Cromarty

Cromarty – Fisherfolk Lanes and the Lofts of the East Church

A few hours.

The route

Cromarty, at the tip of the Black Isle, is an old Georgian town, and in its Fishertown the fisherfolk lived along winding lanes called vennels.

The town museum's free tour on your phone lays old photographs of them over the streets as they are today, and the East Church at the end of Church Street has kept most of its 18th-century fittings. Lunch is a short walk back along the street at the Fishertown Inn.

The day

Cromarty

An unhurried morning on foot in one small town, with the car parked once and everything else a short walk away.

About three hours

Cromarty
An attraction
Parking is free all over Cromarty. Cromarty Museum's Fisherfolk of Cromarty tour runs on your phone from the museum's website. It lays photographs that Willie John Smith took of the fisherfolk between 1903 and 1910 over the streets as they are now. On Church Street you pass Hugh Miller's birthplace, the last thatched cottage in the town, and the Courthouse, built mostly between 1772 and 1782 to stand out to ships in the firth. Its museum opens only from June to August. At 48 Shore Street, Cromarty Pottery sells its hand-painted terracotta in the same cottage as gallery48, which shows paintings and prints. Both open Tuesday to Sunday in winter; gallery48 closes for January, and the pottery from Christmas Eve to the end of January.
More about Cromarty
About 5 min on foot
Cromarty East Church
The East Church stands in its walled graveyard at the far end of Church Street, and it's open to visitors every day. Its origins are medieval. After the Reformation the pulpit moved to the south wall, and the north aisle, added from 1739, gave it its T-shape. Inside, 18th-century lofts look down on the box pews. The front of the north loft carries the painted initials of those who held the pews, and wooden pegs are still there for hats and bonnets. Look for a gravestone from the 1400s carved with a cross, long swords and an open book, and for the funeral hatchment, a painted coat of arms, of George Ross, the laird who built Cromarty's harbour. Hugh Miller worked in Cromarty as a stonemason before he turned to geology and writing, and some of the memorials out in the graveyard are his.
About 2 min on foot
The Fishertown Inn
Lunch
It's two minutes' walk back along Church Street to the Fishertown Inn, a Georgian pub with a snug, where lunch is served from noon to 3pm. The menu changes often, but lunch runs to soup with fresh bread, toasties on Cromarty Bakery bread and smoked mackerel pâté with oatcakes, and the beers include ones from Cromarty Brewery and the Black Isle Brewery. Well-behaved dogs on a lead are welcome, with treats and water, and there's a children's menu. It opens every day of the year.
More about The Fishertown Inn