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Ross-shire

Coordinates: 57°48′N 5°00′W / 57.8°N 5.0°W / 57.8; -5.0
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(Redirected from Ross-Shire)
This article is about the historic Scottish county. For the joint county created in 1890 also known as Ross-shire, see Ross and Cromarty.

Ross-shire
Historic county
Coat of arms of Ross-shire
Coat of arms
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Country Scotland
County townDingwall
Area
 • Total3,089 sq mi (8,000 km2)
 Ranked 3rd of 34
Chapman code
ROC (as part of Ross and Cromarty)

Ross-shire (/ˈrɒs.ʃaɪər/; Scottish Gaelic: Siorrachd Rois), or the County of Ross, was a county in the Scottish Highlands. It bordered Sutherland to the north and Inverness-shire to the south, as well as having a complex border with Cromartyshire, a county consisting of numerous enclaves or exclaves scattered throughout Ross-shire's territory. The mainland had a coast to the east onto the Moray Firth and a coast to the west onto the Minch. Ross-shire was named after and covered most of the ancient province of Ross, and also included the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides. The county town was Dingwall.

Ross-shire was abolished in 1889, merging with Cromartyshire to form a new county called Ross and Cromarty. The area is now part of the Highland council area. The name Ross-shire continued to be used by the Royal Mail as a postal county (including for the areas that were formerly in Cromartyshire) until postal counties were discontinued in 1996.

History

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Further information: Ross, Scotland

The province of Ross is documented from the 10th century. Prior to that, the area was the northern part of the province of Moray. The boundary between Moray and Ross in the 10th century followed the River Beauly, which also marked the southern extent of Norwegian overlordship at the time. The Scottish crown claimed the overlordship of Ross and neighbouring Caithness (which then included Sutherland) from Norway in 1098, but the process of establishing effective Scottish authority over the area took many years. Whereas Moray to the south was divided into shires (areas administered by a sheriff) during the 12th century, Ross and Caithness at that time were placed under the nominal jurisdiction of the Sheriff of Inverness (one of the three sheriffdoms created covering the province of Moray) rather than being given their own sheriffs.[1]

By the mid-13th century there were sheriffs at Cromarty and Dingwall, both within the province of Ross, but each appears to have had only a small area of jurisdiction around those towns, rather than the larger territories usually given to sheriffs. The Sheriff of Inverness was therefore still responsible for most of Ross and Caithness. The position of Sheriff of Dingwall did not endure.[2]

The shire of Inverness was further enlarged in the 15th century to take in the Outer Hebrides and some of the Inner Hebrides (notably Skye) when the Lordship of the Isles was fully absorbed into the kingdom of Scotland. An act of parliament in 1504 acknowledged that the shire of Inverness was too big for the effective administration of justice, and so declared Ross and Caithness to be separate shires, with the sheriff of Ross to sit at either Dingwall or Tain.[3]

In the event, that act was not put into effect as far as Ross was concerned and the area continued to be administered by the sheriff of Inverness. Another act in 1649 re-stated Ross's separation from Inverness-shire, but was only implemented for the purposes of appointing commissioners (as members of the Parliament of Scotland were called).[4] A subsequent act in 1661 finally separated Ross from Inverness-shire for all other purposes.[5][6]

Most of Scotland's shires had been created centuries earlier, when feudalism was at its height; many shires corresponded to the older comital provinces, or groupings or subdivisions of them. By the time Ross-shire was created in the mid-17th century, there were several other powerful landowners in Ross besides the Earl of Ross, and the vested interests of these landowners influenced the boundaries of the new shire. Whereas the old province of Ross had not included any of the Hebrides, Ross-shire was defined to also included the northern Outer Hebrides, notably the Isle of Lewis, which was owned by Kenneth Mackenzie, 3rd Earl of Seaforth, a major landowner in Ross. (The rest of the Outer Hebrides stayed in Inverness-shire.) Ross-shire also excluded the small area of Cromartyshire, which just covered the area around the town of Cromarty at that time, and also excluded smaller areas owned by Clan Fraser of Lovat, whose main base was in Inverness-shire, and the Ferintosh estate on the Black Isle which was owned by the Forbes family based in Nairnshire, and so was made an exclave of that county.[5][7][6]

In the late 17th century, Cromartyshire was significantly enlarged to take over numerous separate tracts of land across Ross-shire. Despite many being some distance from Cromarty itself, they were owned by George Mackenzie, Viscount of Tarbat, who owned the barony of Cromarty and wanted all his lands to be in the same shire.[8][9][10]

The Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889 provided that "the counties of Ross and Cromarty shall cease to be separate counties, and shall be united for all purposes whatsoever, under the name of the county of Ross and Cromarty." The two counties that became the single local government county of Ross and Cromarty, which continued to be used for local government purposes until 1975, although Ross-shire remained as the postal county for the mainland part of the local government county until 1996.

In 1975, Ross and Cromarty was itself replaced by the Highland region and the Western Isles, under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973. The region became a unitary council area in 1996, under the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994.

There was a Ross-shire constituency of the Parliament of Great Britain from 1708 to 1801, and of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1801 to 1832. In 1832 it was merged with the Cromartyshire constituency to form the Ross and Cromarty constituency.

Geography

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Sgurr Fiona and the Corrag Bhuidhe pinnacles on An Teallach in Wester Ross

Western Ross-shire, also known as Wester Ross, is typified by its mountainous Highland scenery, especially the Torridon Hills which includes such peaks as Beinn Eighe and Liathach. The highest point in the county is Càrn Eighe at 1,183 metres (3,881 feet). It contains a long, fractured coastline along The Minch and Inner Sound (opposite Skye), consisting of a number of isolated peninsulas split by sea lochs; from north to south the chief of these are Loch Broom, the Scoraig peninsula, Little Loch Broom, Gruinard Bay, Rubha Mòr peninsula, Loch Ewe, Rua Reidh/Melvaig peninsula, Loch Gairloch, Loch Torridon, Applecross peninsula, Loch Kishorn, Loch Carron, Lochalsh peninsula, Loch Long, Loch Duich and the Glenelg peninsula which is shared with Inverness-shire.

The eastern half (Easter Ross) is generally flatter, and consists of towns, villages and farmland bordering the Moray Firth. In the north Dornoch Firth separates the county from Sutherland; near the Dornoch Firth Bridge lies the thin, tapering Ness of Portnaculter peninsula. In the north-east can be found the hammerhead-shaped Tarbat peninsula which is shared with Cromartyshire; across Cromarty Firth lies the Black Isle (actually a peninsula not an island), which is also shared with Cromartyshire. To the south-east Beauly Firth forms the border with Inverness-shire.

The county contains numerous lochs, the most prominent of these being Loch Ailsh, Crom Loch, Loch a' Choire Mhòir, Loch Fada, Lochan Gaineamhaich, Loch Cluanie, Loch Loyne, Loch Monar, Loch Mullardoch, Loch a' Bhealaich, Loch nan Eun, Loch na Leitreach, Loch an Laoigh, Loch Calavie, An Gead Loch, Loch an Tachdaidh, Loch Sgamhain, Loch a' Chroisg, Loch Clair, Loch Coulin, Loch Fhiarlaid, Loch Dughaill, Loch Coultrie, Loch Damph, Loch Lundie, Loch na A-Oidhche, Loch Maree, Loch a' Ghodhainn, Loch Ghaineamhach, Loch Bad an Sgalaig, Loch a' Bhraoin, Loch Fannich, Fionn Loch, Loch na Sealga, Loch Eye, Loch Glass, Loch Morie, Loch Ussie, Loch Achilty, Loch Garve, Loch Luichart, Loch Achanalt, Loch Meig, Loch Droma, Loch Glascarnoch, Loch Coire Làir, Loch Vaich, Loch a' Chaorunn, Loch na Caoidhe, Loch Beannacharain and the Orrin Reservoir.

Lewis is the northern part of Lewis and Harris, the largest island of the Outer Hebrides and the third largest in the British Isles after Britain and Ireland. Due to its flatter, more fertile land, Lewis contains three-quarters of the population of the Western Isles, and the largest settlement, Stornoway. To the west lie the isolated and uninhabited Flannan Isles. About 71 kilometres (44 miles) north of the Butt of Lewis lie North Rona and Sula Sgeir, a remote group of islands which are included within Ross-shire.

Islands

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Mainland

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Lewis

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North Rona

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  • Eilean Bàn from the Skye Bridge, looking towards Kyle of Lochalsh
    Eilean Bàn from the Skye Bridge, looking towards Kyle of Lochalsh
  • Shag birds on Longa Island
    Shag birds on Longa Island
  • The Isle of Ewe
    The Isle of Ewe
  • Cave on Garbh Eilean, Shiant Isles
    Cave on Garbh Eilean, Shiant Isles
  • The famous Callanish Stones on Lewis
    The famous Callanish Stones on Lewis
  • Seana Chnoc (at left) and Bearasaigh from the south west. Stac nam Balg is just visible to the left of Seanna Chnoc
    Seana Chnoc (at left) and Bearasaigh from the south west. Stac nam Balg is just visible to the left of Seanna Chnoc

Settlements

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Mainland

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Dingwall, with Ben Wyvis in the distance
Shieldaig

Isle of Lewis

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Stornoway

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Grant, Alexander (2000). "The Province of Ross and the Kingdom of Alba". In Cowan, Edward J.; McDonald, R. Andrew (eds.). Alba: Celtic Scotland in the Middle Ages. East Linton: Tuckwell Press. pp. 98–110. ISBN 1 86232 151 5. Retrieved 28 August 2024.
  2. ^ Taylor, Alice (2016). The Shape of the State in Medieval Scotland, 1124–1290. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 144, 234–235. ISBN 9780198749202. Retrieved 30 August 2024.
  3. ^ Brown, Keith. "Legislation: final legislation published outwith the parliamentary register, Edinburgh, 11 March 1504". The Records of the Parliament of Scotland to 1707. University of St Andrews. Retrieved 30 August 2024.
  4. ^ "Records of the Parliaments of Scotland". www.rps.ac.uk.
  5. ^ a b Brown, Keith. "Act anent the shire of Ross". The Records of the Parliament of Scotland to 1707. University of St Andrews. Retrieved 30 August 2024.
  6. ^ a b Kennedy, Allan D. (2014). Governing Gaeldom: The Scottish Highlands and the Restoration State, 1660-1688. Brill. pp. 155–156. ISBN 9789004269255. Retrieved 30 August 2024.
  7. ^ MacKenzie, George Steuart (1810). A General View of the Agriculture of the Counties of Ross and Cromarty. London: Richard Phillips. pp. 3–4. Retrieved 30 August 2024.
  8. ^ Brown, Keith. "Act in favour of [George MacKenzie], viscount of Tarbat, 19 July 1690". Records of the Parliament of Scotland. University of St Andrews. Retrieved 4 September 2024.
  9. ^ Mackenzie, George Steuart (1810). General View of the Agriculture of the Counties of Ross and Cromarty. pp. 15–19. Retrieved 4 September 2024.
  10. ^ RPS 1685/4/66, RPS 1685/4/67, RPS 1686/4/35, RPS 1690/4/108, RPS 1690/4/119
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