Easter Ross. Easter Ross guide
Pictish stones above the sea, Portmahomack's sandy bay, Scotland's tallest mainland lighthouse and whisky by the Dornoch Firth.
The four parts of Easter Ross
Easter Ross is the low, green corner of the Highlands that sits between three firths. The Cromarty Firth runs along its southern edge and the Dornoch Firth along its northern one, and between them the Tarbat peninsula points out into the Moray Firth. Most of it is farming country, with wide barley fields, beech woods and villages of red sandstone, and the sea is never far away. Plenty of people drive straight through on the A9 on their way north. Slow down, and you find Pictish stones carved more than twelve hundred years ago, distilleries with long histories, sandy bays and a lighthouse at the very end of the land.
Tain and the Dornoch Firth
Tain is an old royal burgh of red sandstone, with the story of St Duthus and his medieval pilgrims told in its museum and dinner in the old railway station. Glenmorangie's tall stills stand by the Dornoch Firth just outside town, and at Edderton, Balblair has been making whisky since 1790.
Portmahomack and the Tarbat peninsula
Portmahomack curls round a sandy bay looking west across the Dornoch Firth, with a harbour by Thomas Telford and a museum in the old church where a Pictish monastery once stood. The road ends at Tarbat Ness, where the tallest lighthouse on the Scottish mainland stands at the tip.
The Seaboard villages and Fearn
Three fishing villages look out over the Moray Firth, with a sandy bay at Shandwick and a bronze mermaid on the rocks at Balintore. Great Pictish cross-slabs stand above the shore at Shandwick and Hilton of Cadboll, and inland Fearn Abbey, the Lamp of the North, is still a parish church.
Invergordon and the Cromarty Firth
Invergordon's gable walls are painted with murals telling the town's story, and oil rigs wait out in the deep water of the Cromarty Firth. Above Evanton the Black Rock Gorge cuts a narrow chasm through the woods, and the Fyrish Monument looks down over Alness from its hill.
Best known for.
Easter Ross is known above all for its Pictish stones. Three of the great carved cross-slabs of the Picts stood within a short drive of one another on the Tarbat peninsula, at Nigg, Shandwick and Hilton of Cadboll, and digging at a fourth site, Portmahomack, uncovered a whole monastery. It is known for whisky too, from Glenmorangie and its tall stills to Balblair at Edderton and Dalmore at Alness. Tain is famous as a pilgrim town, Invergordon as a naval and oil port, and the Struie road for its long view over the Dornoch Firth.
More about Easter Ross
Tain is the main town, and the place where the story starts. It grew up around the shrine of St Duthac, and for centuries pilgrims came here to pray, a king among them. Today it is a handsome small town of pink-grey stone, with a museum in the churchyard, a restaurant in the old station and the Glenmorangie distillery on the shore just outside. Balblair distils a few miles west at Edderton. Out on the peninsula, Portmahomack curves round a sandy bay, and the three Seaboard villages of Shandwick, Balintore and Hilton of Cadboll run along the Moray Firth shore.
The Cromarty Firth side has a different feel. Invergordon is a working port, where oil rigs come into the deep water for repair and cruise ships tie up in summer, and its gable walls are painted with scenes from the town's past. Alness has the Dalmore distillery on the shore, and on the hill above Evanton the arched Fyrish Monument looks out over the whole firth. The stones and the whisky bring most people here, but give time to the quiet beaches, the seabirds off Tarbat Ness and the long light of a northern summer evening.
What would you like to look at?
See and doPictish stones, an abbey, a lighthouse and painted walls
Eat, drink and shopVillage inns, an old station and home baking
History and storiesPictish stones, a saint's shrine and a naval port
ItinerariesDays we have driven, stop by stop
Getting hereThe train, the A9 and the buses
What is on in Easter RossSomething new from the region every dayWhat is on in Easter Ross
Friday the 16th of October.
Sunrise 07:52, sunset 18:09.
Coming up in Easter Ross
- Oct22‘The Rosses of Cadboll and Berbice (Guyana): Kindred Spirits?’ talk by Dr David Alston, Thursday 22nd October 2026, Tarbat Discovery Centre
- Oct24Woodcut Weekend Workshop at Farlary Croft
- Oct28Building Resilience on Farm: Responding to Extremes - Easter Ross
- Nov10Studio Smith Tain Winter Show
- Nov28Christmas Wreath workshop - Saturday
The news in Easter Ross
Things you might not know.
Tarbat Ness Lighthouse is 43 metres high, with 203 steps up to the light, and it is the tallest lighthouse on the Scottish mainland.
From Fishing Towns and Villages
Portmahomack's harbour was designed by Thomas Telford, and anyone who wants a berth there now joins a waiting list of 25 to 30 years.
From Fishing Towns and VillagesSome 40,000 lobsters were landed at Portmahomack in the spring of 1792 alone.
From Fishing Towns and VillagesA Pictish monastery stood at Portmahomack from around 550 AD, and its carved crosses were smashed to pieces when the Vikings came.
From What Happened to the Picts?
The Shandwick Stone and the Hilton of Cadboll Stone carry Pictish symbols on one face and a great Celtic cross on the other.
From What Happened to the Picts?Glenmorangie began in 1843, when William and Anne Matheson founded a distillery on a Highland farm, and its copper stills are the tallest in Scotland.
From Whisky Distilleries
