Cromartyshire

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Cromartyshire

Geography
Status	County
HQ	Cromarty
History
Abolished	1890
Succeeded by	Ross and Cromarty

Cromartyshire (Siorrachd Chromba in Gaelic) was a county in the Highlands of Scotland, consisting of a series of enclaves within Ross-shire. Ross-shire and Cromartyshire were organised as a single county of Ross and Cromarty in by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889, which was itself replaced by the Highland region and the Western Isles (now officially named as Na h-Eileanan Siar) in 1975. The only burgh of Cromartyshire is the county town, Cromarty.

The Local Government Act 1889 provided that "the counties of Ross and Cromarty shall cease to be separate counties, and shall be united for all purposes whatsoever, under the name of the county of Ross and Cromarty."

The nucleus of the county consists of the lands of Cromarty in the north of the peninsula of the Black Isle. To this have joined from time to time various estates scattered throughout Ross-shire, most notably the districts around Ullapool and Little Loch Broom on the coast of the Minch, the area in which Ben Wyvis is situated, and a tract to the north of Loch Fannich - which was acquired by the ancestors of Sir George Mackenzie (1630 - 1714), afterwards Viscount Tarbat (1685) and 1st Earl of Cromartie (1703). Desirous of combining these sporadic properties into one shire, Viscount Tarbat contrived to procure their annexation to his sheriffdom of Cromarty in 1685 and 1698, and the area of the enlarged county now amounts to nearly 370 square miles (958 km²).