Time was the arrival of the Vikings would send our forebears fleeing for safety but the latest landing party from across the North Sea were on an altogether more peaceful mission – a christening in the Old High.

The occasion was the baptism of Ragnhild Averil McIvor, infant daughter of Inverness-born Ewan McIvor, an oil industry manager based in Norway, and his wife Sønnøve.

The ceremony further underpinned the McIvor family’s connection with the Old High – Ewan was christened there by the late Dr Iain McIntosh, his father Mike is an elder as was his grandfather. The family home is at 120 Drakies Avenue.

Ewan, who was accompanied by his brother Neil, has been working in Norway for about eight years. Both are in the oil business as is Sønnøve who is a health and safety manager with a major oil company.

Mike and Avril already have a Norwegian grand child – Truls Even, almost four, and Ewan’s son from a previous partnership, had a front row seat for the ceremony, conducted by the Rev Peter Nimmo.

Sønnøve, accompanied by mum and dad Ragnhild and Gunnar and brother Ole, brought another little bit of her home country to the Old High by wearing Norwegian traditional dress for the occasion.

And the barriers of space and time, custom and language were banished in the words of the baptism ceremony addressed to Ewan and Sønnøve: “Your daughter now belongs to God in Christ. From this day she will be at home in the Christian community and there will always be a place for her.”