Tomnacross is a small hamlet and part of the village of

Kiltarlity Kiltarlity () is a small village in the Highland council area of Scotland. It is west of Inverness and south of Beauly, on the south bank of the Bruiach Burn. It has a population of under 1,000 people, and a local primary school, Tomnacross P ...

, about 20 km west of the city of

Inverness Inverness (; ; from the , meaning "Mouth of the River Ness") is a city in the Scottish Highlands, having been granted city status in 2000. It is the administrative centre for The Highland Council and is regarded as the capital of the Highland ...

in the

Highland Council area Highland (, ; ) is a council areas of Scotland, council area in the Scottish Highlands and is the largest local government area in both Scotland and the United Kingdom. It was the 7th most populous council area in Scotland at the United Kingdo ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. It is the location of the Kiltarlity village school (Tomnacross Primary), Kiltarlity Church, and a cemetery. There are also several houses in the area. The Tartan Heart Festival takes place nearby on the Belladrum Estate. The name "Tomnacross" is a 19th-century anglicisation of "tom na croiche",

Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic (, ; Endonym and exonym, endonym: ), also known as Scots Gaelic or simply Gaelic, is a Celtic language native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a member of the Goidelic language, Goidelic branch of Celtic, Scottish Gaelic, alongs ...

for "knowe of the gallows". This refers to the

gallows A gallows (or less precisely scaffold) is a frame or elevated beam, typically wooden, from which objects can be suspended or "weighed". Gallows were thus widely used to suspend public weighing scales for large and heavy objects such as sa ...

which were on a stepped hill in the churchyard. For most of its history, Tomnacross has been little more than a few crofts above the village of Kiltarlity. In 1766 however, the area's ecclesiastical establishment (i.e. manse, glebe, and church) moved from just south of the River Beauly to what is the present-day kirk. Tomnacross Primary School was built in 1875, though has been extended several times over the years. Originally also a secondary school, it became solely a primary school in about 1970. The current school roll is 90, plus 28 in the nursery. Secondary school pupils travel to

Charleston Academy Charleston Academy (Gaelic:''Àrd Sgoil Bhaile Theàrlaich'') is a secondary school established in 1978, in the Kinmylies area of Inverness, Scotland. The present roll is 724 pupils. The catchment area includes Kinmylies, Muirtown, Leachkin a ...

in Inverness. Kiltarlity Church is part of the

Church of Scotland The Church of Scotland (CoS; ; ) is a Presbyterian denomination of Christianity that holds the status of the national church in Scotland. It is one of the country's largest, having 245,000 members in 2024 and 259,200 members in 2023. While mem ...

. The modern church was built in 1829, on the site of a previous incarnation built the century before, and is a

Category B listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

. File:Tomnacross kirk - geograph.org.uk - 1555015.jpg, Kiltarlity Church, at the centre of Tomnacross File:Tomnacross Primary School - geograph.org.uk - 1554993.jpg, Tomnacross Primary School

References

Populated places in Inverness committee area {{Inverness-geo-stub nl:Aberarder