Cromarty

Coordinates: 57°40′52″N 4°02′06″W / 57.681°N 4.035°W / 57.681; -4.035
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For other uses of Cromarty or Cromartie, see Cromartie.

Cromarty
  • Scottish Gaelic: Cromba
Cromarty is located in Ross and Cromarty
Cromarty
Cromarty
Location within the Ross and Cromarty area
Population660 (mid-2020 est.)[1]
OS grid referenceNH785675
Council area
Lieutenancy area
CountryScotland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townCROMARTY
Postcode districtIV11
Dialling code01381
PoliceScotland
FireScottish
AmbulanceScottish
UK Parliament
Scottish Parliament
List of places
UK
Scotland
57°40′52″N 4°02′06″W / 57.681°N 4.035°W / 57.681; -4.035

Cromarty (

Scottish Gaelic: Cromba, IPA: [ˈkʰɾɔumpə]) is a town, civil parish and former royal burgh in Ross and Cromarty, in the Highland area of Scotland. Situated at the tip of the Black Isle on the southern shore of the mouth of Cromarty Firth, it is 5 miles (8 km) seaward from Invergordon on the opposite coast. In the 2001 census, it had a population of 719.[2]

History

The name Cromarty variously derives from the Gaelic crom (crooked), and from bati (bay), or from àrd (height), meaning either the "crooked bay", or the "bend between the heights" (referring to the high rocks, or Sutors, which guard the entrance to the

Earldom of Cromartie.[3] In 1264, its name was Crumbathyn.[4]

Cromarty is a

HMS Natal blew up close by on 30 December 1915 with a substantial loss of life. [a] Cromarty gives its name to one of the sea areas of the British Shipping Forecast
.

Cromarty Castle was the seat of the Urquharts, who were the hereditary sheriffs of Cromarty. The town was a royal burgh, and the ferry to Nigg was on the royal pilgrimage route north to Tain. In 1513 James IV of Scotland went on a pilgrimage[5] and stayed in Cromarty Castle for 1 night. Until 1890, it served as the county town of Cromartyshire.

Etching of Cromarty from Scotia Depicta by James Fittler

The site of the town's mediaeval burgh dating to at least the 12th century was identified by local archaeologists after winter storms in 2012 eroded sections of the shoreline. A community archaeology project, which began in 2013, is investigated the remains of roads and buildings at the site on the eastern edge of the present town.[6]

Cromarty was the birthplace of Sir

Rabelais into English.[3]

In the nineteenth century, Cromarty was the birthplace and home of Hugh Miller, a geologist, writer, journalist and participant in the Disruptions in the Church of Scotland. Among his works was a collection of local folklore, such as the legend, dating from around 1740, that a Cromarty man named John Reid was granted three wishes from a mermaid, and that he used one of the wishes to marry a woman named Helen Stuart.[7]

Geography

The burgh is noted as a base for viewing the local offshore

bottlenose dolphins. Cromarty, along with Chanonry Point
just round the coast, is one of the best places in Europe to see these animals close to the shore.

The predominant local stone is the Old Red Sandstone about which Hugh Miller wrote. Many fossils can also be found in the rocks along the coast.

Governance

UK Parliamentary constituency

Cromarty is in the UK Parliament constituency of Ross, Skye and Lochaber, represented since 2015 by Ian Blackford, ex-Leader of the SNP group in Westminster.

Following the

county constituency of Ross and Cromarty. Following a boundary change in 1983, the sitting MP, Hamish Gray (Conservative and Unionist Party) was defeated by Charlie Kennedy (SDP, later Liberal then Liberal Democrats), who would go on to lead the Liberal Democrats, and who represented Cromarty until 2015, as the MP for Ross, Cromarty and Skye (1983–1997), Ross, Skye and Inverness West
(1997–2005) and then Ross, Skye and Lochaber.

Scottish Parliament Constituency

In the

Donald Cameron (Conservative).

Coat of arms of Cromarty and District Community Council

Local Authority

Cromarty is within the

Highland region which superseded the local government county of Ross and Cromarty in 1975. Since the local elections in 2017
, its councillors, for the Black Isle ward, have been Craig Fraser (SNP), Gordon Adam (Liberal Democrats) and Jennifer Barclay (Independent).

Community Council

The Cromarty and District Community Council consists of seven members, elected for four-year terms.[12] Three of these members are elected annually to serve as chairman, Secretary and Treasurer.[12] Its coat of arms, granted in 1988, are based on the arms of Urquhart of Cromarty, with a mural coronet placed in the middle of the boars’ heads, signifying a town, and the motto is that of the Urquharts. The official blazon is: Or, three boars' heads erased Gules, armed and langued Azure, in the centre of the shield a mural coronet of the Second. Above the Shield is placed a mural coronet suitable to a statutory Community Council, videlicet:- a circlet richly chased from which are issuant four thistle leaves (one and two halves visible) and four pine cones (two visible) Or, and in an Escrol below the Shield this Motto "Meane Well, Speak Weil, and Doe Weil".

Architecture and landmarks

Cromarty Courthouse

Cromarty is architecturally important for its Georgian merchant houses, such as Forsyth House, built by William Forsyth, that stand within a townscape of Georgian and Victorian fisherman's cottages in the local vernacular style. It is an outstanding example of an 18th/19th century burgh, "the jewel in the crown of Scottish Vernacular Architecture".[13] The cottage with crow-stepped gables in Church Street, in which the geologist Hugh Miller was born (in 1801), is now the only remaining thatched building in Cromarty, with most houses having switched to slate roofs.[14]

To the east of the burgh is Cromarty House, built by George Ross in 1772 on the site of the former Cromarty Castle, which he demolished. Ross also built several other notable buildings in Cromarty: a seven-bay brewery, at the time the biggest in the Highlands, of which two bays remain (now used as a residential arts and training centre);

Second World War.[16]

While the Gaelic chapel is now ruined, its graveyard is still active as Cromarty's cemetery, and the town's war memorial and a monument to Hugh Miller are situated next to it. Other buildings of note in Cromarty include the Stevenson Lighthouse, built in 1846, and the East Kirk, an important example of a medieval kirk in the Scottish vernacular, restored in the 2000s by the Scottish Redundant Churches Trust.[17]

Transport

Historically most travel to Cromarty would have been by ship: ferries connected the town with

vehicle ferry, the Cromarty Rose
. The Cromarty Rose was sold in 2009 and replaced for the 2011 season by a new four-car ferry called the Cromarty Queen, which continued the service from 2011 to 2014. After a year with no ferry in 2015, new operators, Highland Ferries, were awarded the ferry contract and re-commenced the regular service between Cromarty and Nigg with the Renfrew Rose running from June to September, from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. daily, once again offering a direct route North from the Black Isle.

Education

Cromarty has a small primary school named Cromarty Primary School with around 50 students. The University of Aberdeen Department of Zoology Lighthouse Field Station is based in Cromarty.

Community and culture

The small community is also known for being a hub of creative activity, with several arts venues, local artists and a small cinema. The Cromarty Arts Trust, which restored several buildings in the town, including the Brewery and the Stables, organises a programme of arts and music events, including concerts and gigs, an annual Crime and Thrillers weekend, a Harp Weekend and stone letter carving and silver working courses, while the Cromarty Group of artists hold an annual exhibition of their work. Other local community groups include the Cromarty History Society, which holds regular lectures, and the Cromarty and Resolis Film Society, which organises a Film Festival every December. Guests of the 2008 festival included

Scottish Gaelic
Short films, Animation workshop, photographic exhibition and late night Pizza and Film screenings.

In recent years, as elsewhere in Scotland, coastal rowing has become a major activity, and there are three skiffs based in Cromarty, which take part in competitions across Scotland. The Cromarty Community Rowing Club also hosts its own regatta in the summer.[18]

Traditional dialect

Main article: Cromarty dialect

The town made the news in October 2012 when Bobby Hogg, the last speaker of the traditional local

Highland Council had produced a digital booklet on the dialect. This states that the thou forms were still in common use in the first half of the 20th century and remained in occasional use at the time of publication.[25]

People

Notes

  1. region (1975 to 1996), and is today an area committee of the modern Highland unitary authority
    .

References

  1. ^ "Mid-2020 Population Estimates for Settlements and Localities in Scotland". National Records of Scotland. 31 March 2022. Retrieved 31 March 2022.
  2. ^ "Comparative Population Profile: Cromarty Locality". Scotland's Census Results Online. 29 April 2001. Archived from the original on 19 May 2011. Retrieved 1 September 2008.
  3. ^ a b  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Cromarty". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 7 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 483.
  4. ^ AD Mills (1991). The Oxford Dictionary of British Place Names. Oxford University Press. p. 140.
  5. ^ //www.tainmuseum.org.uk/article.php?id=51
  6. ^ "Project Background". Cromarty Medieval Burgh Community Archaeology Project. Retrieved 21 July 2014.
  7. ISBN 9780340165973
    .
  8. ^ "Cromartyshire | History of Parliament Online". www.historyofparliamentonline.org. Retrieved 16 May 2020.
  9. ^ "Cromartyshire | History of Parliament Online". www.historyofparliamentonline.org. Retrieved 16 May 2020.
  10. ^ "Cromartyshire | History of Parliament Online". www.historyofparliamentonline.org. Retrieved 16 May 2020.
  11. ^ "Cromartyshire | History of Parliament Online". www.historyofparliamentonline.org. Retrieved 16 May 2020.
  12. ^ a b "Cromarty Live | Community Council". www.cromartylive.co.uk. Retrieved 16 May 2020.
  13. ^ David Ross (1 October 1994). "Prince views a 'jewel in the crown'". The Herald. Glasgow. Retrieved 21 July 2014.
  14. ^ "Hugh Miller's Birthplace cottage and museum". National Trust for Scotland. Retrieved 8 September 2022.
  15. ^ Historic Environment Scotland. "Cromarty Court House Museum including prison, gatepiers, boundary wall and railings, Church Street, Cromarty (LB23585)". Retrieved 7 September 2022.
  16. ^ "Cromarty Image Library – Gaelic Chapel – c1916". www.thecromartyarchive.org. Retrieved 17 May 2020.
  17. ^ "Cromarty East Church". Undiscovered Scotland. Retrieved 8 September 2022.
  18. ^ "Regattas". CROMARTY COMMUNITY ROWING CLUB. Retrieved 17 May 2020.
  19. ^ "Cromarty fisherfolk dialect's last native speaker dies". BBC News. 2 October 2012. Retrieved 2 October 2012.
  20. ^ David Ross (2 October 2012). "Dialect's demise as final speaker dies at 92". The Herald. Glasgow. Retrieved 2 October 2012.
  21. ^ BBC Radio 4 – Six O'Clock News, 2 October 2012, from 28:30 until the end of the broadcast
  22. ^ "Rare fisherfolk dialect recorded". BBC News. 5 May 2009. Retrieved 2 October 2012.
  23. ^ Auslan Cramb (21 February 2007). "Brothers are last to speak dialect". Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 2 October 2012.
  24. ^ Matt Kennard (26 February 2007). "Anyone here speak Cromarty fisher?". The Guardian. Retrieved 2 October 2012.
  25. ^ The Cromarty Fisherfolk Dialect (PDF), Am Baile, The Highland Council's History and Culture website (on Internet Archive), p. 5, archived from the original (PDF) on 2 December 2015

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cromarty.
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