County town: Cromarty
Cromartyshire was an unusual county, comprising the town of Cromarty and several detached parcels of land scattered through Ross-shire. It was one of Scotland's most fragmented counties, often administered with Ross-shire.
Cromartyshire was one of Scotland's most unusual counties — a collection of detached portions scattered through Ross-shire rather than a contiguous territory. The town of Cromarty, on the Black Isle peninsula, was its administrative centre. Hugh Miller, born in Cromarty in 1802, became one of the most celebrated naturalists and geologists of the Victorian era, his cottage still preserved as a National Trust for Scotland museum. The Cromarty Firth is one of Scotland's finest natural harbours, and the county's fishing and farming were its economic foundations. The county was administered jointly with Ross-shire from the early 19th century and eventually merged with it.
The Statistical Accounts of Scotland — the Old Statistical Account (1791–99) and the New Statistical Account (1834–45) — provide detailed parish-by-parish descriptions of Cromartyshire at two moments of transformation. Aubrey draws on these accounts when generating reports for Scottish locations, providing historical context specific to the parish and county.
Scotland's 33 traditional counties, established as sheriffdoms from the 12th century onward, were the administrative framework of the country until the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1975 replaced them with regional councils. They remain the reference framework for historical records, genealogy, and cultural identity.
This page introduces the historic county of Cromartyshire. A full Aubrey report for a location within it pulls together everything the record actually holds about that ground, from the geology beneath it to the last coin dropped in a field:
Every location is different. Not every section appears for every place, only what the historical record actually holds turns up in a report.
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Cromartyshire contains 21 scheduled monuments — sites of national importance protected under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979.
Browse scheduled monuments in ScotlandAn Aubrey report for a specific location in Cromartyshire draws on historical maps, archaeological records, Domesday data, Statistical Account records, and landscape history to tell the full story of any site in the county.