Monument record MHG46842 - Fortrose, Cathedral Square, Fortrose Cathedral, Court House

NMRS Report: (15/01/2004)
REFERENCE: SCOTTISH RECORD OFFICE

Rough sketch showing the position of the 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 the Black Isle, Ross-shire, on the North side of the inner part of the Moray Firth, nearly opposite Fort George. It is situated ten and a half miles North East of Inverness. It was the Cathedral Town of the Bishoprie of Ross. A very small part of the ancient Cathedral yet remains entire. The 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

NMRS Report: (24/08/2006 10:56:43)
NH75NW 1.02 NH 72737 56536 Chapter House / Court House

The cathedral of the Bishops of Ross, dedicated to SS Peter and Curitan, was transferred from Rosemarkie (NH75NW 7) to Fortrose about 1235. Of the building of this period only the undercroft of the Chapter-house remains; the upper storey of which was rebuilt in the 19th century as a Court-house. All other remains date apparently from the late 14th and early 15th centuries and consist of the vaulted south aisle of the nave, and the bell-tower. The ground plan was recovered about 1870 by an excavation by H.M. Commissioners of Woods & Forests.
The cathedral fell into disrepair about the time of the Reformation, but was partially repaired in 1615 and by 1649 was not very ruinous. Traditions says that Cromwell subsequently removed most of the masonry.
D MacGibbon and T Ross 1896-7; A R Scott 1873.

The remains of the cathedral are as described above. The area of the nave is defined by shale and only a few base stones of the buttresses remain. The graveyard to the S is still used occasionally, the 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. The aim of the project was to establish whether the landscaped layout presently in place accurately reflects the location of the buried elements of the cathedral structure.
The extent of surviving remains was patchy, with noticeably superior masonry revealed towards the W end of the site, perhaps indicating the assumed two-phased construction programme between the nave and the choir.
Sponsor: Historic Scotland
G Ewart and D Stewart 1996.