58822: The Black Isle

The Black Isle – not an island but a peninsula – is situated in Ross & Cromarty just to the north of Inverness, with Dingwall to the west. It is attached to the mainland at the heads of the Cromarty and Beauly Firths.

The origin of the description ‘Black’ is unknown, though there are many possible explanations ranging from witchcraft and the black arts in mediaeval times, to the more prosaic, that the soil here is very black, or that it has so many trees that it looks black when viewed from surrounding areas in Winter.

(Records for individual settlements in this area are linked to the county, Ross & Cromarty.)