NAIRNSHIRE, a small county in Scotland. It is situated between 57° 22' and 57° 40' north latitude, and 3° 47' west longitude, having the Moray Frith on the north, Morayshire on the east and south, and the county of Inverness on the west. Its extent from north to south is from twelve to twenty miles, and from east to west from ten to thirteen; and its contents are 198 square miles, or 126,720 English acres, of which only about a fourth part is in cultivation, the rest consisting principally of waste and moor ground, with about 8000 acres of wood, chiefly planted, about two square miles of lakes, and a small proportion of moss. It has only four entire parishes, Nairn, Auldearn, Cawdor, and Ardclach, and portions of other five, which belong to the counties of Moray, Ross, and Inverness. Two detached districts, Ferintoshand Dunmaglass, belong to Nairnshire; the former lying near Dingwall in Ross-shire, and the latter at the head of Strathnairn in Inverness-shire.

The sea shore of Nairnshire is low, bare, and sandy; and the approaches to it from the Moray Frith are all beset by numerous sand-banks, especially from Fort George to Whiteness Point, where the free channel is narrow, and the navigation intricate and dangerous. To the eastward the sand has been drifted into hillocks and even hills of sand, the parents, it is believed, of the great sand floods which have buried the estate of Culbin, below Forres. Near to the coast there rises to the height of about ninety feet a bluff terrace-bank, from the top of which the country deflects back in several gentle undulations to the slopes of the first chain of hills on the south side of the river Nairn, the undulating plain being from one to four or five miles broad. The terrace-bank is part of a general one which encircles the Moray Frith, and which, with the waving cultivated grounds behind, consists of a great deposit of sand and gravel, the rolled debris in part of the ancient mountains, and also, most likely, of the solid rocks which at one time filled up the basin of the frith. Owing to this preponderance of sand in the subsoil, the alluvial covering of Nairnshire is in general extremely slight, sandy, and porous; and as the gravel beds are deep, rocks in situ are but seldom seen (with the exception, however, of some about the principal town, and Boath, which form good building stones) till we reach the south-western bank of the river Nairn. There the nearest chains of hills, which, rising gradually from the east to an altitude, on the confines of Inverness-shire towards the west, of perhaps 1500 feet, are skirted by a narrow strip of the old red sandstone formation, with its associated coarse conglomerate, dip beneath the gravel beds. Immediately behind, the whole country, extending from the river Nairn to the Findhorn, and in one part beyond it to Duthel in Strathspey, consists of primitive rocks, the only stratified member of which is gray gneiss, with a few occasional beds of bluish granular limestone. All the rest are varieties of granite, the most abundant variety being a red or flesh-coloured and largegrained granite, which about Park is beautifully porphyritic, with large crystals of felspar. All the rocks, as well those of the sandstone deposits on the north, as of the primary masses in the interior, exhibit undoubted and very extensive indications, in their shattered and uplifted positions, of several great granitic eruptions having occurred at different times.

On the Findhorn the scenery is in general wild and grand; the hills above are moorish, lumpish, and unbroken in their outlines; the banks of the Nairn, excepting the short distance they are enlivened by the contiguous pleasure grounds attached to the several seats of Kilravock Holm and Contray, are tame and uninteresting; but along the course of the streams traversing the sandstone rocks, we meet scenes of simple picturesque beauty. Such especially is the burn of Cawdor, which, for about two miles above the Castle of Cawdor, has cut down the conglomerate rocks into most beautiful pyramidal curves, the deep dell stretching around them being clothed with the most luxuriant vegetation, from either side of which a fine old oak forest, and more recent plantations of pines and oaks, cover for miles the lower slopes of the hills constituting the beautiful grounds of Lord Cawdor.

Nairnshire cannot boast of a peculiar Flora; but some rare plants occur, as potamogeton praelongus in Lochlee, and along with nymphaea alba in Loch Littie; gagea lutea and ranunculus aurieous near Blackhills; carex vesicaria and lycopus europaeus near Millhill; salicornia herbacea, teesdalia nudicaulis, and carex incurva, about Nairn; milium effusum, festuca calamaria, convallaria majalis, lycopus europaeus, listera ovata, goodyera repens, sco-lopendrium vulgare, lycopodium inundatum, about Cawdor.

The territory of Nairnshire, exclusive of the lands belonging to and held of the burgh of Nairn, is divided into fifteen estates, of which nine are under the valuation of L.500 Scots, other three under L.2000, and the remaining three above L.2000. The valued rent is L. 15,062.15s. Id. Scots, of which about one fourth is entailed. The real rent is now (1837) supposed to be fully L.16,000. The principal residences are, Cawdor Castle, the Earl of Cawdor; Kilravock Castle, Rose; Lethen House and Coulmony, Brodie; Kinsteary, Gordon; Boath, Dunbar; and Geddes, Mackintosh.

This county is further subdivided into farms, in general small and unenclosed. Although it is far behind the neighbouring counties of Moray and Ross in its agriculture, yet the gradual introduction of the use of lime along with the turnip husbandry is fast ameliorating the appearance of the cultivated districts of the county. Its live stock presents nothing worthy of particular notice; the cattle are generally small and puny, a sort of mongrel breed intermediate between the Highland and the Morayshire, but inferior to both.

This county sends a member to parliament alontr with Elginshire; and the town of Nairn joins with Inverness, Forres, and Fortrose, in the election of a member for these burghs. The number of county electors is 116, and those of the burgh amount to seventy-one. The counties of Elgin and Nairn are under the jurisdiction of the same sheriff, who has a substitute for the latter county in the town of Nairn.

Nairnshire formed a part of the ancient province of Moray. A few miles to the east of Nairn, at a place called Harmuir, Macbeth, according to Shakspeare, met the witches on his way to Forres. Near to the village of Auldearn, Montrose obtained a great victory over the Covenanters in 1645. The county contains the ruins of several castles, and other remains of an early age. The castles of [7:15:688] Cawdor and Kilravock, both of great antiquity, are still the seats of their proprietors.
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Nairn, the county town, and a royal burgh, is a place of considerable antiquity, pleasantly situated on the northern bank of the Nairn, near its mouth. It has no manufactures, and but little trade, and contains about 2000 inhabitants. The National Bank and the British Linen Company have opened branches here, and an academy has lately been erected by subscription. Nairn has an excellent inn, with hot and cold salt-water baths; and from the dryness and salubrity of the climate, it is much resorted to in summer for sea-bathing.