones of the murdered Bishop Adam were taken to the cathedral in 1239. Gilbert was an excellent administrator and set up a complex system of diocesan administration as well as dividing his diocese into parishes. A century after Gilbert’s death, the cathedral was dedicated to him. 

See Cat p. 73and 81, Woodside p. 90.