I have no information on this, however last week on the way back from Dunbeath I was thinking about the exact same question. I always notice the abandoned crofts along the A9 from Dunbeath to Thurso and was wondering what had happened to these people. One thing that came to mind was the herring fishing. After this industry died away many people around Caithness must have lost their livelihoods and possibly moved down to Glasgow or other cities for work.
I hope people give you information on this, the forum is not as popular as it was 5-6 years ago before the Scottish Independence vote - some were banned from the forum as it all got a bit heated. Hopefully some of the knowledge locals will still be on the forum and help out. The library in Thurso may have some books on this topic, or the heritage museum in Wick https://wickheritage.org/
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