In 1882-4, Frances Groome's Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland described Invergordon like this:
Invergordon, a thriving seaport town in Rosskeen parish, E Ross-shire, on the NW shore of Cromarty Firth, with a station on the Highland railway (1863-64), 12¾ miles NE of Dingwall and 12¾ SSW of Tain. There is a regular ferry, ¾ mile wide, to the opposite shore of the Forth; and a small pier was built in 1821 for the accommodation of the passengers. ...
The harbour itself, with 16 feet water at spring tides and 13 at neap, was formed in 1828; and two large wooden piers were erected in 1857 at a cost of £5000; but, since the railway was opened, Invergordon has lost its steamboat communication with Inverness, Aberdeen, Leith, London, etc. The hemp manufacture is now extinct; but there are two steam sawmills and a large bone-crushing and manure factory. A place of considerable mark. substantially built, well situated for traffic, and of growing importance for the export of farming produce, Invergordon contains a number of good shops, offers fine sea-bathing, and has a post office, with money order, savings' bank, and telegraph departments, branches of the Commercial and North of Scotland Banks, 10 insurance agencies, 3 hotels, gasworks (1872), a Wednesday newspaper, the Invergordon Times (1855). and fairs on the third Tuesday of February, the second Tuesday of April, old style, the first Tuesday of August, the second Tuesday of October, and the second Tuesday of December, old style. The Town-Hall (1870-71) is a handsome Italian edifice, its pediment showing a sculptured figure of Neptune; the public school (1875-76) is a Romanesque structure, surmounted by a belfry. Rosskeen parish church, 13/8 mile W by N, was built in 1832, and contains 1600 sittings; and Invergordon Free church (1861), Gothic in style, cruciform in plan, with a spire 140 feet high, stands immediately N of the town, and contains nearly 1000. Invergordon Castle, 7 furlongs NNW, was accidentally destroyed by fire in 1801, but, as rebuilt in 1873-74, is a fine Elizabethan mansion, with beautiful plantations; its owner, Robert Bruco Æneas Macleod, Esq. of Cadboll (b. 1818; suc. 1853), holds 11,830 acres in the shire, valued at £11,021 per annum. Having adopted the General Police and Improvement Act (Scotland) in 1364, the town is governed by nine police commissioners; and sheriff small debt courts sit at it in January, April, July, and October. Pop. (1841) 998, (1861) 1122, (1871) 1157, (1881) 1119, of whom 1092 were in the police burgh. Houses (1881) 207 inhabited, 10 vacant, 6 building.—Ord. Sur., sh. 94, 1878.
Invergordon through time
Invergordon is now part of Highland district. Click here for graphs and data of how Highland has changed over two centuries. For statistics about Invergordon itself, go to Units and Statistics.
GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth, History of Invergordon, in Highland and Ross and Cromarty | Map and description, A Vision of Britain through Time.
URL: https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/17407
Date accessed: 06th November 2024
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