Walk around Cromary, Black Isle, Highlands

Welcome to the Highland Village of Cromarty. The first building you’ll see is the imposing Cromarty Courthouse, which is now a community run museum. The second is Miller House - also a Museum, and the third is Hugh Miller's Birthplace Cottage. Hugh’s birthplace is the only thatched cottage left in Cromarty and the interior has been restored as it would have been during the life of Hugh Miller, between 1802 and 1856. Hugh was a stonemason who became interested in geology and fossils. He was also a well-known author and church reformer.
The story of Cromarty is written in its architecture - in its beautiful fishermen's cottages and grand merchants' houses. There are 209 listed buildings in the town, ten of them A-listed. This Highland village offers a range of architecture, from a lighthouse built by the uncle of Robert Louis Stevenson, to a medieval parish church and of course the thatched cottage birthplace of Hugh Miller.
Cromarty was a Royal Burgh in the 13th century, trading in the products of the sea and the surrounding countryside. Fishing became increasingly important, and by the 17th century Cromarty had become a major centre for the export of salt fish. Cromarty's major phase of development was overseen by the local laird, George Ross of Pitkerrie in the 1770s. He built the harbour and imported raw materials from the Baltic to feed the cloth, rope and ironware factories he also built here. These were operated by workers brought in from all parts of the Highlands. You get the very strong sense of a history that is intimately tied to the sea and to seafaring.
There has been a ferry port here for many centuries. The By the 18th and early 19th centuries, Cromarty was a major port, rivalling Inverness. Population peaked in the 1830s at over 2,000.
This prosperity did not last. Cromarty fell into a decline. By 1971 the population had dropped below 500. Then came North Sea oil, plus improved transport links with Inverness, and artists, craftspeople and website designers as well as oil rig builders moved in to renovate the derelict cottages and crumbling mansions.
Now Cromarty is firmly on the map - those who come to visit Hugh Miller’s cottage and the award-winning Courthouse Museum, the wonderful restaurants, galleries and independent shops or just to wander the vennels of the Fishertown and explore the woodland paths.
Cromarty also has one of our favourite Highland Antique shops and it’s a wonderful day out from Inverness. Lots to explore there…
www.outlanderpastlives.com

[@MaureenKennedy-m5u]

Can anyone explain what the difference is between Cromarty (where I have been) and Cromary as in the title here? I ask because I live in Inverness California, and a street nearby is Cromary. I've always wondered if it's a typo. Thx.

[@Marcia-oh1yy]

Beautiful place.

[@carolynmurtaza1180]

i could retire there