THE 2017 Highland Council election proved to be a day of shock results with five new councillors being elected and four previous councillors losing their seats in Caithness.
Eight council seats were up for grabs with four in Thurso and North-West Caithness and four in Wick and East Caithness.
Conservative candidate Struan Mackie was elected councillor for the first time as he comfortably came second after stage 2 reaching the required quota, with Cllr Matthew Reiss elected at stage 1.
The final two places went to the final stage of voting when independent candidate Donnie Mackay retained his seat finishing third and SNP candidate Karl Rosie became the second new councillor taking the final fourth seat.
Caithness Civic Leader Gillian Coghill (Independent) and Caithness committee chairman Roger Saxon (Labour) were both defeated finishing fifth and sixth.
Thurso and North West Caithness results;
Total number of ballot papers received 5314
Valid votes 5244
Quota 1049
Stage 1 votes Quota reached or eliminated
1 Matthew Reiss 1924 (Elected stage 1)
2 Struan Mackie 901 1111 (Elected stage 2)
3 Donnie Mackay 567 1263 (Elected final stage)
4 Karl Rosie 746 1059 (Elected final stage)
5 Gillian Coghill 417 869 (Eliminated final stage)
6 Roger Saxon 328 487 (Eliminated stage 7)
7 Alexander Glasgow 198 276 (Eliminated stage 6)
8 Sandra Owsnett 104 137 (Eliminated stage 5)
9 Tommy Farmer 59 85 (Eliminated stage 4)