County
The county, also known as Nairnshire (Scottish Gaelic: Siorrachd Inbhir Narann), was described in 1846 as:
"about twenty-two miles in length and fifteen miles (35x24 km) in breadth; comprising an area of 200 square miles (520 km2), or 128,000 acres; 2338 houses, of which 2235 are inhabited; and containing a population of 9217."
The county consisted of the royal burgh of Nairn (chartered in 1476), the four parishes of Ardclach, Auldearn, Dyke & Moy and Nairn; and most of the parish of Cawdor, and parts of those of Croy & Dalcross, Moy & Dalarossie, Petty and Urquhart & Logie Wester.
The county acquired a county council in 1890, under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889, and, under the same legislation, boundaries were altered to make the county a single contiguous area.
Although the new boundaries were supposed to be valid for all purposes (unlike earlier boundaries, which were really default boundaries and not necessarily those used for any particular purpose), the burgh of Nairn, which had its own town council, retained autonomous status and was generally beyond the writ of the new county council. Also, use of the new boundaries for parliamentary elections was specifically excluded.
The county has always had a northern coastline on the Moray Firth. Until 1891 it had a number of exclaves in other counties, the most considerable of which was situated some distance away from the bulk of the county of Nairn, in the county of Inverness. Another sizable portion existed in the county of Ross, around the village of Urquhart, on the Black Isle. Other, smaller, detached parts (not shown on map due to their small size) existed in the county of Moray. Under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889, these detached parts became part of their host territories.
Read more about this topic: Nairn (boundaries)
Famous quotes containing the word county:
“Don’t you know there are 200 temperance women in this county who control 200 votes. Why does a woman work for temperance? Because she’s tired of liftin’ that besotted mate of hers off the floor every Saturday night and puttin’ him on the sofa so he won’t catch cold. Tonight we’re for temperance. Help yourself to them cloves and chew them, chew them hard. We’re goin’ to that festival tonight smelling like a hot mince pie.”
—Laurence Stallings (1894–1968)
“In the county there are thirty-seven churches
and no butcher shop. This could be taken
as a matter of all form and no content.”
—Maxine Kumin (b. 1925)
“It would astonish if not amuse, the older citizens of your County who twelve years ago knew me a stranger, friendless, uneducated, penniless boy, working on a flat boat—at ten dollars per month to learn that I have been put down here as the candidate of pride, wealth, and aristocratic family distinction.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)