Nigg
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![]() Nigg Old Church and churchyard. | |
Location within the Ross and Cromarty area | |
Population | 156 |
OS grid reference | NH815708 |
Council area | |
Lieutenancy area | |
Country | Scotland |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | Tain |
Postcode district | IV19 1 |
Dialling code | 01862 |
Police | Scotland |
Fire | Scottish |
Ambulance | Scottish |
UK Parliament | |
Scottish Parliament | |
Nigg (from the Scottish Gaelic : An Neag meaning "the notch", referring to a feature of the hills above the parish church) is a village and parish in Easter Ross, administered by the Highland Council. It lies on the north shore of the entrance to the Cromarty Firth.
The Cromarty Firth has been used as a deep water harbour, with a marine fabrication yard at Nigg used initially for North Sea oil and gas, but now being used for renewable energy projects.
The present parish church is an 18th-century building on an early Christian site dating back to at least the 8th century. The Nigg Stone, one of the most elaborate stone monuments of early medieval western Europe, [1] is preserved in a room at the west end of the church. This late 8th-century Pictish cross-slab formerly stood in the churchyard, but was moved indoors for preservation in recent years.
The nearby manse is one of the oldest to survive in Scotland, dating back to the first half of the 17th century. It is now privately owned and no longer used as the parish minister's residence.
Nigg Old has odd and curious features. In the churchyard is the Cholera Stone, dating from the cholera epidemic of 1832. One of the elders, on coming out of the church, saw a cloud of vapour hovering above the ground. He believed it to be a cloud of cholera, tossed a blanket or cloth over it and placed this large stone on top to keep it from escaping. According to one tradition, inside the church, the beadle (church officer) allowed an illicit still to be kept in the space under the pulpit. [2]
Nigg was the site of a crude oil storage and processing depot for oil piped in from the now abandoned Beatrice oil field in the Moray Firth and of a major multi user energy park including a dry dock operated by Global Energy Group.
In the oil boom of the 1970s, the oil fabrication yard at Nigg was extremely busy with many of the skilled workers moving up from areas such as Glasgow. This resulted in what was called "Glasgow colonies" in towns such as Invergordon and Alness, with many of the families choosing to make the move permanent. This can be seen as even now with some of residents still possessing a Glaswegian accent.
Since the purchase of the fabrication yard by Global Energy Group in 2011 and with investment from the Scottish Government the area has begun to see a new influx of workers to the area again with the yard having plenty of work in the renewable energy sector and also in oil drilling rig refurbishment. In 2012 Global Energy Group set up a skills academy to create new jobs for local residents and young people and this has resulted in a fall in unemployment in the area and a welcome boost to the local economy. In March 2017, Global Energy submitted an application to the Scottish Government requesting the yard be made a private port. [3]
The order which was eventually granted, created Nigg Port and gave Global and Nigg Energy Park increased management powers over the quays, wharfs, enclosed dry dock and adjoining land area at Nigg, the ability to maintain and improve the facility through development rights powers, set reasonable charges for facility users, control goods and hazardous substances and manage the security of the port area. It also gives them the right to board vessels moored alongside the port facility or remove vessels, goods and vehicles within Nigg Port's boundaries. [4]
In 2021, SSE approved a £110m investment in a wind turbine tower factory at the Port of Nigg. [5]
In May 2024, Orbital Marine Power announced Global Energy Group in Nigg as their preferred supplier to manufacture the turbines for Orbital's initial projects in Orkney. Construction is expected to start before the end of the year. [6]
The Nigg to Cromarty ferry route is often called The King’s Ferry – the route taken by King James IV of Scotland when on pilgrimage to the shrine of St Duthac at Tain, doing so at least 18 times in the years between 1493 and 1513. [7]
It is the only ferry service from the Black Isle. The ferry crosses the entrance to the Cromarty Firth, one of the finest natural harbours in Europe and also an area rich in wildlife and world-famous for its dolphin population. [8]
The current service is operated by the MV Renfrew Rose, one of the smallest car ferries in Britain, carrying up to 16 passengers and 2 cars. Up until the end of summer 2014, the crossing was provided during the summer by the MV Cromarty Queen. There was no ferry service during 2015.
The former Nigg Ferry Hotel, now a private residence, is near to the ferry pier (at grid reference NH796687 ).
Cromarty is a town, civil parish and former royal burgh in Ross and Cromarty, in the Highland area of Scotland. Situated at the tip of the Black Isle on the southern shore of the mouth of Cromarty Firth, it is 5 miles (8 km) seaward from Invergordon on the opposite coast. In the 2001 census, it had a population of 719.
The Cromarty Firth is an arm of the Moray Firth in Scotland.
The A9 is a major road in Scotland running from the Falkirk council area in central Scotland to Scrabster Harbour, Thurso in the far north, via Stirling, Bridge of Allan, Perth and Inverness. At 273 mi (439 km), it is the longest road in Scotland and the fifth-longest A-road in the United Kingdom. Historically it was the main road between Edinburgh and John o' Groats, and has been called the spine of Scotland. It is one of the three major north–south trunk routes linking the Central Belt to the Highlands - the others being the A82 and the A90.
Burntisland is a former Royal burgh and parish in Fife, Scotland, on the northern shore of the Firth of Forth. It was previously known as Wester Kinghorn or Little Kinghorn. The town has a population of 6,269 (2011).
Ross and Cromarty, also referred to as Ross-shire and Cromartyshire, is a variously defined area in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. There is a registration county and a lieutenancy area in current use, the latter of which is 8,019 square kilometres in extent. Historically there has also been a constituency of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, a local government county, a district of the Highland local government region and a management area of the Highland Council. The local government county is now divided between two local government areas: the Highland area and Na h-Eileanan Siar. Ross and Cromarty border Sutherland to the north and Inverness-shire to the south.
Ross is a region of Scotland. One of the provinces of Scotland from the 9th century, it gave its name to a later earldom and to the counties of Ross-shire and, later, Ross and Cromarty. The name Ross allegedly derives from a Gaelic word meaning "headland", perhaps a reference to the Black Isle. Another possible origin is the West Norse word for Orkney – Hrossey – meaning horse island; the area once belonged to the Norwegian earldom of Orkney. Ross is a historical comital region, perhaps predating the Mormaerdom of Ross. It is also a region used by the Kirk, with the Presbytery of Ross being part of the Synod of Ross, Sutherland and Caithness.
Stornoway is the main town, and by far the largest town, of the Outer Hebrides, or Western Isles, and the capital of Lewis and Harris in Scotland.
A tension-leg platform (TLP) or extended tension leg platform (ETLP) is a vertically moored floating structure normally used for the offshore production of oil or gas, and is particularly suited for water depths greater than 300 metres and less than 1500 metres. Use of tension-leg platforms has also been proposed for offshore wind turbines.
The Black Isle is a peninsula within Ross and Cromarty, in the Scottish Highlands. It includes the towns of Cromarty and Fortrose, and the villages of Culbokie, Resolis, Jemimaville, Rosemarkie, Avoch, Munlochy, Tore, and North Kessock, as well as numerous smaller settlements. About 12,000 people live on the Black Isle, depending on the definition.
Invergordon is a town and port in Easter Ross, in Ross and Cromarty, Highland, Scotland. It lies in the parish of Rosskeen.
Nigg Bay is a large, relatively shallow sandy bay, consisting of mudflats, saltmarsh and wet grassland, located on the north east coast of the Cromarty Firth, 5 miles (8 km) east of Invergordon, in the district of Ross and Cromarty and in the Scottish council area of Highland. At low tide, the Sands of Nigg are exposed. Nigg Bay can be said to start at Balintraid pier – probably the oldest pier on the Cromarty Firth – built by Thomas Telford in 1821. There is a wartime mining base alongside the pier and a series of coastal gun emplacements on the road to North Sutor.
The Inverness and Ross-shire Railway was a Scottish railway company formed in 1860 to build a line from Inverness to Invergordon. It opened in 1862 as far as Dingwall and in 1863 to Invergordon. It was extended to a Bonar Bridge station in 1864. It provided the basis for later extensions that eventually reached Thurso, forming the Far North Line. The Dingwall and Skye Railway branched off at Dingwall to reach the Kyle of Lochalsh.
Balintraid is an industrial settlement, which was built largely in the 1970s with the growth of the North Sea oil industry in Scotland, lies on the north east corner of Nigg Bay, in the Cromarty Firth in Ross-shire, Scottish Highlands and is in the Scottish council area of Highland. Balintraid pier - probably the oldest pier on the Cromarty Firth, was built by Thomas Telford in 1824.
The Kessock Ferry used to ply between Inverness and the Black Isle, across the Beauly Firth. It was withdrawn on the opening of the Kessock Bridge in 1982.
The Hutton oil field, located on the UK continental shelf, was the location for the first ever production Tension Leg Platform (TLP).
The Beatrice Offshore Wind Farm now known as Beatrice Offshore Windfarm Ltd (BOWL) project, is an offshore wind farm close to the Beatrice oil field in the Moray Firth, part of the North Sea 13 km off the north east coast of Scotland.
The Beatrice Oil Field is a small oilfield consisting of 3 platforms located 24 km off the north east coast of Scotland. It began operations in 1980 with the field finally being decommissioned in 2017.
The Port of Inverness is a port on the east coast of Scotland, at Inverness, Highland council area, at the mouth of the River Ness. It is one of Scotland's most sheltered and deep natural ports. The port is owned and operated by Inverness Harbour Trust, established by Act of Parliament in 1847. The port was first recorded in history in 1249.
SIMEC Atlantis Energy is a renewable energy company. It is incorporated in Singapore, but its operational headquarters are in Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom. Initially, it was a developer of the tidal power turbines and projects, but after becoming a part of GFG Alliance it has expanded its business also to the waste-to-energy and hydropower.
Rosskeen is a parish in Ross and Cromarty on the Cromarty Firth in northern Scotland, containing the settlements of Invergordon, Bridgend and Saltburn. It lies on the A9 between Inverness and Thurso.
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