Cromartyshire

Cromartyshire () was a county in the Highlands of Scotland, comprising the medieval "old shire" around the county town of Cromarty and 22 enclaves and exclaves transferred from Ross-shire in the late 17th century. The largest part, six times the size of the old shire, was Coigach, containing Ullapool and the area north-west of it. In 1889, Cromartyshire was merged with Ross-shire to become a new county called Ross and Cromarty, which in 1975 was merged into the new council area of Highland.

==History== Cromartyshire was anciently part of the province of Ross. Ross had been under Norwegian overlordship in the 10th and 11th centuries, but was claimed by the Scottish crown in 1098. It took many years for Scottish authority to become fully effective in the area. Unlike other areas absorbed into Scotland around that time, such as Moray, Ross was not initially divided into shires. Instead, the area was placed under the nominal authority of the Sheriff of Inverness. By the mid-thirteenth century there were two small shires within Ross, based at Dingwall and Cromarty, to enforce Scottish laws in the immediate vicinity of those two burghs, but the rest of Ross remained under the sheriff of Inverness. The position of Sheriff of Dingwall did not endure, but the Sheriff of Cromarty did, and became a hereditary post held by Clan Urquhart.