Fortrose

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Fortrose
Fortrose (2499056028).jpg
Fortrose Cathedral
Ross and Cromarty UK location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Fortrose
Location within the Ross and Cromarty area
Population1,680 (2022) [1]
OS grid reference NH7256
•  Edinburgh 118 mi (190 km)
•  London 449 mi (723 km)
Council area
Lieutenancy area
Country Scotland
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Post town FORTROSE
Postcode district IV10
Dialling code 01381
Police Scotland
Fire Scottish
Ambulance Scottish
UK Parliament
Scottish Parliament
List of places
UK
Scotland
57°34′55″N4°07′55″W / 57.582°N 4.132°W / 57.582; -4.132
18th-century view of Fortrose ("Channery") Jacobite broadside - Channery Town in Ross.jpg
18th-century view of Fortrose ("Channery")

Fortrose is a town and former royal burgh on the Black Isle in the Highland council area of Scotland, [2] [3] about six miles (ten kilometres) northeast of Inverness. The town is known for its ruined 13th-century cathedral, and as the home of the Brahan Seer. Chanonry Point, a nearby headland projecting into the Moray Firth, is a popular location for dolphin spotting.

Contents

Names

Fortrose was historically known as the Chanonry of Ross, as it was where the canons of Fortrose Cathedral made their homes. [4] It is still known in Gaelic as A' Chananaich, meaning "place of canons". [5]

The origin of the name Fortrose is uncertain. One possibility is that it came from nearby Chanonry Point and originally meant the headland (ros) of the Fortriu, [6] a local ethonym. [7] Compare the etymology of Montrose in Angus. The locals pronounce the name /ˈfɔːrtroʊz/ , with the stress on the first syllable.

History

Archaeological investigations, by Headland Archaeology, in 2013, as part of a planning condition for the creation of a housing development found domestic activity dating from the Neolithic to the Early Bronze Age. There was evidence of cereal production and the gathering of wild resources. The archaeologists also found that funerary practices change on the peninsula during that time from stone cist burials to cremation burials. [8]

In the Middle Ages it was the seat of the bishopric of Ross, and formerly called Chanonry, for being the Chanory of Ross. [9] Fortrose owes its origins to the decision by Bishop Robert in the 13th century to build a new Cathedral of Ross there. This was to replace the Church of St Peter in nearby Rosemarkie. [10] The cathedral was largely demolished in the mid-seventeenth century by Oliver Cromwell to provide building materials for a citadel at Inverness. [11] The vaulted south aisle, with bell-tower, and a detached chapter house (used as the tollbooth of Fortrose after the Reformation) remain. These fragments, though modest in scale, display considerable architectural refinement, and are in the care of Historic Scotland (no entrance charge).

Fortrose was a parliamentary burgh, combined with Inverness, Forres and Nairn, in the Inverness Burghs constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of Great Britain from 1708 to 1801 and of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1801 to 1918. The constituency was abolished in 1918 and the Fortrose component was merged into the then new constituency of Ross and Cromarty.[ citation needed ]

Fortrose Academy

Fortrose Academy is the only secondary school on the Black Isle. It feeds in pupils from the respective primary schools of Avoch, Cromarty, Culbokie, Munlochy, North Kessock, Resolis, and Tore. There are around 640 pupils enrolled. Notable former teachers include Mr A. Tait, who won the Teacher of the Year Award in Scotland, 2006. The previous rector of the school is Jacquie Ross. [12]

Fortrose Library

Built into the school is Fortrose library, which is part of the Highland Libraries group. The library is regularly used by pupils in Fortrose Academy, for which the younger years take out books to participate in the "power readers" scheme, which involves pupils getting rewards for reading a certain number of books, and passing on to the next level. Due to the library's small size, the stock is always changing.[ citation needed ]

Black Isle Leisure Centre

Situated next to the school is the Black Isle Leisure Centre. It consists of a gym, and one single indoor court which has space for four badminton courts, four small basketball courts or one full sized basketball court. It also has goals at either end for football. Pupils of Fortrose Academy regularly have PE lessons in the Leisure Centre.[ citation needed ]

Transport

The A832 runs through the town.

There is a bus service from Inverness that runs half-hourly weekdays (with a few gaps for schools traffic). The buses continue hourly to Cromarty.

There was a railway station at Fortrose, which closed in 1951. The line it was situated on closed in 1960.[ citation needed ]

People from Fortrose

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ross-shire</span> Historic county in Scotland

Ross-shire, or the County of Ross, was a county in the Scottish Highlands. 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 exclaves 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 in the Outer Hebrides. The county town was Dingwall.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chanonry Point</span> Lighthouse

Chanonry Point lies at the end of Chanonry Ness, a spit of land extending into the Moray Firth between Fortrose and Rosemarkie on the Black Isle, Scotland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Diocese of Ross (Scotland)</span> Diocese in Scotland (c. 1130-1560)

The Diocese of Ross was an ecclesiastical territory or diocese in the Highland region of Scotland during the Middle Ages and Early modern period. The Diocese was led by the Bishop of Ross, and the cathedral was, latterly, at Fortrose. The bishops of the Early Church were located at Rosemarkie. The diocese had only one Archdeacon, the Archdeacon of Ross, first attested in 1223 with the appearance of Archdeacon Robert, who was consecrated bishop of Ross on 21 June 1249 x 20 June 1250. There is only one known Dean of Christianty (sic), one Donald Reid called the dean of christianty of Dingwall on 12 June 1530.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fortrose Branch</span>

The Fortrose Branch, also known as the Black Isle Railway, was a railway branch line serving Fortrose in the Black Isle, in the north of Scotland. It was built by the Highland Railway as a tactical measure to exclude a rival railway company and to move the locals from Fortrose onwards to other destinations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Inverness-shire</span> Historic county in Scotland

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fortrose Cathedral</span> Church in Scotland

Fortrose Cathedral was the episcopal seat (cathedra) of the medieval Scottish diocese of Ross in the Highland region of Scotland near the city of Inverness. It is probable that the original site of the diocese was at Rosemarkie, but by the 13th century the canons had relocated a short distance to the south-west, to the site known as Fortrose or Chanonry. According to Gervase of Canterbury, in the early 13th century the cathedral of Ross was manned by Céli Dé (culdees).

References

  1. ↑ "Mid-2020 Population Estimates for Settlements and Localities in Scotland". National Records of Scotland. 31 March 2022. Retrieved 31 March 2022.
  2. ↑ "Fortrose". The Gazetteer for Scotland. School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh and The Royal Scottish Geographical Society. Retrieved 17 June 2018.
  3. ↑ "The Online Scots Dictionary". Archived from the original on 2 January 2014. Retrieved 8 March 2013.
  4. ↑ "Fortrose". Am Baile – Highland History and Culture. Retrieved 28 January 2025.
  5. ↑ Watson, W. J. (1904). Place-Names of Ross and Cromarty. Inverness: Northern Counties Printing & Publishing Co. p. 128.
  6. ↑ McGuigan, Neil (2021). Máel Coluim III, 'Canmore': An Eleventh-Century King. Edinburgh: John Donald. p. 59. ISBN   9781910900192.
  7. ↑ Rhys, Guto (2015). "Approaching the Pictish language: historiography, early evidence and the question of Pritenic" (PDF). University of Glasgow. University of Glasgow. p. 155.
  8. ↑ "Vol 91 (2020): The Excavation of Neolithic Pits and a Bronze Age Burial Site at Ness Gap, Fortrose | Scottish Archaeological Internet Reports". journals.socantscot.org. Retrieved 23 July 2021.
  9. ↑ John Ramsay McCulloch (1847). A Dictionary, Geographical, Statistical, and Historical, of the Various Countries, Places, and Principal Natural Objects in the World: Illustrated with Maps. Harper & Brothers. p. 921. Retrieved 17 June 2018.
  10. ↑ "Fortrose Feature Page on Undiscovered Scotland". www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk. Retrieved 23 July 2021.
  11. ↑ The Scots Magazine. D.C. Thomson. 1956. p. 155. Retrieved 17 June 2018.
  12. ↑ "About Fortrose Academy". Fortrose Academy. Retrieved 22 December 2023.

Further reading

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