Inverness-shire
Inverness-shire or the County of Inverness, is a historic county in Scotland. It is named after Inverness, its largest settlement, which was also the county town. Covering much of the Highlands and some of the Hebrides, it is Scotland's largest county by land area. It is generally rural and sparsely populated, containing only three towns which held burgh status, being Inverness, Fort William and Kingussie. The county is crossed by the Great Glen, which contains Loch Ness and separates the Grampian Mountains to the south-east from the Northwest Highlands. The county also includes Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in both Scotland and the United Kingdom.
The county ceased to be used for local government purposes in 1975. Since then, the parts of the county on the mainland and in the Inner Hebrides have been part of the Highland region, which was redesignated a council area in 1996. The Outer Hebrides parts of the county became part of the Western Isles, which since 1998 has used only the Scots Gaelic version of its name, Na h-Eileanan an Iar. The neighbouring counties prior to the 1975 reforms were Ross and Cromarty, Nairnshire, Moray, Banffshire, Aberdeenshire, Perthshire and Argyll. The mainland part of the county had a coast to the east onto the Moray Firth, and a much longer coast to the west onto the Sea of the Hebrides.
The historic county boundaries of Inverness-shire are still used for certain functions, being a registration county. There is also an Inverness lieutenancy area which covers the mainland part of the pre-1975 county and the Small Isles, as well as the parts of the historic counties of Argyll and Moray that were transferred to Highland.
History
The mainland part of Inverness-shire was anciently part of the Province of Moray, ruled by the Earls or Mormaers of Moray, sometimes as a vassal of the Scottish crown, and at other times effectively as a separate kingdom. The province was finally brought fully into the Kingdom of Scotland during the 12th century. In order to secure the Scottish crown's authority over the area, it was divided into shires, being areas administered by a sheriff. The old province of Moray was broadly split into the three shires of Elginshire, Nairnshire, and Inverness-shire, with Inverness-shire including the areas of the provincial lordships of Badenoch and Lochaber which were subordinate to Moray.Around the same time, the Scottish crown was also trying to secure its control on Ross and Caithness, the mainland provinces north of Moray. The Scottish crown had claimed them since 1098, when Norwegian overlordship of that area had been ceded to Scotland but, like Moray, they had remained largely independent. Whereas Moray was divided into shires at some point during the 12th century, Ross and Caithness were not made shires at that time. Instead, the Sheriff of Inverness was given authority over the northern provinces too. By the mid-13th century, there were sheriffs at Cromarty and Dingwall in Ross, but the extent of their control was fairly limited, with the Sheriff of Inverness still responsible for most of Ross and Caithness. The position of Sheriff of Dingwall did not endure.
In the 15th century, the quasi-independent Lordship of the Isles was fully incorporated into the kingdom of Scotland, and the Sheriff of Inverness was then also made responsible for the Outer Hebrides and some of the Inner Hebrides, notably Skye. An act of parliament in 1504 acknowledged that the shire of Inverness was too big for the effective administration of justice, and so declared Ross and Caithness to be separate shires. That act was set aside for most purposes in 1509; the northern areas eventually regained their independence from the sheriff of Inverness with the creation of the shires of Sutherland in 1633, Caithness in 1641, and Ross-shire in 1661. Ross-shire also included the northern Outer Hebrides, notably the Isle of Lewis. After 1661, Inverness-shire therefore comprised the western part of the province of Moray on the mainland, the southern Outer Hebrides, and some of the Inner Hebrides.
Over time, Scotland's shires became more significant than the old provinces, with more administrative functions being given to the sheriffs. In 1667 Commissioners of Supply were established for each shire, which would serve as the main administrative body for the area until the creation of county councils in 1890. Following the Acts of Union in 1707, the English term 'county' came to be used interchangeably with the older term 'shire'.
In 1870, Cromdale and Grantown-on-Spey were transferred from Inverness-shire to Elginshire in exchange for the area around Aviemore.
Inverness-shire County Council
Elected county councils were established in 1890 under the Local Government Act 1889, taking most of the functions of the commissioners. The burgh of Inverness was deemed capable of providing its own county-level local government functions, and so it was excluded from the administrative area of the county council, although the county council still chose to base itself there. Inverness-shire County Council held its first meeting on 22 May 1890 in the county's main courthouse at Inverness Castle, which had been rebuilt in 1836.The 1889 act also led to a review of boundaries, with exclaves being transferred to a county they actually bordered, and parish and county boundaries being adjusted to eliminate cases where parishes straddled county boundaries. There were several such changes affecting the boundaries of Inverness-shire. Notable changes included gaining the Small Isles of Canna, Muck and Rùm from Argyll. Exceptionally, the parish of Croy and Dalcross was allowed to continue to straddle Inverness-shire and Nairnshire. The boundary changes all took effect in 1891.
Inverness was subsequently brought within the administrative area of the county council in 1930, but classed as a large burgh, allowing the town council to continue to provide most local government services.
From the 1930s onwards the county council used the former Inverness College building at the corner of Ardross Street and Glenurquhart Road as its offices, renaming it County Buildings. The building was substantially extended in 1963 to provide additional offices, but council meetings continued to be held at Inverness Castle until the county council's abolition in 1975.
In 1955 the UK Government claimed sovereignty over Rockall, an uninhabited islet in the North Atlantic Ocean, which lies west of St Kilda. Under the Island of Rockall Act 1972, Rockall was assigned to the Harris district of Inverness-shire. The UK claim on Rockall is disputed, particularly by Ireland.
Since 1975
Local government was reformed in 1975 under the Local Government Act 1973, which replaced Scotland's counties, burghs and landward districts with a two-tier structure of upper-tier regions and lower-tier districts for most of Scotland. A single-tier structure of island areas was used for Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles. The mainland and Inner Hebrides parts of Inverness-shire became part of the Highland Region, whilst the Outer Hebrides parts became part of the Western Isles.The parts of Inverness-shire which went to the Highland Region were split between four lower-tier districts:
- Badenoch and Strathspey district, covering the burgh of Kingussie and district of Badenoch from Inverness-shire, plus the burgh of Grantown-on-Spey and Cromdale district from Moray.
- Inverness district, covering the burgh of Inverness and districts of Aird and Inverness.
- Lochaber district, covering the burgh of Fort William and district of Lochaber from Inverness-shire, plus the Ardnamurchan district and Ballachulish and Kinlochleven electoral divisions from Argyll.
- Skye and Lochalsh district, covering the Skye district from Inverness-shire, plus the South West District from Ross and Cromarty.
- Inverness, covering the combined area of the new Badenoch and Strathspey, Inverness, and Lochaber districts.
- Ross and Cromarty, covering both the Skye and Lochalsh district and the neighbouring Ross and Cromarty district.
- Western Isles.
Further local government reforms in 1996 under the Local Government etc. Act 1994 saw the regions and districts created in 1975 abolished and replaced with single-tier council areas. The former Highland region became one of the new council areas. The lieutenancy areas continue to be defined as they had been in 1975 despite the abolition of the districts on which they were based. The boundaries of the historic county of Inverness-shire are still used for some limited official purposes connected with land registration, being a registration county.
In 1998 the Western Isles Council formally changed the English language version of the area's name from Western Isles to Na h-Eileanan an Iar, to be used in both English and Gaelic contexts.
Geography
Inverness-shire is Scotland's largest historic county by land area. At the 1921 census it was reported to have an area of. Of the historic counties in the UK as a whole, only Yorkshire was larger.Its mainland section covers a large area of the Highlands, bordering the Sea of the Hebrides to the west and Beauly Firth and Moray Firth to the east which provide access to the North Sea. It is split into two by the Great Glen, a roughly 60-mile geological fault which runs south-west to north-east and divides the Northwest Highlands to the west from the Grampian Mountains to the east. The glen contains the notable lochs of Loch Ness, Loch Oich, and Loch Lochy, which are connected by the Caledonian Canal. The Great Glen opens to the south-west into the sea loch of Loch Linnhe.
Ben Nevis, the tallest peak in Britain, is located to the east of Fort William. The west coast consists of a number of peninsulas divided by long sea loch inlets; north to south these are the Glenelg peninsula, Loch Hourn, Knoydart peninsula, Loch Nevis, North and South Morar/Arisaig peninsula, Loch Ailort, Moidart peninsula and Loch Moidart. The west coast of Inverness-shire was traditionally referred to as the Rough Bounds due to its remoteness and inaccessibility. It remains wild and sparsely populated today.
The terrain in Inverness-shire is generally mountainous, with numerous lochs scattered throughout the county. Some of the lochs have been enlarged to use as reservoirs. The larger inland lochs are:
- Blackwater Reservoir
- Loch Arkaig
- Loch Cluanie
- Loch Ericht
- Loch Garry
- Loch Laggan
- Loch Lochy
- Loch Loyne
- Loch Mhor
- Loch Morar
- Loch Mullardoch
- Loch Ness
- Loch Oich
- Loch Ossian
- Loch Quoich or Cuaich
- Loch Shiel
- Loch Treig
- Lochan na h-Earba