Ross-shire (; ), or the County of Ross, was a

county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

in the

Scottish Highlands The Highlands (; , ) is a historical region of Scotland. Culturally, the Highlands and the Scottish Lowlands, Lowlands diverged from the Late Middle Ages into the modern period, when Scots language, Lowland Scots language replaced Scottish Gae ...

. 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

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 ...

s 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 The Isle of Lewis () or simply Lewis () is the northern part of Lewis and Harris, the largest island of the Western Isles or Outer Hebrides archipelago in Scotland. The two parts are frequently referred to as if they were separate islands. The t ...

in the

Outer Hebrides The Outer Hebrides ( ) or Western Isles ( , or ), sometimes known as the Long Isle or Long Island (), is an Archipelago, island chain off the west coast of mainland Scotland. It is the longest archipelago in the British Isles. The islan ...

. The

county town In Great Britain and Ireland, a county town is usually the location of administrative or judicial functions within a county, and the place where public representatives are elected to parliament. Following the establishment of county councils in ...

was

Dingwall Dingwall (, ) is a town and a royal burgh in the Highland (council area), Highland council area of Scotland. It has a population of 5,491. It was an east-coast harbour that now lies inland. Dingwall Castle was once the biggest castle north ...

. 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 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 ...

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 ...

, except for the parts in the Outer Hebrides, which are in Na h-Eileanan an Iar. 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

The province of Ross is documented from the 10th century. Prior to that, the area was the northern part of the province of

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' ...

. 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 Caithness (; ; ) is a Shires of Scotland, historic county, registration county and Lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area of Scotland. There are two towns, being Wick, Caithness, Wick, which was the county town, and Thurso. The count ...

(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 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 ...

) 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. Dingwall Castle Ruins

By the mid-13th century there were sheriffs at Cromarty and

, 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. Following the crown's defeat of the rebellion in 1475 by John MacDonald,

Lord of the Isles Lord of the Isles or King of the Isles ( or ; ) is a title of nobility in the Baronage of Scotland with historical roots that go back beyond the Kingdom of Scotland. It began with Somerled in the 12th century and thereafter the title was ...

and Earl of Ross, the Lordship of the Isles was fully absorbed into the kingdom of Scotland. The shire of Inverness was therefore enlarged to take in the

and some of the Inner Hebrides (notably Skye). 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. That act was set aside for most purposes in 1509, and Ross once more came under 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 A commissioner (commonly abbreviated as Comm'r) is, in principle, a member of a commission or an individual who has been given a Wiktionary: commission, commission (official charge or authority to do something). In practice, the title of commissi ...

(as members of the

Parliament of Scotland In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

were called). A subsequent act in 1661 finally separated Ross from Inverness-shire for all other purposes. Kenneth Mackenzie, 3rd Earl of Seaforth, was subsequently appointed as the first permanent Sheriff of Ross in 1662 (following some resistance from Alexander Stuart, 5th Earl of Moray, who held the position of sheriff of Inverness and was reluctant to cede his authority over Ross). Most of Scotland's shires had been created centuries earlier, when

feudalism Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was a combination of legal, economic, military, cultural, and political customs that flourished in Middle Ages, medieval Europe from the 9th to 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of struc ...

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 powerful landowners in Ross, but the old title of Earl of Ross had become effectively extinct, having been merged into the crown. The vested interests of the landowners influenced the boundaries of the new shire. Whereas the old province of Ross had not included any of the

Hebrides The Hebrides ( ; , ; ) are the largest archipelago in the United Kingdom, off the west coast of the Scotland, Scottish mainland. The islands fall into two main groups, based on their proximity to the mainland: the Inner Hebrides, Inner and Ou ...

, Ross-shire was defined to also included the northern

, notably the

, 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.) Conversely, Ross-shire excluded the small area of Cromartyshire, which just covered the area around the town of Cromarty at that time. Ross-shire also excluded other areas north of the River Beauly owned by Clan Fraser of Lovat, which stayed in Inverness-shire where that family was based, 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. Ross-shire and Cromartyshire 1861 map

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. 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'. Following the Jacobite rising of 1745, the government passed the Heritable Jurisdictions (Scotland) Act 1746, returning the appointment of sheriffs to the crown in those cases where they had become hereditary positions, as had been the case for the Sheriff of Cromarty. The scope for a major landowner or clan chief to control the office of sheriff, which had been the major cause of Cromartyshire being separated from the rest of Ross, was therefore greatly reduced. From 1748 the government merged the positions of Sheriff of Ross and Sheriff of Cromarty into a single position. Despite sharing a sheriff from 1748, Ross-shire and Cromartyshire remained legally separate counties. They retained separate commissioners of supply, and from 1794 each appointed their own lord-lieutenants. From 1860 the commissioners of supply for the two counties were directed to work together on delivering some functions, notably relating to prisons. 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 new county of Ross and Cromarty came into being from the passing of the act in August 1889. The act also established elected county councils, which came into being in May 1890. Ross and Cromarty existed as a county until 1975. The Royal Mail used 'Ross-shire' as the name of the postal county for the mainland part of Ross and Cromarty, including the parts which had been in Cromartyshire. Postal counties were officially discontinued in 1996. In 1975, Ross and Cromarty was itself replaced by the

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as areas, zones, lands or territories, are portions of the Earth's surface that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and ...

and the Western Isles, under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973. A lower-tier district called Ross and Cromarty covering a similar area to the mainland part of the pre-1975 county existed from 1975 to 1996, when the Highland region became a single-tier

. There was a Ross-shire constituency of the

Parliament of Great Britain The Parliament of Great Britain was formed in May 1707 following the ratification of the Acts of Union 1707, Acts of Union by both the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland. The Acts ratified the treaty of Union which created a ...

from 1708 to 1801, and of the

Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, and may also legislate for the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace ...

from 1801 to 1832. In 1832 it was merged with the Cromartyshire constituency to form the Ross and Cromarty constituency.

Geography

Western Ross-shire, also known as Wester Ross, is typified by its mountainous Highland scenery, especially the

Torridon Hills The Torridon Hills surround Torridon village in the Northwest Highlands of Scotland. The name is usually applied to the mountains to the north of Glen Torridon. They are among the most dramatic and spectacular peaks in the British Isles and ma ...

which includes such peaks as Beinn Eighe and Liathach. The highest point in the area of the pre-1889 county is Càrn Eighe at . The west coast of mainland Ross-shire onto The Minch and Inner Sound (opposite Skye), is heavily indented with sea lochs and peninsulas. 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 Long is a body of water in the council area of Argyll and Bute, Scotland. The sea loch extends from the Firth of Clyde at its southwestern end, to the Arrochar Alps at the head of the loch. It measures approximately in length, with a wi ...

, Loch Duich and the Glenelg peninsula (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. In the north-east can be found the hammerhead-shaped Tarbat peninsula which was shared with Cromartyshire; across

Cromarty Firth The Cromarty Firth (; ; literally "kyles traitsof Cromarty") is an arm of the Moray Firth in Scotland. Geography The entrance to the Cromarty Firth is guarded by two precipitous headlands; the one on the north high and the one on the ...

lies the Black Isle (actually a peninsula not an island), which was also shared with Cromartyshire. To the south-east Beauly Firth forms the border with Inverness-shire. The county contains numerous lochs, some of which have been enlarged to use as reservoirs. The larger inland lochs are: *Fionn Loch * Loch Cluanie *Loch Damh * Loch Fannich *Loch Glass * Loch Langabhat (on Lewis) * Loch Loyne *Loch Luichart *

Loch Maree Loch Maree () is a loch in Wester Ross in the Northwest Highlands of Scotland. At long and with a maximum width of , it is the fourth-largest freshwater loch in Scotland; it is the largest north of Loch Ness. Its surface area is . Loch Maree c ...

* Loch Mullardoch *Orrin Reservoir

Islands

Ross-shire included the northern parts of the

, in particular the

. Lewis is not an island on its own but forms part of the larger island of Lewis and Harris, which is the largest island of the Outer Hebrides and the third largest in the British Isles after Britain and Ireland. Harris is in Inverness-shire. Due to its flatter, more fertile land, Lewis contains three-quarters of the population of the Western Isles, and the largest settlement,

Stornoway Stornoway (; ) is the main town, and by far the largest, of the Outer Hebrides (or Western Isles), and the capital of Lewis and Harris in Scotland. The town's population is around 6,953, making it the third-largest island town in Scotlan ...

. The only other island in the Outer Hebrides that was in Ross-shire prior to 1889 and was inhabited at the 2011 census was Great Bernera, which is linked to Lewis by a bridge. Ross-shire also included some small and now uninhabited islands, including the remote Flannan Isles to the west of Lewis. About north of the Butt of Lewis lie North Rona and Sula Sgeir, a remote group of islands which were included within Ross-shire. Ross-shire also included numerous islands closer to the west coast of the mainland. Only two were inhabited at 2011, being Dry Island in Loch Gairloch and the Isle of Ewe in Loch Ewe. Tanera Mòr in Loch Broom was part of Ross-shire when the shire was first created, but became part of Cromartyshire as part of the late 17th century boundary changes. File:Eileanban.jpg, Eilean Bàn from the Skye Bridge, looking towards Kyle of Lochalsh File:Longashags.jpg, Shag birds on Longa Island File:View towards Isle of Ewe - geograph.org.uk - 1167340.jpg, The Isle of Ewe File:Cave on Garbh Eilean, Shiant Isles - geograph.org.uk - 85271.jpg, Cave on Garbh Eilean, Shiant Islands File:Calanais Standing Stones 20090610 01.jpg, The Callanish Stones on Lewis

Settlements

Mainland

* Achnasheen * Alness * Applecross * Ardgay * Aultbea * Avoch * Barbaraville * Conon Bridge * Contin * Culrain * Diabaig *

* Dornie * Easter Fearn * Edderton * Evanton * Fearn * Fortrose * Garve *

Gairloch Gairloch ( ; , meaning "Short Loch") is a village, civil parish and community on the shores of Loch Gairloch in Wester Ross, in the North-West Highlands of Scotland. A tourist destination in the summer months, Gairloch has a golf course, a ...

* Hill of Fearn *

Invergordon Invergordon (; or ) is a town and port in Easter Ross, in Ross and Cromarty, Highland (council area), Highland, Scotland. It lies in the parish of Rosskeen. History The town built up around the harbour which was established in 1828. The area ...

* Inverinate * Kilmuir, Black Isle * Kilmuir, Easter Ross * Kinlochewe * Kyle of Lochalsh * Laide * Marybank * Muir of Ord * Munlochy * Nigg * North Kessock * Poolewe * Shieldaig * Strathcarron * Strathpeffer * Stromeferry * Tain * Torridon

Isle of Lewis

* Achmore * Adabrock * Aignish * Aird * Aird Uig * Arnol * Back * Balallan * Ballantrushal * Barvas * Borve * Bragar * Branahuie * Brue * Breaclete * Breanish * Breasclete * Calbost * Callanish * Carloway *

Cliff In geography and geology, a cliff or rock face is an area of Rock (geology), rock which has a general angle defined by the vertical, or nearly vertical. Cliffs are formed by the processes of weathering and erosion, with the effect of gravity. ...

* Coll * Cromore *

Cross A cross is a religious symbol consisting of two Intersection (set theory), intersecting Line (geometry), lines, usually perpendicular to each other. The lines usually run vertically and horizontally. A cross of oblique lines, in the shape of t ...

* Crossbost * Dalbeg * Eorodale * Eoropie * Fivepenny * Flesherin * Garynahine * Gisla * Gravir * Gress * Habost * Holm * Keose * Kirkibost * Kneep * Knockaird * Laxdale * Leurbost * Lionel * Lower Bayble * Marybank * Melbost * Newmarket * Newvalley * North Dell * North Tolsta * Orinsay * Parkend * Plasterfield * Portnaguran * Port of Ness * Portvoller * Sandwick * Shader * Shawbost * Shulishader * Skigersta * South Dell * South Galson * Steinish *

* Swainbost * Timsgarry * Tong * Upper Bayble

Parishes

In the medieval period the area was divided into the following parishes: # Alness # Applecross # Avoch # Barvas (on the Isle of Lewis) # Contin # Cullicudden #

or Inverferan # Edderton # Eye (on the Isle of Lewis) # Fodderty #

# Kilchrist or Tarradale # Killearnan aka Ederdour # Kilmuir Easter # Kilmuir Wester # Kiltearn # Kincardine # Kinnettes # Kintail # Kirkmichael # Lemlair # Lochalsh, aka Kilchoan # Lochbroom # Lochcarron # Logie Easter # Logie Wester or Logiebride # Ness (on the Isle of Lewis) # Nigg # Nonakiln # Rosemarkie # Rosskeen # Suddy # Tain # Tarbat # Uig (on the Isle of Lewis) # Urquhart # Urray These were all in the Diocese of Ross, apart from the parishes on Lewis which were in the Diocese of the Isles. After the extension of Cromartyshire in the late 17th century, several of the parishes included detached parts of that county; the only parish that was entirely in Cromartyshire was Cromarty itself. In common with other parts of Scotland, several parishes were suppressed, united or merged in the century or so following the Reformation: * Applecross was merged into Lochcarron, but then re-created in 1726. * Ness was split between Eye (which was renamed

) and Barvas. * At an unknown date Lochs (Lewis) was created. * Kinnettes was absorbed into Fodderty. * Kilchrist was absorbed into Urray in 1574. * Lemlair was absorbed into Kiltearn in 1618. * The parish of Fearn was created out of part of Tarbat in 1626. * Cullicudden and Kirkmichael were united c. 1700 to form the parish of Resolis. * Nonakiln was absorbed into Rosskeen c. 1714. * The parish of Glenshiel was created out of part of Kintail in 1726. * Kilmuir Wester and Suddy were united in 1750 to form the parish of Knockbain. * Urquhart and Logie Wester were united in 1845.

References

External links

Map of Ross-shire
on Wikishire {{Coord, 57.8, -5.0, display=title Counties of Scotland States and territories disestablished in 1890 Counties of the United Kingdom (1801–1922)