CROMARTY

CROMARTY, County of, in Scotland, forms a kind of peninsula, washed on three sides by the friths of Cromarty and Moray, and bounded on the south-west and south by the county of Ross. With this are included several detached tracts scattered through Ross-shire, the whole amounting to 344 square miles. It was erected into a distinct county about the end of the 17th century, at the request of Sir James M'Kenzie, earl of Cromarty, to whom it almost entirely belonged. The face of the country is pleasant; a long ridge of hills extending the whole length in the middle of the county, having a fine declivity on either side towards the shores of the friths. The higher grounds are mostly covered with heath, but towards the shores the soils are light and early. The valued rent is 12,8971. 2s. 2d. Scots;

and the real rent in 1811 was 10,8601. 2s. 8d. for the lands, 4801. sterling for the houses. The language is generally Gaelic, but many speak that broad Scotch, which is commonly called the Buchan or Aberdeenshire dialect. Freestone, granite, and reddish-coloured porphyry, are almost the only minerals, if we except to-paxes, similar to those of Cairngorum, found in the parish of Kincardine. Fisheries are very successfully carried on, and pearls of considerable value are sometimes found in the frith of Cromarty, where the river Conal falls into that bay.

In the returns for 1811, the population of the parish was intermixed with that of Ross-shire. See CROMARTY, SUPPLEMENT.