Nairnshire

NAIRNSHIRE, a north-eastern county of Scotland, bounded west and south by Inverness-shire, east by Elginshire and north by the Moray Firth. It has an area of 104,252 ac. and a coast line of 9 m., and is the fourth smallest county in Scotland. The seaboard, which is skirted by sandbanks dangerous to navigation, is lined by low dunes extending into Elginshire. Traces of old marine terraces are seen at elevations of 1 oo, so and 25 ft. above present sea-level. Parallel with the coast there is a deposit of blown sand and gravel about 90 ft. high stretching inland for 4 or 5 m. This and the undulating plain behind are a continu ation westward of the fertile Laigh of Moray. The lowland rocks are Old Red Sandstone, widely covered with glacial deposits consisting of lower and upper boulder clays, with later gravels forming ridges on the moorland between the rivers Findhorn and Nairn. From this region southward the land rises rapidly to the confines of Inverness-shire, where the chief heights occur. This higher land consists of the eastern, Dalriadan, or younger High land schists, with associated granite masses. Several of the border hills exceed 2,00o ft. in elevation. The only rivers of im portance are the Findhorn and the Nairn, both rising in Inverness shire. The Findhorn after it leaves that county takes a mainly north-easterly direction down Strathdearn for 17 m. and enters the sea to the north of Forres in Elginshire after a total course of 7o m. The Nairn, shortly after issuing from Strathnairn, flows towards the north-east for 12 M. out of its complete course of 38 m. and falls into the Moray Firth at the county town. There are eight lochs, all small: that of Clans contains crannogs, or ancient lake-dwellings. Nairnshire contains many beautiful woods and much picturesque scenery.

Industries.—The soil of the alluvial plain, or Laigh, is light and porous and careful cultivation has rendered it very fertile; and there is some rich land on the Findhorn. Although advanced methods of agriculture are in use, but a small proportion of the surface is capable of tillage, less than one quarter of the whole area being under crops. The hills are mostly covered with heath and pasture, suitable for sheep, and cattle are kept on the lower lying ground. A little sandstone quarrying and the sea and salmon

fisheries of the Nairn are the only industries of the shire. The L.M.S. railway from Forres to Inverness crosses the north of the shire.

Population and Government.

The population numbered 8,294 in 1931. Nairn (pop. 4,201) is the county town and only royal burgh. Nairn and Moray shires combine to return one member to parliament. The shire forms a sheriffdom with Moray and a sheriff-substitute from Elgin sits also at Nairn.

History.

The country was originally peopled by the Gaelic or northern Picts. Stone circles believed to have been raised by them are found at several places, particularly in the valley of the Nairn. To the north of Dulsie Bridge is a monolith called the Princess Stone. Mote hills and stones with cup-markings are also common. Beyond the occasional finding of Roman coins, there is little evi dence of effective Roman occupation. Columba and his suc cessors made valiant efforts to Christianize the Picts, but it was long before their labours began to tell, although the saint's name was preserved late in the 19th century in the annual fair at Auldearn called "St. Colm's Market," while to his biographer Adamnan—corrupted into Evan or Wean—was dedicated the church at Cawdor, where an old Celtic bell also bears this name. By the dawn of the loth century the Picts had been subdued with the help of the Norsemen, and Nairn, which was one of the districts colonized by the Scandinavians,.as part of the ancient province of Moray, soon afterwards became an integral portion of the kingdom of Scotland. Hardmuir, between Brodie and Nairn, is the heath where Macbeth is reputed to have met the witches. Territorially Moray was greatly contracted in the reign of David I., and thenceforward the history of Nairn merges in the main in that of the bishopric and earldom of Moray. (See ELGIN.) The thane of Cawdor was constable of the king's castle at Nairn, and when the heritable sheriffdom was established towards the close of the 14th century this office was also filled by the thane of the time.