CROMARTY, one of the northern counties of Scotland, comprehends what is called the old shire, situated between the Frith of Cromarty on the north, and the Moray Frith on the south, containing about eighteen square miles, and also a number of detached tracts scattered throughout the extensive county of Ross, annexed to it in 1685 and 1698, by which it has been enlarged to 344⅜ square miles, or 220,586 English acres. The largest.of these tracts lies on the western coast, at a distance of fifty miles from the old shire, and the whole belonged to George Viscount Tarbat, afterwards Earl of Cromarty, by whose influence the acts of annexation were procured. The valued rent is L.12,897. 2s. 2d. Scots, and the real rent in 1811 was, for the lands L.10,860. 2s. 8d. and for the houses L.480 sterling, being, with the exception of Orkney and Shetland, the least productive of land revenue of any Scotch county. The surface is much varied, and the western parts are barren and mountainous; but on the sea coast, on the east, there are some very fertile spots, which produce wheat, and all the other crops cultivated in Britain. The climate is moist, particularly in the western districts. During three fourths of the year the wind blows from between the south-west and north-west, the heaviest rains proceeding from the southward of west. The most severe snow storms are from the north-east. The average annual temperature is about 46° of Fahrenheit.

The old shire or sheriffdom of Cromarty, insignificant as it was both in extent and value, is of great antiquity. According to Dalrymple, the Urquharts were hereditary sheriffs of Cromarty in the time of Edward I. The whole county, and the much more extensive county of Ross, through which it is interspersed, are now under the jurisdiction of one sheriff, who has two substitutes that hold their courts on the mainland, and a third in the island of Lewis, politically attached to this district. The shires of Cromarty and Ross unite in electing a member of the House of Commons. The town of Cromarty was a royal borough before the Union; but the magistrates being unable to pay their representative, petitioned to be relieved from sending one. The county also must have been distressed by the payment of what was then thought a heavy burden. To induce a gentleman to become its member on one occasion, it was necessary that the principal proprietor should become surety for his payment, and the engagement not having been fulfilled, a considerable estate was conveyed to him for his indemnification.

The county of Cromarty is so much blended with that of Ross, and so similar to it in every respect, that it becomes necessary to refer for a more particular account of it to the article Ross-shire. The population will also be [7:7:476]stated under that article, there being only one entire parish in this county, and eleven more shared between it and Ross-shire.

Cromarty, the capital of the above county, is situated upon a promontory jutting into the neck of the sea communicating from the Moray to the Cromarty Friths. The ground being slightly elevated, the town has the advantage of a dry as well as pleasant situation, and it is altogether one of the neatest and cleanest places of the size in Scotland. Its harbour is safe and capacious, and well adapted, from its situation, to become the depot of trade in the northern part of Britain. The principal manufacture is hempen bagging, which has been long carried on. There is an establishment for some branches of the woollen manufacture, an extensive brewery, and ship building is now also carried on. The· staple trade, however, is the catching, curing, and exportation of herrings and other fish. The population of Cromarty amounted in 1821 to 2649, and in 1831 to 2901.

CrOxMARty Frith, the arm of the sea above alluded to, which runs off the north-western side of the Moray Frith by a narrow channel of a mile and a half in width, the shores of which are overhung by two hills called respectively the North and South Sutor of Cromarty. The length of the strait is nearly two miles, after which the waters expand into a beautiful bay of an average length and breadth of six or seven miles. It afterwards passes into a frith of from one to two miles in length. The bay is an excellent place of anchorage during storms, and so capacious, that nearly the whole British navy might with the greatest safety ride in it within view of Cromarty.