Cromarty Firth

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Looking from Invergordon toward oil rigs in Cromarty Firth.

The Cromarty Firth (Scottish Gaelic: Caolas Chrombaidh - literally Kyles/Straits of Cromarty) forms an arm of the North Sea in Scotland.

From where it joins Moray Firth, Cromarty Firth extends inland in a westerly and then south-westerly direction for a distance of 19 miles (30.6 kilometres). Excepting at Nigg Bay, on the northern shore, and at Cromarty Bay, on the southern shore, where it is about 5 miles (8 kilometres) wide (due north and south), and at Alness Bay, where it is 2 miles (3.2 kilometres) wide, it has an average width of 1 mile (1.6 kilometre), forming one of the safest and most commodious anchorages in the north of Scotland.

Besides other streams it receives the Allt Graad, Coruon, Peffery, Sgitheach and Alness, and the principal places on its shores are Dingwall near the head, Cromarty near the mouth, Kiltearn, Invergordon and Kilmuir on the north.

The entrance is guarded by two precipitous rocks — the one on the north 400 feet (121.92 metres) high and the one on the south 463 feet (141.12 metres) high — called "The Sutors" from a fancied resemblance to a couple of shoemakers (in Scots, souters) bent over their lasts.

The firth is a designated as a Special Protection Area for wildlife conservation purposes.

[edit] Oil industry

The settlement of Nigg is an important North Sea oil centre. Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root owns the 170 acre fabrication yard south of the settlement of Nigg. This is an important North Sea oil centre with a dry dock for repairing and fabricating oil rigs. The yard was opened in 1972 as a joint venture between Brown & Root (as it then was) and construction giant George Wimpey. Today the yard is known as KBR Caledonia Ltd., described by KBR as one of the companies two major fabrication yards, the other being the Greens Bayou yard near Houston, Texas.

In late 2004 KBR was named as a possible "physical integrator" for the Royal Navy future aircraft carrier, in this role it was to manage the "carrier alliance"; BAE Systems, Thales and the UK Ministry of Defence. Following suggestions that KBR wished to assemble the two 60,000 tonne vessels at its Nigg Yard the MoD stated that whatever KBR's involvement assembly would take place at Rosyth.

Elsewhere along the firth are facilities for cruise ships, oil processing, and other maritime activities.