A Walk Round Cromarty

Willie Shand spends a fascinating day in the historic Highland town.

THE Cromarty Firth, which forms the northern shore of the Black Isle peninsula, is widely regarded as one of the finest natural harbours in the world.

It’s so big and deep that it could easily accommodate the whole fleet of the Royal Navy and provide to all ships within it a sheltered haven in the stormiest of weather.

Around 10,000 years ago, when the glaciers of the last Ice Age gouged the Firth, they also helped create its narrow entrance cutting through the harder, rocky headland that lies immediately east of Cromarty.

These harder, more stubborn rocks of the headland are believed to be more than 700 million years old and are known as the North and South Sutors.

“Souter” is a Scots word for a shoemaker. According to legend, two giant shoemakers lived one on either side of the mile-wide narrows and used to share tools by tossing them across to each other from one side to the other.

I’ve just parked the car down by the Braehead Ice House and, with the boots on, I’m about to take a walk round the coast to visit the South Sutor.

It’s an easy four-mile circular with lots to see along the way – even before we leave the town.

The town of Cromarty sits at the eastern tip of the Black Isle, a drive of some 20 miles from Inverness. At one time the peninsula was served by as many as eight ferries, and the ancient royal burgh of Cromarty was one of the most prosperous towns in the Highlands.

Although firmly connected to the mainland, the Black Isle does have a bit of an insular feel to it. The ferries are now all but gone. Let’s hope the wee Nigg Ferry can manage to hold on.

The old industries created by 18th and 19th century entrepreneurs William Forsyth and George Ross have all but gone, too.