Ross and Cromarty

Ross and Cromarty (Ros agus Cromba in Gaelic) is a vaguely or variously defined area in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. There is a registration county and a lieutenancy area in current use. Historically there has been a constituency of the Parliament of the United Kingdom (1832 to 1983), a local government county (1890 to 1975), a district of the Highland local government region (1975 to 1996) and a management area of the Highland Council (1996 to 2007). The local government county is now divided between two local government areas: the Highland area and Na h-Eileanan Siar (the Western Isles).

Lieutenancy area

Lieutenancy areas are subdivisions used for the ceremonial lords lieutenant, the monarch's representatives. The Ross and Cromarty lieutenancy area combines the areas of two former districts of the Highland region: Ross and Cromarty and Skye and Lochalsh.

Constituency

There was a Ross and Cromarty county constituency of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1832 to 1983.

As created in 1832, the constituency mergerd two former county constituencies: the Ross-shire constituency and the Cromartyshire constituency, and it elected a Member of Parliament to represent the counties of Ross-shire and Cromartyshire, minus their parliamentary burghs, Dingwall, Tain and Fortrose, which were represented as components of the Wick burghs constituency and the Inverness burghs constituency.

When the local government county of Ross and Cromarty was created under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889, it did not have exactly the boundaries of the constituency.

Constituency boundaries were altered in 1918, by the Representation of the People Act 1918, and the Ross and Cromarty constituency acquired the boundaries of the county, including the former parliamentary burghs, but minus Stornoway and Lewis, which were merged into a new constituency, the Western Isles constituency.

When the county was abolished in 1975, the constituency was effectively divided between three districts of the Highland region. Its Member of Parliament then represented the Ross and Cromarty district plus a Lochalsh area of the Skye and Lochalsh district and a Kincardine area of the Sutherland district.

In 1983, the Ross, Cromarty and Skye constituency was created to represent the Ross and Cromarty district and the Skye and Lochalsh district. The Kincardine area was merged into the Caithness and Sutherland constituency.

References

• D. Alston, Ross and Cromarty : a historical guide (Edinburgh : Birlinn, 1999 ISBN 1-874744-48-3), which, however, restricts itself to coverage of the mainland county;
• R. Bain, History of the Ancient Province of Ross (Dingwall, 1899);
• J. H. Dixon, Gairloch (Edinburgh, 1888);
• F. N. Reid, The Earls of Ross (Edinburgh, 1894);
• W. C. Mackenzie, History of the Outer Hebrides (Paisley, 1904).

See also

• Ross
• Ross-shire
• List of pre-1975 counties of Scotland

External links

• Encyclopaedia Britannica, Ross and Cromarty

Coordinates: 57°40′N 5°00′W / 57.667°N 5°W / 57.667; -5