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The town of Cromarty lies at the
north-east tip of the Black Isle, its feet in the
waters of the Cromarty Firth and its back to the heather covered slopes of
the South Sutor. With wide views across the Cromarty and the Moray Firths
to distant encircling mountains and nearer glimpses of narrow streets and
secluded courts, the district has much with which to enchant the visitor.
But those who would wish to enjoy it to the full, and especially those who
seek the atmosphere of the birthplace of the Cromarty Stonemason, must see
not only the length, breadth and height of the scene but should view it in
the fourth dimension of time also.
The deserted little town of today,
however picturesque, bears little resemblance to the busy place it was
when Hugh Miller was a boy. At the dawn of the nineteenth century the
streets of Cromarty were astir with seafaring men for then the industry of
the town was concerned with the broad waters that lay beyond the Sutors.
Cromarty was an important centre of the fishing industry and in the
fishertown men and women baited lines for the boats at anchor in the
harbour while the sea air was heavy with the tang of fish curing from a
previous catch. Beside the herring-barrels on the quay lay the
manufactures of the town, hempen cloth, linen, lace, ale, nails and
spades, and bacon awaiting shipment on one of the tall-masted sloops to
ports around the Scottish coast and the Continent.
Before this active time, Cromarty
had had its ups and downs. The Cromarty Firth, protected from east winds
and open seas by the bastions of the Sutors, had been from time immemorial
a haven for shipping and its geographical situation was well adapted to
make it a centre for coastal trading. Thus the population of Cromarty, in
common with so many of the east-coast ports of Scotland, was of lowland or
Scandinavian origin. The lowland seafarers had to fight for their foothold
on Celtic soil on more than one occasion, however, and it is recorded that
the neighbouring clans sacked the town in the reign of James IV. Cromarty
comes into historical prominence for the first time under the Stuarts when
the Urquharts were the lairds. The most famous of the family was the
whimsical Sir Thomas Urquhart, translator of Rabelais and author of
several rare and eccentric works. Sir Thomas continued the family
tradition of royalist and fought at the field of Worcester. He died in
exile on the Continent—it is said of joy at hearing of the news of the
Restoration.
Today tribute is paid to Sir Thomas Urquhart
on a memorial plaque erected by the Saltire Society in the Old Kirk of
Cromarty. This is one of the few buildings of the old town that remain,
the seventeenth century town, built to the north of the present site,
having been washed house by house into the sea. The Church, being built to
the south of the old town, has escaped coast erosion. It is a T-plan kirk
dating from 1700. It has harled walls and a simple belfry (1799) with
large round-headed windows flanking the pulpit. The eighteenth century
Cromarty House loft at the east end is decorated with pillars and
panelling while opposite it is a simpler loft. The north loft or poor’s
loft has been described as a more rudimentary piece of work. Other
interesting features of the Old Kirk are the box pews at its centre and
the hatchments or funeral escutcheons. These were displayed outside the
houses of the dead during mourning and were later hung in the kirk near
the family pew.
The union of 1707 brought depression
to Cromarty and failure of the fishing made the first half of the
eighteenth century a black time for the town. The house in which Hugh
Miller was born dates from these days being built about 1711. Its builder,
John Fiddes, was unlucky in his love for the beautiful Jean Gallie and
little caring for his future he became a buccaneer on the Spanish Main.
Returning later to Cromarty with his money-bag filled with dollars and
doubloons he found his old sweetheart a widow and soon they became man and
wife. With some of his Spanish gold he built the long low thatched cottage
‘with its tiny windows half buried in the eaves’ which was to be their
home and the home of their family for so many years. Hugh Miller tells us
that the death of the old buccaneer did not sever his connection with the
house, for young Hugh saw his apparition there over fifty years after they
had laid the seafarer in his grave, a tall figure dressed in a light blue
greatcoat standing at the head of the stairs gazing down at his terrified
great-grandson.
Prosperity began to return through
the enterprise of William Forsyth, a merchant and native of Cromarty. He
tried to help the fishing trade by instituting a bounty on herrings which
encouraged the fitting out of boats and later he provided the fishers with
nets and tackle. Although the venture met with limited success it was over
a century before herring returned to the firth in large numbers. Forsyth
expanded the interest which his father had in importing and exporting, and
in 1746 he was appointed agent of the British linen Company in the north
of Scotland.
Flax was shipped from Holland and
prepared in Cromarty whence it was shipped again to the ports of the
north. Employment was thus provided for many linen spinners which made up
in some measure for the loss of the herring fisheries. William Forsyth
built for himself the fine red sandstone house which is known today as
Forsyth House around which he planted a spacious garden. 'Both serve to
show how completely this merchant of the eighteenth century had
anticipated the improvements of the nineteenth. There are not loftier nor
better proportioned rooms in the place, larger windows, nor easier stairs;
and his garden is such a one as would satisfy an Englishman of the present
day’ (Hugh Miller Tales and Sketches).
The coasting schooners brought other
goods from the Continent such as Swedish iron and Norwegian timber which
provided raw materials for other manufactures. These and local resources
were put into use by George Ross who bought the Cromarty estate in 1722,
and who did more for the town than anyone else has been able to do. Ross
had made his fortune as an army agent owing his advancement to Lord
Mansfield and the Duke of Grafton. He instituted the manufacture of
biscuit and cotton-bagging from imported hemp which for many years was a
flourishing industry employing over 200 people in the factory and more
than twice that number in their own homes.
He also erected what was at the time
the largest brewery in the north which was intended to encourage ale
drinking rather than whisky drinking among the people. A nail and spade
factory was set up and lace makers were brought from England. Such was the
consequent trade that Ross persuaded the Government to contribute £7000
for the building of the pier to which he also gave liberally and which was
constructed
in 1785. Later a factory for the curing of pork and cod was set up which
for twenty years prior to 1845 had sent between fifteen and twenty
thousand pounds worth of goods annually to the English market. In 1829
smacks sailed from Cromarty every Tuesday.
The employment thus created, coupled
with the break up of the clan system in the Highlands, caused an
immigration of Gaelic speakers into Cromarty, for whom Mr Ross gave the
elegant Gaelic Chapel (1783) which stands on the high ground above the
town. He also gave the Court-House (1782) whose cupola and clock have
since been landmarks in the Cromarty scene. Building was a product of the
new-found prosperity of the townsfolk and the greater part of the town as
we know it today was built in the latter part of the eighteenth century or
the opening years of the nineteenth. It ranged from the unique and stately
merchants’ houses, with their three storeys and wide steps rising to their
well proportioned front doors, to the humble cottages of the fisherfolk
with their gables to the sea and their tiny windows peeping at one another
across the vennels. Hugh Miller’s father, master of one of the Cromarty
sloops, shared in the fashion by building a two storeyed sandstone villa
between the Court-House and old John Fiddes’ cottage but the sea claimed
Captain Miller before the new house could become a family home.
A visitor to Cromarty during Hugh
Miller’s time was Robert Chambers who records that ‘Cromarty is one of the
neatest, cleanest, prettiest towns of the size in Scotland.. . . Most of
the houses are whitewashed, owing to the generosity of a candidate for the
representation of the county in Parliament, who, anxious to gather golden
opinions from all sorts of men, offered thus to adorn the house of any
person who so desired; the consequence of which has been that Cromarty
came cleaner out of the election business of 1826 than perhaps any other
town in his Majesty’s dominions’!
During Hugh Miller’s years in
Cromarty the business of the town was still done by way of the sea. On 6
January 1830 he published in the Inverness Courier an account of
the launching from Hugh Allan’s shipyard in the town of a large and
handsome schooner which was christened The Sutors of Cromarty. He
was not always able to report such happy events, however, for he saw the
harbour, which under George Ross and his successors had become the artery
for the town’s trade, gradually change into one of the ports through which
ebbed so much of Scotland’s life blood in the emigrant ships. These ships
left Cromarty for Canada and Australia taking with them emigrants from
Ross and Sutherland not all of whom, at least in the earlier days, were
impoverished for we read that many possessed property and many were young
and eager for adventure. The ships themselves, however, must have been a
nightmare for one young man from Sutherland who sailed from Cromarty in
May 1830 wrote: ‘Nearly the whole of the passengers, about 220 in number,
were attacked by a severe fever owing to bad water. The water had been put
in palm-oil casks, or some other obnoxious stuff was in them formerly, and
we could neither use it for tea, coffee, or anything else, and of which we
got a very small allowance. We lost nine passengers in all.’ Another ship,
the Asia, sailing from Cromarty to Australia with 280 emigrants,
was stopped at Plymouth on 17 September 1838 and declared unfit, being
leaky and the passengers’ food poor and insufficient.
Thus it was that through a changing
social structure and by competition from the industrial south whose steam
looms were to rob the local weavers of employment, Cromarty shared
depression with the Highlands. Even the railway-builders were to bypass
the town leaving it in isolation and at the same time undercutting the
economy of the coastal trade. Only in the first world war was the
quietness of the little town interrupted when the Army was encamped nearby
and the ships of the Navy once again used the firth and the old streets
echoed to the voices of seafaring men. |
