Firth is a word in the English and Scots languages used to denote various coastal waters in the United Kingdom, predominantly within Scotland. In the Northern Isles, it more often refers to a smaller inlet. It is linguistically cognate to Scandinavian fjord and fjard, with the original meaning of "sailable waterway". The word has a more constrained sense in English. Bodies of water named "firths" tend to be more common on the Scottish east coast, or in the southwest of the country, although the Firth of Clyde is an exception to this. The Highland coast contains numerous estuaries, straits, and inlets of a similar kind, but not called "firth" ; instead, these are often called sea lochs. Before about 1850, the spelling "Frith" was more common.
Cromartyshire was a county in the Highlands of Scotland, comprising the medieval "old shire" around the county town of Cromarty and 22 enclaves and exclaves transferred from Ross-shire in the late 17th century. The largest part, six times the size of the old shire, was Coigach, containing Ullapool and the area north-west of it. In 1889, Cromartyshire was merged with Ross-shire to become a new county called Ross and Cromarty, which in 1975 was merged into the new council area of Highland.
The Moray Firth is a roughly triangular inlet of the North Sea, north and east of Inverness, which is in the Highland council area of the north of Scotland.
Ross and Cromarty, is an area in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. In modern usage, it is a registration county and a lieutenancy area. Between 1889 and 1975 it was a county.
Ross is an area of Scotland. It was first recorded in the tenth century as a province, at which time it was under Norwegian overlordship. It was claimed by the Scottish crown in 1098, and from the 12th century Ross was an earldom. From 1661 there was a county of Ross, also known as Ross-shire, covering most but not all of the province, in particular excluding Cromartyshire. Cromartyshire was subsequently merged with the county of Ross in 1889 to form the county of Ross and Cromarty. The area is now part of the Highland council area.
Dunnet Head is a headland in Highland, on the north coast of Scotland. Dunnet Head includes the most northerly point of both mainland Scotland and the island of Great Britain.
Portmahomack is a small fishing village in Easter Ross, Scotland. It is situated in the Tarbat Peninsula in the parish of Tarbat. Tarbat Ness Lighthouse is about three miles from the village at the end of the Tarbat Peninsula. Ballone Castle lies about one mile from the village.
Hill of Fearn is a small village near Tain in Easter Ross, in the Scottish council area of Highland.
Easter Ross is a loosely defined area in the east of Ross, Highland, Scotland.
Balintore is a village near Tain in Easter Ross, Scotland. It is one of three villages on this northern stretch of the Moray Firth coastline: Hilton, Balintore, and Shandwick are known collectively as the Seaboard Villages.
Rosemarkie is a village on the south coast of the Black Isle peninsula in Ross-shire, northern Scotland.
Kildary is a small village in Easter Ross, Ross and Cromarty, Highland, Scotland.
The Tarbat Ness Lighthouse is located at the North West tip of the Tarbat Ness peninsula near the fishing village of Portmahomack on the east coast of Scotland. It was built in 1830 by Robert Stevenson and has an elevation of 53 metres (174 ft) and 203 steps to the top of the tower.
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.
Tarbat is a civil parish in Highland, Scotland, in the north-east corner of Ross and Cromarty.
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.
Covesea Skerries Lighthouse, originally belonging to the Northern Lighthouse Board (NLB), is built on top of a small headland on the south coast of the Moray Firth at Covesea, near Lossiemouth, Moray, Scotland.
Tarbat Ness is headland that lies at the end of the Tarbat peninsula in Easter Ross, Scotland. The name is from the Gaelic tairbeart meaning "isthmus" and the Old Norse ness, meaning "headland". It lies at the south of the entrance to the Dornoch Firth.
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.
Muiryfold was one of the Roman fortifications built by Septimius Severus in northern Caledonia. The site is located 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) east of Keith in Moray.
