Cromarty

Church Street Including the Thatched Hugh Miller's House

Cromarty lies just near the of the peninsula known as the Black Isle, which projects into the North Sea between the Moray Firth to the South and the Cromarty Firth to the North. It benefits from the protective shadow of the Sutors of Cromarty, the high ground to the east and is the principle settlement on the Black Isle.

Shore Street Forsyth House High Street Cromarty East Church Hugh Miller Institute

The village sits opposite Nigg. It occupies a triangle of ground, facing the sea to its north east and north west, and you get the very strong sense of a history that is intimately tied to the sea and to seafaring.

Cromarty Harbour

Cromarty to Nigg Ferry

Ferry Moored Up for Winter

Cromarty from the West

Oil Rig Moored Off Cromarty

Cromarty's major phase of development followed its purchase by George Ross in 1772. He built the harbour, and imported raw materials from the Baltic to feed the cloth, rope and ironware factories he also built here. These were operated by workers brought in from all parts of the Highlands.

Cromarty has been a ferry port for many centuries. It lay on the main coastal route north from Inverness, and formed a key staging post in the pilgrimage undertaken by many to the Chapel of St Duthus at Tain.

The building in 1982 of the A9 crossings of the Cromarty and Beauly Firths made the road links a much better option than they had been before. But a small two car ferry, the Cromarty Rose, still operates seasonally between Cromarty and Nigg. More information about the ferry including current timetables and fares can be found on their website.

Cromarty Firth has long been recognised as an important haven, being sheltered, deep, easily defended and very large. This was recognised by the Royal Navy through both first and second world wars. In more recent decades it has been associated with the North Sea oil boom, with both Nigg and Invergordon being used as service and construction yards. For many years this was signified by the string of rigs moored along the length of the Firth and readily visible from Cromarty. The rise in oil prices meant that by early 2007 the world demand for oil rigs was very high and there was no longer a surplus needing to be parked here.

Cromarty itself is an extremely attractive town, a mix of smaller cottages and more substantial buildings designed to house both the workers who fed its prosperity and those whose fortunes were made here.

Two contrasting buildings in the main street, Church Street, show this well. The first is the imposing Cromarty Courthouse building. The second is Hugh Miller's House, maintained by the National Trust for Scotland. This is the only thatched cottage left in Cromarty and the interior has been restored as it would have been during the life of Hugh Miller, between 1802 and 1856. Hugh Miller was a stonemason who became interested in geology and fossils; and who also became a notable author and church reformer.

Hugh Miller is also remembered in the shape of the Hugh Miller Institute, a grand, if a little out of place, library presented to the town by the Carnegie Institute in 1903. At the end of Church Street is the East Church or "Old Church". This is regarded as one of the best preserved Presbyterian churches in Scotland.

Cromarty is well worth a visit. It is very pretty in its own right, but adds to this an interest that comes from its history, its nautical connections, and its sense of being rather different. Plus the smallest car ferry in Scotland...

North End of Church Street