   #copyright

Evanton

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: European Geography

                            Evanton
   Gaelic:              Baile Eòghainn
   Scots:               Evanton
                           Location
   OS grid reference:   NH606661
                          Statistics
   Population:          1105 (Settlement) 1678 (Set. Zone)
                        Administration
   Council area:        Highland
   Constituent country: Scotland
   Sovereign state:     United Kingdom
                             Other
   Police force:
   Lieutenancy area:    Ross and Cromarty
   Former county:       Ross-shire
                   Post office and telephone
   Post town:           EVANTON
   Postal district:     IV16
   Dialling code:       01349
                           Politics
   UK Parliament:       Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross
   Scottish Parliament: Ross, Skye and Inverness West
   European Parliament: Scotland
        Scotland                      Scotland
   Village Welcome Sign
   Enlarge
   Village Welcome Sign
   Picture of the town as one enters from the south-west.
   Enlarge
   Picture of the town as one enters from the south-west.

   Evanton (Scottish Gaelic: Baile Eòghainn) is a small town, or rather, a
   large village in Easter Ross, in the Highland region of Scotland. It
   lies between the river Sgitheach and the Allt Graad, is 24 kilometres
   (15 miles) north of the city of Inverness, some 6.5 km (4 miles)
   south-west of Alness, and 10 km (6.5 miles) north-west of Dingwall. The
   village has five streets, the main one being Balconie Street (B817). It
   has been desribed by analysts at Highland Council as a "commuting
   settlement", because most of the inhabitants work in other areas of
   Easter Ross and the greater Inverness area.

   The current town was founded in the early nineteenth century by Evan
   Fraser of Balconie, but the core of the village buildings date from the
   Victorian era. Evanton has several tourist attractions, including the
   Fyrish monument, the Black Rock Gorge and the ruined church of Kiltearn
   lying near the river Sgitheach as it flows into the Cromarty Firth, as
   well as other miscellaneous natural, historical and archaeological
   attractions in the surrounding area. There are two Churches, one Church
   of Scotland and one Free Church of Scotland. There is one primary
   school, but the nearest high schools are in Dingwall and Alness. It has
   one convenience store, a post-office, two public inns (Balconie Inn and
   Novar Arms) and several other miscellaneous businesses. The village
   hall is named the 'Diamond Jubilee Hall.'

Kiltearn background

   Evanton lies within the ancient parish of Kiltearn (Gd: Cill
   Tighearna), within the medieval lands known as Ferindonald (Fearann
   Dhòmhnaill) in the heart of the old "Earldom" of Ross. Traditionally,
   Ferindonald is supposed to be derived from a grant of King Máel Coluim
   III to Domnall "Munro" (Domhnall mac an Rothaich), the legendary
   progenitor of Clan Munro. However, there is no evidence for the
   existence of this family until the fourteenth century, and it is not
   likely to be historically accurate.

   Evanton is in close proximity to the site of Balconie Castle, an old
   seat of the Mormaers and Earls of Ross. By the early modern period, the
   area was dominated by the Munros of Foulis (Foghlais), who had their
   castle just a few kilometres away. Indeed, the latter began to bury
   their family at Kiltearn after 1588. The Cille place-name in Kiltearn
   tells us that there had been a very ancient Gaelic church near Evanton,
   like all Cille place-names, founded before 800. The current Gaelic name
   Cill Tighearna ("Church of the Lord") is probably a corruption of an
   older form, both because the name formation is unusual in being
   dedicated to the Lord Himself, and because the form given in 1227 is
   Kiltierny, suggesting some kind of connection to Tigernach in Ireland.
   Other suggestions have included a dedication to St Ternan. The church
   lay next to the lordly residence of Balconie. By the later middle ages,
   Balconie was one of the five lordships of Ross, as well as an
   individual seat of the Earls of Ross. Place-name evidence suggests that
   the site may once have been a Pictish residence. A charter granted by
   Aodh, Earl of Ross in 1281 records the name Petkenny, but a charter of
   1333 refers to a location called Balkenny. The development of the name
   Pitlochry, where Pictish Pit- is replaced by Gaelic Baile, suggests the
   names are the same, but the great early twentieth century toponymist
   William J. Watson was doubftful.

History

   Before the industrial era, Scotland had nothing that we would call a
   city, although it had many towns. For most of the country though, there
   was just a series of scattered hamlets and lordly estates. So it was in
   Kiltearn. There had been a settlement, an old ferm toun known as
   Drummond (Drumainn), near the location of Evanton, and several lordly
   residences, such as Foulis, Novar and Balconie Castle. In 1807, the
   local landowner Evan Fraser of Balconie was clearing his estates to
   make way for sheep, and founded Evanton as a planned settlement for the
   relocated residents, modestly naming it after himself. To this day, in
   the words of one historian, Evanton "remains today an attractive
   example of a well planned, regularly laid out estate village".The
   Reverend Thomas Munro expressed similar sentiments in the 1840s, when
   he wrote that "the village was built on a waste of land, and differs
   from all others in the country by its regular and neat appearance". The
   village suffered from the severe famine that plagued the Highlands in
   1840s. There was a riot in the village in 1846, because the authorities
   continued to export grain despite the failure of the previous year's
   potato crop; similar riots occurred in Rosemarkie, Balintraid and
   Avoch. In 1847, there was near starvation in the village, and the
   villagers managed to maintain themselves on turnips. However, the
   village population recovered; by the beginnings of the First World War,
   Evanton had taken much of its current physical shape, and at this point
   in time contained businesses as diverse as a tobacconist and a bicycle
   shop, both of which have subsequently disappeared.
   Top view of a B-17H in flight.From the Maxwell Air Force Base website
   (original image).
   Enlarge
   Top view of a B-17H in flight.
   From the Maxwell Air Force Base website ( original image).

   In the twentieth century, the village enjoyed a variety of fortunes.
   The distillery closed in 1926 (see below) and one of the most important
   historical locations in Easter Ross, Balconie Castle, was demolished in
   1965. It had been an old seat of the Earls of Ross, but by the 1960s
   the owner could not afford to repair the dry rot. There was a RAF
   airfield constructed near Evanton in 1922, on Alness Bay. It was known
   as the "Novar Base", because of its location on the Novar Estates. It
   was serviced from Leuchars, and was used by the aircraft from the
   nearby Home Fleet base of Invergordon. The largest aircraft to have
   landed there was a USAAF B17. On Empire Day, 1939, RAF bases all over
   the United Kingdom were opened to the public, and the Evanton Aerodrome
   was the most northerly location to participate, attracting 9000
   visitors. The base closed in the 1970s. However, the oil boom of the
   1970s caused radical expansion of the village. It has been growing
   steadily ever since.

Demographics

   The modern village is on average a little younger than the Highland
   region in general. The population of Evanton varies depending on how it
   is calculated. The Evanton "Settlement Zone" is different from the
   Evanton "Settlement", and the former is of course larger. There are 671
   households and 1678 inhabitants in total in the Evanton-zone.
   Evanton-settlement on its own however has only 1105 inhabitants. The
   population in both cases though is growing steadily, and the 1990s saw
   a moderate increase of 8.12% for the zone, rising from 1552 to 1678;
   and 10.72% for the settlement on its own, rising from 998 to 1105. Over
   two thirds of the houses in the zone are owner-occupied. Roughly 16.4%
   or 275 people who live in Evanton-zone were born outside of Scotland,
   almost always coming from England.

Geography

   The Black Rock Gorge, on the Allt Graad, viewed from the top.
   Enlarge
   The Black Rock Gorge, on the Allt Graad, viewed from the top.

   Evanton is more or less enclosed to the north-east and the south-west
   by two rivers, the Allt Graad and the River Sgitheach. The Allt Graad,
   sometimes called the River Glass, is a picturesque river that flows
   from Loch Glass, near Ben Wyvis, for 9 km (5½ miles) until it passes
   the northern end of the village, and empties into the Cromarty Firth.
   However, some 3 km (2 miles) before it reaches the Cromarty Firth, it
   passes through the Black Rock Gorge. The latter is a few hundred metres
   in length and reaches 36 metres (120 feet) in height. In April, 2004,
   ten days of filming took place in the area for the movie Harry Potter
   and the Goblet of Fire and the Gorge is the setting for one scene. The
   River Sgitheach, sometimes written as Skiack or Skiach, is not as large
   a river as the Allt Graad and can run low in the summer. It flows from
   the mountains of inland Ross and is complemented by numerous other
   streams until it passes several waterfalls before flowing past the
   southern end of the village, and the northern end of the old settlement
   of Drummond, into the Cromatry Firth about 1 km from the mouth of the
   Allt Graad.

Economy

   A significant but small percentage of people have employment in the oil
   industry owing to the proximity of oil rigs on the Cromarty Firth.
   Other locally significant industries include forestry, tourism and
   catering. A significant number of people work in larger nearby
   localities, such as Inverness, Dingwall, Alness and Invergordon, which
   is why only 13% of households in the zone own no car. 10.4% of the
   population of the zone are self-employed, and 28% economically
   inactive, roughly corresponding with the Highland averages. There are
   also two hotels and two bars, which soak up much of the tourist income
   that the town generates.

   There had been a distillery in the Evanton area of the Kiltearn parish
   as early as the eighteenth century, its existence being reported by
   Harry Robertson, the author of the late eighteenth century Kiltearn
   section of the late eighteenth century 1st Statistical Account. The
   Glen Skiack distillery opened in 1896 and only ever produced a
   relatively small amount of Whisky. However, the effects of the U.S.
   Prohibition law, which damaged the income of all Scottish distilleries,
   proved too much for Glen Skiack, and the operation was forced to close
   in 1926. The building itself was demolished in 1933.

Transport

   In 1860, the government decided to construct a railway line going from
   Inverness through Easter Ross. The line was completed by 1862, and the
   following year, on May 23rd 1863, Evanton gained its own train station.
   However, the station was called Novar, and was not renamed "Evanton"
   until 1937. Sadly for the local economy, the station was closed in June
   1960. The platforms remain there to this day, but the signal posts have
   been destroyed. The Inverness to Thurso railway line, known today as
   "Far North Line", still passes by the seaward side of the town, and the
   trains can still be heard from a great distance. The nearest train
   station is Alness.

   The A9, the great road connecting Inverness with the far north, once
   ran through Evanton, on the path of Balconie Street. However, a bypass
   was created as part of a general scheme to shorten the journey between
   Inverness to Invergordon. This reduced the amount of traffic going
   through the village, but decreased the revenue available to local
   businesses. The road also cut through much of the farmland of the zone,
   distorting the shape of the fields. This was compounded by the closure
   of the filling station in the village. For those who do not have cars,
   the only means of transport is either by foot or by the #25 bus service
   operated by Stagecoach. Recently, the express service running from
   Inverness to Dornoch began to stop in Evanton. Now residents can travel
   from and to Inverness without the long diversion through Dingwall,
   making it easier to work in the city of Inverness without personal
   transport.

Culture

   The old church of Kiltearn, 1905.
   Enlarge
   The old church of Kiltearn, 1905.
   The old church of Kiltearn, 2005. The current church is located in the
   heart of Evanton, on Balconie Street.
   Enlarge
   The old church of Kiltearn, 2005. The current church is located in the
   heart of Evanton, on Balconie Street.

   In 1845, the local minister wrote that the "the language generally
   spoken is an impure form of Gaelic, but it is rapidly losing ground"
   and that "in Evanton, both English and Gaelic are spoken
   indifferently". The minister wrote that the people, especially the
   children, learned English with ease after they had learned to write
   Gaelic. The minister also gave some reasons why the people were keen to
   learn English, telling us that "English being the language universally
   spoken by the higher classes, the mass of the people attach a notion of
   superior refinement to the possession of it". Half a century
   previously, Harry Robertson had praised the spirit of one watchmaker in
   the region, but added "it is a pity that he can hardly read nor write,
   and hardly speaks English".

   Today, one can see Gaelic written on the walls of the parish church,
   but the language has effectively died out, and English is totally
   dominant. Nevertheless, there are still some 72 residents (4.3%) of the
   village who know the language. The village is also a big location on
   the Highland folk-circuit, and enjoys a vibrant musical culture in the
   Gaelic tradition. It is a regular practice for local musicians to meet
   in the Balconie Inn, one of the two licenced establishments of the
   town, and engage in evening-long sessions. Many prominent musicians on
   the Celtic music scene have visited, including Dougie MacLean.
   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evanton"
   This reference article is mainly selected from the English Wikipedia
   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
   of authors and sources) and is available under the GNU Free
   Documentation License. See also our Disclaimer.
