Building record MHG16058 - Chapter House, Cathedral Square, Fortrose

Building has had various purposes in past. Apparently top floor used as meeting place for Masonic Lodge (new building built c20yrs ago). Apparently ground floor also used as a morgue when practice session for D Day landings caused major casualties - HAW 11/2003

See also: NH75NW0001 Cathedral
JHooper, 9/7/2002
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NH75NW 1 7270 5652.
Cathedral (NR) OS 6"map, (1959)
The cathedral of Bishops of Ross, dedicated to SS Peter and Curitan, was transferred from Rosemarkie (NH75NW 7) to Fortrose c1235. Of this period only undercroft of Chapter-house remains; upper storey of which was rebuilt in C19th as a Court-house.
All other remains date apparently from L14th and E15th centuries and consist of vaulted S aisle of nave, and bell-tower. The ground plan was recovered about 1870 by excavation by H.M. Commissioners of Woods & Forests.
Cathedral fell into disrepair about time of Reformation, but was partially repaired 1615 and by 1649 was not very ruinous. Traditions says that Cromwell subsequently removed most of masonry.
D MacGibbon and T Ross 1896-7; A R Scott 1873.

The remains of cathedral are as described above. Area of nave is defined by shale and only a few base stones of buttresses remain. The graveyard to S. is still used occasionally, extant portion of the Cathedral has recently been re-roofed.
Visited by OS (N K B) 9 March 1966.

NH 7271 5652 A series of excavations and a watching brief were carried out by Kirkdale Archaeology at Fortrose Cathedral in February and March 1996. Aim of project was to establish whether landscaped layout presently in place accurately reflects location of buried elements of cathedral structure.The extent of surviving remains was patchy, with noticeably superior masonry revealed towards W end of site, perhaps indicating assumed two-phased construction programme between nave and choir.
Sponsor: Historic Scotland G Ewart and D Stewart 1996

REFERENCE: SCOTTISH RECORD OFFICE

Rough sketch showing the position of Cathedral, Manse and crofts of the Dean and Chapter of Ross.
1859 GD128/30/7/1

The condition of the Cathedral and the Seaforth Tomb.
Roderick MacFarquhar comments on this in a letter which accompanies an estimate for enclosing the churchyard with a wall and providing a gate and pillars.
1825 GD45/12/7

Estimate for enclosing the churchyard surrounding the Cathedral with a wall and the addition of a gate and pillars. Letter from Roderick MacFarquhar, Fortrose, comments on condition of the Cathedral cna the Seaforth Tomb.
1825 GD45/12/7

REFERENCE: NATIONAL LIBRARY OF SCOTLAND

Fortrose is a small town in Black Isle, Ross-shire, on N side of the inner part of Moray Firth, nearly opposite Fort George. It is situated ten and a half miles NE of Inverness. It was Cathedral Town of the Bishopric of Ross. A very small part of ancient Cathedral yet remains entire. National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh contains, among the "Uncatalogued MSS of General Hutton", and numbered 134 in Vol 1, an external view of 1815 and an internal view of the Chapter House dated 1819.

NLS Advocates' MS 30.5.23, 133-39. Architectural drawings, mainly of 1815 (inc. plans by John MacQueen), and Scott (1873).

BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCE: NMRS LIBRARY
Scottish Magazine August 1933