All about the highland town of Nairn
’Fine days lie opposite the blue cliffs of Cromarty and on grey days… a rigid black skyline, very close and broken in the middle by a gap called Cromarty Firth’….
from The People of the Sea by David Thomson.
Uisge n'earn in Gaelic means 'water of alders' and the name ‘Nairn’ describes the alder trees that grow along the riverside. The town grew up on the South side of the Moray Firth with spectacular views of the sea in all its moods. When it’s clear the hills of Sutherland are visible. The start of Winter is heralded by the first snowfall on Ben Wyvis, which may remain snow capped well into May when Nairn is basking in Spring sunshine. Its reputedly blessed climate is due, according to George Bain in his ‘History of Nairnshire,’ to ‘The peculiar position of the district, occupying the centre of a semi-circle formed by neighbouring hills.'
King James VI boasted that in his kingdom he had a town whose only street was so long that the people living at one end of it could not understand the language of the people living at the other end. He was speaking of Nairn, formerly split into Gaelic and Scots communities. A town of two halves in other ways, the narrow-streeted Fishertown surrounds a harbour built by Thomas Telford while Victorian villas dominate the West End. These were erected in the late 19th century in response to physician Dr.Grigor’s assertion that Nairn’s climate was the healthiest in Britain. A Promenade links the West End to Fishertown. From here there are pleasant walks and cycle ways up river or eastwards to the sand dunes of Culbin Forest.
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