by Marion Ruscoe
Petty Bay lies approximately 5 miles east of Inverness. Today it’s bypassed by the A96, but a map of 1798 shows that the original road from Inverness to Ardersier and Fort George looped off the Inverness-Nairn route at Allanfearn and joined the present B9039 at Castle Stuart Farm. The 1st edition 25” Ordnance Survey map indicates a track running down between Castle Stuart and Castle Stuart Farm, and following the coast out to the point.
The area was clearly much busier than it is today.
The Old Statistical Account (OSA) notes that there are no harbours in this area of the Moray Firth, but
there are two or three places within this parish [Petty] where safe and commodious harbours for small vessels might be made at a small expense.
One of the places was Petty Bay, and goods were often unloaded there to avoid the shore dues in Inverness. Adverts in the local press encouraged this practice. Winter’s map of 1760 highlights this by drawing three sailing vessels in the bay. In addition to the commercial and foreign trade activity, there were fishing communities along the coastline of Petty Parish, from Alturlie Point to Ardersier. Evidence of all this activity can be found round the Bay and these have been recorded by SCAPE – a stone alignment which may be a slipway at Alturlie Point (15433); a possible jetty at Clattach (15487); a stone alignment which may be a fish trap to the east of Alturlie Point (15432); pier posts and fishing structures at Newton of Petty (15455).
In addition there’s evidence of abandoned boats around the bay. At Clattach, SCAPE records a ballast mound which may be part of a boat graveyard (15466) and there are the remains of a wooden clinker-built fishing boat at Lonnie (15464). There are also several ballast mounds and decayed timbers at the eastern end of the Bay.
As well as legitimate activity, there was a great deal of smuggling, often with the connivance of local fishermen and businessmen. Bailie John Steuart, a merchant in Inverness and the Earl of Moray’s factor for Petty in the early C18, was one such, who on one occasion used Castle Stuart as a storehouse for his smuggled goods. However, John Grant in the New Statistical Account (NSA) notes that ‘smuggling at one time existed, but it has entirely disappeared of late years’.
The western end of the Bay was part of the Culloden Estate, but from Lonnie eastwards, it belongs to Moray Estates and at the eastern end there are the important buildings of the parish – the Church, the castle and the mill.
An interesting feature in the bay is the Clach an Abain, recorded in SCAPE (15489) and the Historic Environment Record (MHG14258). This boundary stone was moved during a storm in 1799. The event is recorded in many maps of the area, indicating both the original and the new position of the stone, and was foretold by the Brahan Seer and by the Petty Seer, who, as minister of the Parish Church, stated,
Graceless sinners […] if you don’t turn away from your bad ways, God will sweep you into the place where no mercy is obtained. As a sign that I am telling the truth, Clach an Àbain will be moved a good distance towards the sea without a person putting his hand on it!
Though some may have believed this was a miraculous event, a natural explanation was suggested by geologists, including Hugh Miller, that a sheet of ice formed under the stone, which was then moved by the tide some 260 yards further into the bay. Thomas Lauder Dick, who investigated this phenomenon, had his findings published in the Memoirs of Werner, 1821. The sheet of ice underneath the stone was measured at 18” thick, the tide was very high and ‘the wind began to blow a hurricane’. Dick notes that there was a furrow lying in the bay, caused by the movement of the stone in a WNW direction.
ALTURLIE POINT
At the western end of Petty Bay is the hamlet called Alturlie Point. Established in the C19 as a fishing community these were mainly two-roomed cottages and described in the OS name books as ‘one storey high, thatched and in middling repair’.
George Bain comments on the herring and salmon fishing at Alturlie Point, and suggests that both failed after Culloden. However, salmon fishing remained a valuable source of income for both the estate and the fishermen who held the rights.
The records show that there was a chapel dedicated to St. Columba in the area behind the row of cottages at Alturlie Point (MHG3042). Little if anything remains of this structure and it’s now so overgrown that investigation of the site is difficult. The OS Name Books record the unevenness of the ground as the only evidence and concludes,
the period at which divine worship was celebrated here is so remote, that no information can be obtained regarding the date of erection or when it became disused.
BOTHYHILL TO SCOTTACK
Between Alturlie Point and the eastern end of the bay, the land has been farmed for centuries. Roy’s map shows the whole of the area as under rig and furrow, with several communities, roughly equating to the farms which line the bay today. Since one interpretation of the name ‘Petty’ is from the Pictish ‘land of farms’, this confirms that the essentially agricultural nature of the area has a long history. Archaeological remains of earlier populations would have been vulnerable to constant ploughing. Not surprisingly, therefore, evidence of early occupation is largely in the form of crop marks.
Bothyhill
Bothyhill lies a little to the south-east of Alturlie Point. It’s described in the OS Name Books as ‘a farm house one story high, with steading attached thatched, and in fair state of repair’. This farm certainly goes back to the late C18 when John Clark was the farmer there. The 1861 census records the acreage as 40, but by 1881 the acreage was down to 8.
Evidence of early activity in this area is a crop mark of an enclosure (MHG3017).
Clattach
Clattach, or Claddoch, sits very close to the high water mark a short distance east of Alturlie Point. It was ’a small farm house one story high, with byres, farm and stabling attached; the whole thatched, and in good repair’, and Kenneth MacRae writing in 1955 notes that it,
was so near sea-level that high tides flood it, but no longer tenanted. At one time it was claimed to be the lowest worked farm in Scotland, but now Lonnie, nearby, claims that doubtful privilege.
It, too, was not a large farm – around 20 acres in 1861. By the middle of the C20 the buildings were ruinous, and there is now a modern house on the site.
Redhill
Redhill sits inland from Clattach and was a larger farm than either the two so far mentioned. In 1851 the acreage is recorded as 105, and though that seems to have reduced during the remainder of the century, it remained one of the larger farms in the area. It was described as ‘a farm house and out offices one storey high thatched and in good repair,’ and the farmhouse boasted eight rooms in 1891. Kenneth MacRae in 1955 describes it as ‘a grand farm for stock rearing’.
As with Bothyhill, there are some crop marks which suggest historic use of the area – a possible ring ditch (MHG429) and 2 enclosures (MHG36069, MHG431).
Lonnie
As we move further east, we come onto Moray Estates at Lonnie, which, like Redhill, is one of the larger farms at 100 acres. It’s described in the OS name books as,
A farm house two stories high, with suitable offices attached, the former slated and in good condition, the latter partly thatched, and partly slated, and also in good repair
The 1808 estate map shows it to be a collection of 7 buildings, two of which look to be substantial, with a walled garden. The 1901 census records the farmhouse as having 5 rooms, but the buildings include 2 farm servant’s houses and a shoemaker’s house. Lonnie is noted as being where some of the upper echelon of the clan lived. Donald McQueen of Corribrough was living at Lonnie in the early C18 as was McGilvray of Abercalder, and, later in the century, Alexander McGillivray, who was a tacksman and younger brother of Dalcrombie and who died at Culloden.
The HER has some indication of earlier occupation in the form of crop marks of two enclosures (MHG427 and MHG16121) and a ring ditch (MHG2937), but further evidence is being uncovered by excavation ahead of the development of golfing facilities at Castle Stuart. Amongst archaeological features recorded so far are a palisaded enclosure with large pits and a cremation burial, a corn drying kiln and a mediaeval field system.
Castle Stuart Farm (Scottack)
The final farm in the sequence along the coastline of Petty Bay is Castle Stuart Farm, or Scottack, which lies just south of Castle Stuart.
This was a substantial farm – historically between 200 and 300 acres with a large steading (MHG24042) and farmhouse (MHG15900). The 1808 estate map shows there to be 5 buildings, a garden and a large enclosure, lying on both sides of the road to Fort George. This farm was replaced by the current buildings. The present farmhouse was built in the early C19 and the buildings of the steading date to later in that century. By 1901, there was, besides the farmhouse and steading, the grieve’s house (3 rooms), 2 cattleman’s houses (4 rooms and 2 rooms) and a ploughman’s bothy (4 rooms). The accommodation provided (the farmhouse had 9 rooms in 1901) for both farmer and agricultural workers suggests its importance to the estate.
Collection, 2009).
CASTLE STUART
Castle Stuart (MHG45237, MHG2893) lies at the eastern end of Petty Bay. Although many sources suggest it was built on the site of an earlier castle (Hallhill), it certainly doesn’t look a likely site for a mediaeval castle. However, there does seem to have been an earlier castle at Petty and a more likely site is either one of the mounds at the north-eastern end of the bay or at Wester Dalziel on a mound called Tom-a-Chastel.
Castle Stuart was built by the Earl of Moray in the early C17 – a date on a window suggests 1625 – but it was never used as a family seat. The family preferred Darnaway, and when improvements were being made there, Castle Stuart was cannibalised for building materials, The castle was left roofless for many years only occasionally being repaired and occupied. This was noted by many commentators. Burrell, in his northern tour of 1758, notes,
12 miles east [of Inverness] lyes the new fort, to which we coasted on the side of the firth and in our way passed by an old uninhabited house of Lord Murray’s called Castle Stuart
While in 1897, Charles Fraser-Mackintosh commented,
It is to be hoped that Castle Stuart, so long uninhabited, though restored, will, like its neighbour of Dalcross, be again regularly inhabited and its old amenities revived, restored, and augmented
The castle never seems to have been ‘regularly inhabited’ though it was available for the family to occupy when in the Inverness area and was used for the collection of rents. The NSA records that,
Strathdearn feuers used to meet the tenantry of this parish and the factor at Castle Stuart, and spent not days but weeks in uncontrolled revelry.
The castle may well have been neglected, but its gardens were widely admired. A survey of Moray, 1798, comments,
Castle Stewart, a large old building on the Earl of Moray’s property, has been for many years uninhabitable. It is surrounded by an extensive grove, which shelters a spacious garden and orchard, distinguished by varieties of strawberry, and a species of small cherry, the black and red green, transplanted from Kent about a century ago by Alexander Earl of Moray.
From 1712 James Campbell is mentioned in the OPR as the gardener at Castle Stuart, and from then till 1822 several generations of this family, all called James, looked after the garden. The walled garden extended to 30 acres, before being absorbed into Castle Stuart Farm. Groome’s gazetteer of 1882-1885 comments,
Formerly the castle was surrounded by a fine park and an orchard noted for its greens; but the trees were all cut down about 1835, the park ploughed up, and the roof of the building removed
and the OS name books note that ‘the castle now stands in naked majesty in an arable field’.
The castle was bought in 1977 and after substantial renovations opened as a luxury hotel.
PETTY OLD PARISH CHURCH AND MANSE
The old parish church (MHG25211) is north of the castle. The present building dates from 1839, the last of several churches on this site. Tradition suggests that the church was established when St. Columba was forced to take shelter in Petty Bay during a storm, and preached a sermon from the mound. Several sources comment on the positioning of the church at the western end of the parish as not being very convenient for the parishioners and the NSA comments,
It contains 596 sittings. On ordinary occasions, a less number would suffice, as, both from the inconvenient situation of the church, and the existence of the two languages, the church-going population are only in part, and never at the same time in church.
On the eastern side of the church is the Mackintosh Mausoleum (MHG42263), built c.1686, and now in a very ruinous state. The Watch House at the kirkyard’s original entrance dates from 1825 and the Manse (MHG40679) from 1837-38.
Mausoleum covered in scaffolding on the right, 2019.
The kirkyard (MHG31452) was extended in 1928, when the glebe ground was sold for that purpose. It’s still used for burials, but the church closed in 1950 and is now a building at risk.
on the higher ground in the background, 2019.
Information in the Kirk Session minutes suggests that the church was never very wealthy, and there are many entries about repairs and the need to raise money for the purpose or to expect payment from the heritors, the elders or members of the congregation. In 1682 a note in the records of the Inverness and Dingwall Presbytery states that ‘the Fabrick of the Church is compleit and plenishit daily with Lofts and desks and other things necessary’, but the minutes suggest that there was a constant need to keep up with maintenance and provide extra facilities. In the early C18 two lofts were added to the interior of the church – one ‘for the behoof of Trades’ in 1712, and one on the north side of the church for scholars in 1714, both paid for by the schoolmaster.
In 1766 a bill of £2-0-9¼ was paid for the wood and workmen ‘for Making a Tent for Preaching without doorsbecause of the danger of being in the old Kirk’. This timber tent was repaired on a number of occasions throughout the life of the church. And this comment suggests that ‘the old Kirk’ was not in a very healthy physical state. It was clearly decided to rebuild the church. The NSA has a nice description of the church built at this time,
The west gable of the preceding church, part of which continues in this present church, was left standing, and the bare walls and roof, with the pulpit, was all that the heritors erected. The walls were never plastered, and each farmer, on the separate properties, paid for the pew which he occupied. The fishers erected one gallery, and the Session another, for which they took rent for a time.
According to local tradition the first ship-load of lime was landed on the beach for this new building.
By 1836 it was clearly felt that the church needed major works and an advert appeared in the Inverness Journal,
Contractors wanted for Executing repairs upon the Church of Petty and also for Repairing the Offices, and Building a Garden Wall. The Church must be roofed by the end of October next, and the whole Repairs thereon completed by the middle of May 1837. The Repair of the Offices must be completed by the end of October, and the Garden Wall also built by that time.
Despite the mention of repairs it’s clear that ‘repair’ here meant rebuild, though some of the original church building was incorporated into the new design.
Unfortunately the final book of minutes of the Kirk Session is missing, so it’s difficult to say with certainty why the church closed in 1950 and the congregation moved to the former Free Kirk at Tornagrain on the A96. Since its closure, the building has gradually deteriorated and suggestions as to what might be done with it have so far come to nothing. Kenneth MacRae records that he was able to get the key of the church in the 1950s. He notes three galleries, though one was later removed and another closed off. A sad end for a church that was described in the NSA as ‘a model for a country church; and the entire accommodations are sufficient and satisfactory in every respect’.
The Manse
The current building (MHG15881) was designed by James Macfarlane of Doune, and completed in 1838. It’s described in the OS name books as ‘two stories high, with offices attached, slated and in good condition’. Like the church it required regular maintenance, which gives us some idea of the facilities offered, especially in the predecessor(s) of the present house. In 1683 tradesmen were approached to carry out work on ‘the whole timber and timberworke of the hall, chamber, pantrie, kitchen, and remanent rooms of the said Manse’. Further repairs are recorded at the beginning of the C19 and C20.
Mackintosh Mausoleum
The Mackintosh Mausoleum (MHG42263) dates to c1686, paid for by Lachlan Mackintosh of Kinrara who left –
500 marks money….for building ane chapel of esslar (ashlar?) work at easter gable of kirk of Petty to be ane burial place for Lairds of Mackintosh and their ladies.
This is in an even more ruined state than the church, but the Clan Mackintosh have, like the C of S, so far been unable to find funds to stop the deterioration and the building is now encased in scaffolding.
Fuaran a’ Mhinisteir
Below the Church there was a spring (MHG2932) which exited into the area which was once the mill dam. The 1st ed. OS map notes that this area is liable to flooding and it is now very silted up. There is no sign of this spring, but it was believed to be specially effective as a remedy for whooping cough and other diseases. The OS name book describes it as
an excellent spring of water situated near high tide water mark South of the Church, it is of the most uniform cold temperature in the neighbourhood of Inverness and is very much resorted to on that account. It means the Minister’s Well.
SALTWATER MILL
This tidal mill (MHG36425, 14458) is perhaps the most enigmatic of the sites round Petty Bay. All that remains is the bulwark, which was built across the eastern end of the bay to create a mill dam. Nothing remains of the mill building, and very little of the additional buildings which existed to the north of the mill and housed the millers and their families.
The mill was built in 1673 and the contract between the Earl of Moray and Robert Niklesone, the mason at Cawdor, specifies the size – 36’ (10.97m) x 16’ (4.87m) x 10’ (3m) – with two waterwheels, 3 doors and at least 5 windows. There’s also mention of a sluice and water wheel gates. Another feature was the dyke, or bulwark, which cut across the eastern end of Petty Bay and, according to the NSA,
the keeping in repair of so many feet of the dike was assigned to each tenant on the Earl of Moray’s estate.
The Rough Burn flows into the bay about half way along this bulwark and there were water gates to fill the dam on the incoming tide and stop the outflow of the burn on the ebb tide. This feature was recorded by Thomas Kirk and Ralph Thoresby in their Tours in Scotland, 1677 and 1681,
We crossed a bank by a mill, near Stewart Castle, a quarter of a mile over, in the middle whereof were a pair of flood-gates, whereby the dam was filled with the tide, and supplied the mill at low water.
John Grant, minister at Petty Church, wrote a description of the mill in the NSA indicating that the bulwark and the two water wheels were designed.
first to exclude and then to admit the flow-tide at sluices so constructed as that the mill might be turned both by the flow and the ebb-tide.
survey. The fence posts indicate the line of the bulwark.
The mill finally ceased operating in the 1820s. Following its demise, the ancillary buildings were occupied for a further 40 years. In the 1861 census, only one dwelling was recorded, occupied by John Cameron, a labourer, and his family. After this, the small community which lived by the mill disappears from the historical record.
of the bulwark and the site of the mill building at left of picture.
NOSAS carried out a survey of the site in March 2023 and a report has been written by Anne Coombs.
TUMULI
These two mounds (MHG437, MHG39332, 14404) sit above the site of the mill. There is a tradition that one at least was a moot hill and in the 1808 estate map the western mound is named ‘Law Hill’. This could have been the site of the early castle of Petty but there is no evidence of building and the vegetation makes it difficult to investigate.
Today the area has become a quiet and rather forgotten spot, though modern development at Castle Stuart Golf Course to the north east and the further development of golfing facilities at Lonnie means that there will be a great deal more activity around this eastern end in the future.
Further information can be seen in Marion’s earlier blog post on Petty Industry, and in A Coastal Walk on the Moray Firth.
