The County of Moray, ( ) or Morayshire, called Elginshire until 1919, is a historic county in Scotland. The county town was Elgin. The historic county ceased to be used for local government purposes in 1975. Since 1996 most of the historic county's area has been included in the

Moray Moray ( ; or ) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. It lies in the north-east of the country, with a coastline on the Moray Firth, and borders the council areas of Aberdeenshire and Highland. Its council is based in Elgin, the area' ...

council area {{Unreferenced, date=May 2019, bot=noref (GreenC bot) A council area is one of the areas defined in Schedule 1 of the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994 and is under the control of one of the local authorities in Scotland created by that Ac ...

. The historic county boundaries are still used for certain functions, being a

registration county A registration county was, in Great Britain and Ireland, a statistical unit used for the registration of births, deaths and marriages and for the output of census information. In Scotland registration counties are used for land registration purpose ...

. There is also a Moray lieutenancy area, covering a slightly smaller area than the historic county. The historic county borders Nairnshire to the west, Inverness-shire to the south, and Banffshire to the east, and has a coast onto the Moray Firth to the north.

History

was a

province A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

in the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

, covering a much larger area than the later county. It lay to the north of the

Kingdom of Alba The Kingdom of Alba (; ) was the Kingdom of Scotland between the deaths of Donald II in 900 and of Alexander III in 1286. The latter's death led indirectly to an invasion of Scotland by Edward I of England in 1296 and the First War of Scotti ...

(early Scotland), sometimes functioning as a

vassal A vassal or liege subject is a person regarded as having a mutual obligation to a lord or monarch, in the context of the feudal system in medieval Europe. While the subordinate party is called a vassal, the dominant party is called a suzerain ...

of the Scottish crown, and at other times operating as a separate kingdom. Moray was finally absorbed into the Kingdom of Scotland during the 12th century. Medieval Moray

In order to secure the Scottish crown's authority over the area, it was divided into shires, being areas administered by a

sheriff A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England where the office originated. There is an analogous, although independently developed, office in Iceland, the , which is common ...

. The old earldom of Moray was broadly split into the three shires of Elginshire, Nairnshire, and the mainland parts of Inverness-shire. There is some evidence that these shires were established under David I (reigned 1124–1153), but the earliest documented Sheriff of Elgin was in the 13th century. There was also a short-lived shire centred on

Forres Forres (; ) is a town and former royal burgh in the north of Scotland on the County of Moray, Moray coast, approximately northeast of Inverness and west of Elgin, Moray, Elgin. Forres has been a winner of the Scotland in Bloom award on several ...

, which in the early 14th century was grouped with Nairn, before later being united instead with Elgin. The shire of Elgin was therefore sometimes called the shire of 'Elgin and Forres'. The shire of Elgin, or Elginshire, was seen as the core of the old territory of Moray and so was informally sometimes called Moray or Morayshire. 'Murrayshire' and 'Morrowshire' were sometimes used historically as alternate spellings. Over time, Scotland's shires became more significant than the old provinces, with more administrative functions being given to the sheriffs. In 1667 Commissioners of Supply were established for each shire, which would serve as the main administrative body for the area until the creation of county councils in 1890. Following the Acts of Union in 1707, the English term 'county' came to be used interchangeably with the older term 'shire'. There were occasional adjustments to county boundaries. For example, in 1870, an

exclave An enclave is a territory that is entirely surrounded by the territory of only one other state or entity. An enclave can be an independent territory or part of a larger one. Enclaves may also exist within territorial waters. ''Enclave'' is s ...

of Inverness-shire (surrounded by Nairnshire, Elginshire and Banffshire), including

Cromdale Cromdale (, from ''crom'' 'crooked' and ''dal'' 'valley, dale') is a village in Strathspey, in the Highland council area of Scotland, and one of the ancient parishes which formed the combined ecclesiastical (later civil) parish of Cromdale, ...

and

Grantown-on-Spey Grantown-on-Spey () is a town in the Highland Council Area, Counties of Scotland, historically within the county of Moray. It is located on a low plateau at Freuchie beside the river Spey at the northern edge of the Cairngorms, Cairngorm mounta ...

, was transferred to Elginshire, while the Elginshire's southern exclave around Abernethy and

Duthil Duthil () is a small village, bypassed by the A938 road, at the junction with the road B9007, near Carrbridge in Inverness-shire, Scottish Highlands and is in the Scottish council area of Highland Highlands or uplands are areas of high el ...

went to Inverness-shire. Elected county councils were established in 1890 under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889, taking most of the functions of the commissioners (which were eventually abolished in 1930). The

burgh A burgh ( ) is an Autonomy, autonomous municipal corporation in Scotland, usually a city, town, or toun in Scots language, Scots. This type of administrative division existed from the 12th century, when David I of Scotland, King David I created ...

of Elgin was deemed capable of providing its own county-level local government functions, and so it was excluded from the administrative area of the county council, although the county council still chose to base itself there. Elginshire County Council held its first meeting on 22 May 1890 at the Old Courthouse (built 1837) which adjoined Elgin Sheriff Court. The Old Courthouse also served as the meeting place for the commissioners. The 1889 Act also led to a review of boundaries, with exclaves being transferred to a county they actually bordered, and parish and county boundaries being adjusted to eliminate cases where parishes straddled county boundaries. There were several such changes affecting the boundaries of Elginshire, notably absorbing three detached parts of Nairnshire which were surrounded by Elginshire. At a meeting on 7 May 1919, Elginshire County Council voted to change the name of the county from the County of Elgin or Elginshire to Moray. The government responded by directing all departments to use Moray, but noted that the legal name would remain Elgin until such time as it could be changed by statute. The statutory change of name from Elgin to Moray eventually took place in 1947 under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1947. Reforms in 1930 under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1929 saw the burgh of Elgin brought within the administrative area of the county council, and merged the county councils of Moray and neighbouring Nairnshire for most purposes. The two county councils continued to be elected as separate bodies, but operated together as the "Joint County Council of Moray and Nairn", serving the combined area of the two counties. Moray County Council was initially based at the Old Courthouse adjoining Elgin Sheriff Court on the High Street in Elgin. By the 1930s it was too small and so was demolished and replaced by a new headquarters on the same site, called the 'County Buildings'. Work began on the new building in 1938 but was paused due to the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. The new building was eventually completed in 1952. In 1975 the

Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 The Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 (c. 65) is an Act of Parliament (UK), act of Parliament of the United Kingdom that altered local government of Scotland, local government in Scotland on 16 May 1975. The act followed and largely impleme ...

reorganised local government in Scotland into a two-tier system of regions and districts. The burgh of Grantown-on-Spey and district of Cromdale which surrounded it (which area had been in Inverness-shire prior to 1870), was included in the Badenoch and Strathspey district of the

Highland Highlands or uplands are areas of high elevation such as a mountainous region, elevated mountainous plateau or high hills. Generally, ''upland'' refers to a range of hills, typically from up to , while ''highland'' is usually reserved for range ...

region. The rest of the pre-1975 county of Moray was included in a new district called

in the Grampian region, which also took in significant territory from the western part of Banffshire. In 1996 the Scottish local government system was reorganised again, this time into single-tier council areas. The Moray district became one of the new council areas. The boundaries of the pre-1975 county of Moray are still used for some limited official purposes connected with land registration, being a

. The pre-1975 county of Moray excluding Cromdale and Grantown-on-Spey also serves as a lieutenancy area.

Coat of arms

Granted in 1927 by the Lord Lyon, Moray County Council's coat-of-arms was: ''Quarterly: 1st and 4th Azure, three mullets argent; 2nd and 3rd Argent, three cushions gules within a tressure flory-counter-flory of the last.'' The motto was ''SUB SPE'',

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

for "In Hope", a pun on the River Spey, which flows through the county. The coat of arms, described by Thomas Innes of Learney, a future Lord Lyon, in the ''Elgin Courant'' of 6 May 1927 as "the most beautiful county arms in Scotland", represented the clan Murray and Randolph, Earl of Moray, the two main landowners.

Geography

Moray consists of a flattish coastal section, containing the main towns, with a hilly interior, extending into the Grampian Mountains in the far south. Notable features of the coast are Findhorn Bay and the broad arc of Burghead Bay. The coast around Lossiemouth is somewhat rockier, and includes the small islands of Covesea Skerries and Halliman Skerries offshore. There are several lochs in the county, none of which are particularly large. They include Loch Dallas, Loch Noir, the Lochs of Little Benshalag, Loch of the Cowlatt, Lochanan a' Ghiubhais, Loch an Salich, Loch Trevie, Loch Tutach, Loch Allan, Loch Stuart, Loch Mhic Leòid, Loch Ille Mhòr, Lochan Dubh, Loch nan Stuirteag, Loch an t-Sithein and Lochindorb.

Settlements

Prior to 1975, there were six

s in the county. Burghs were abolished as part of the 1975 local government reforms. The burghs were: * Burghead * Elgin *

* Lossiemouth and Branderburgh * Rothes Other settlements include: * Alves * Archiestown *

* Cummingston *

Dallas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...

* Duffus * Dyke * Findhorn * Fochabers * Fogwatt * Garmouth * Hopeman * Kellas * Kingston on Spey * Kinloss * Kintessack * Lhanbryde * Longmorn * Mosstodloch * Rafford * Urquhart File:Burghead Seafront - geograph.org.uk - 246847.jpg, Burghead File:Dallas.JPG, Dallas File:Elgin cathedral 2.jpg, Elgin File:Findhorn Rainbow.JPG, Findhorn File:Fochabers and the Spey.JPG, Fochabers File:ForresHighStreet.JPG, Forres

Civil parishes

Civil parishes In England, a civil parish is a type of Parish (administrative division), administrative parish used for Local government in England, local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishe ...

are still used for some statistical purposes, and separate census figures are published for them. As their areas have been largely unchanged since the 19th century this allows for comparison of population figures over an extended period of time. From 1845 to 1930, parishes formed part of the local government system of Scotland, having parochial boards from 1845 to 1894. In 1861 there were 15 civil parishes entirely in Moray: # Alves # Birnie #

# Drainie # Duffus # Edinkillie (see List of listed buildings in Edinkillie, Moray) # Elgin #

# Kinloss # Knockando # Lhanbryde # Rafford # Speymouth # Spynie # Urquhart In 1861 Morayshire shared various civil parishes with three surrounding counties. Five with Banffshire: # Bellie Fochabers # Boharm # Inveraven # Keith # Rothes three with Inverness-shire: # Abernethy #

# Duthill and one with Nairnshire: # Dyke

Flag

In 2023, the Lord Lieutenant of Moray organised a competition to design a flag for the lieutenancy area. The winning design is green, gold and blue, representing the area's agriculture and links to the sea.

References

External links

Morayshire Photographs
from the George Washington Wilson 1904 Catalogue of Landscape and Architectural Views in Scotland {{DEFAULTSORT:Moray Counties of Scotland Lieutenancy areas of Scotland Counties of the United Kingdom (1801–1922)