Evanton ( or ) is a small village in Easter Ross, in the Highland council area of Scotland. It lies between the River Sgitheach and the Allt Graad, is north of Inverness, some southwest of Alness, and northeast of Dingwall.
The village has a dozen or so streets, the main one being Balconie Street (on the B817 Road). It has been described by analysts at the Highland Council as a "commuting settlement", because most of the inhabitants work in other areas of Easter Ross and the greater Inverness area.Val MacIver, "Ross and Cromarty East Local Plan" (pdf), p. 65.
The current town was founded in the early 19th century by Alexander Fraser of Inchcoulter/Balconie who named it after his son Evan, but the core of the village buildings date from the Victorian era.loc. cit. 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. It is also the home of Black Rock Caravan Park.
There are two churches, one Church of Scotland and one Free Church of Scotland. There is one primary school, "Kiltearn Primary School" with seven classes and a nursery The head teacher is Marianne Gow. The nearest high schools are in Dingwall and Alness. The local woodland is owned and managed by the local community. Due to its connection with the school, there are often trips to the woods from the classes in the school. The school's P7s also take trips to Altnacriche in spring for one week.
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 Donald Munro of Foulis (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.Alexander Grant, "The Province of Ross and the Kingdom of Alba" in E.J. Cowan and R.Andrew McDonald (eds.) Alba: Celtic Scotland in the Medieval Era, (Edinburgh, 2000), p. 105.
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 Foulis Castle just a few kilometres away. Indeed, the latter began to bury their family at Kiltearn after 1588.Thomas Munro, "Kiltearn, County of Ross and Cromarty (1834–45)" in Account of 1834–45, vol.14, p.313. 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.See, for instance, W.F.H. Nicolaisen, Scottish Place-Names, (Edinburgh, 1976), 2nd ed. (2001), pp. 165 – 191; Simon Taylor, "Place-names and the Early Church in Eastern Scotland", in Barbara Crawford (ed.), Scotland in Dark Age Britain, (Aberdeen, 1996), pp. 93 – 103 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.W.J. Watson, Place-Names of Ross and Cromarty, (Inverness, 1904), p. 85. 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 doubtful.W.J. Watson, Place-Names of Ross and Cromarty, (Inverness, 1904), p. 87.
History
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 1806 Alexander Fraser, who had made his money through slave plantations in the West Indies, paid (through his wife's uncle Evan Baillie) £4500 for an instalment on the purchase of the Inchcoulter estate (a.k.a. Balconie). Having bought the estate Alexander Fraser put in place the grid formation of the new village (adjacent to the old village of Drummond), which he named Evanton after his son Evan Baillie Fraser (who had been named after his great uncle). He further named the initial parallel streets – one after his estate (Balconie), and 3 after plantations with which he had close connections, namely Camden, Livera and Hermitage: • Camden: In 1813, Alexander Fraser and John Stewart, both of Crossing Square London, had purchased the Camden estate in Trinidad from the failed Boldero banking concern. There were 210 slaves in 1813 – including a creole boy Davy Campbell, aged 7, who worked in the grass gang; by 1836 85 slaves remained. • Livera/Levera: In 1835 there were 94 slaves in Levera (sic), Grenada. Alexander Fraser unsuccessfully claimed compensation for both Levera and Camden Estates upon emancipation – most of the money going instead to his wife’s Baillie cousins. • Hermitage: Alexander Fraser managed this plantation for the Baillies who had bought it in 1765. In 1836 there were 149 slaves in Hermitage, Grenada.
To this day, in the words of one historian, Evanton "remains today an attractive example of a well planned, regularly laid out estate village".Ian R. M. Mowat, Easter Ross: 1750–1850, (Edinburgh, 1981), p. 69. 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".Munro, p. 326-7. The village suffered from the severe famine that plagued the Highlands in the 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.Mowat, (1981), p. 110. 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,Christopher J. Uncles, Easter Ross and the Black Isle, (Ochiltree, 1998), p. 67. both of which have subsequently disappeared.
In the 20th 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.ibid., p. 68. There was an RAF airfield constructed near Evanton in 1922, on Alness Bay. It was first known as the "Novar Base", because of its location on the Novar Estates, then later as HMS Fieldfare. 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 9,000 visitors. In 1956, the airfield served as one of the launch bases of the GENETRIX program, to send stratospheric balloons carrying high resolution cameras over the Soviet Union. Of the 516 balloons launched from the five bases, 103 were launched from Evanton, of which 60 were successful, and 43 failed soon after launch, or went astray. The base closed in the 1970's. However, the subsequent oil boom caused radical expansion of the village. It has been growing steadily ever since.Val MacIver, loc. cit.
Governance Evanton is in the parliamentary constituency of Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross, Jamie Stone of the Liberal Democrats is the current Member of Parliament (MP).
For the Scottish Parliament residents in Evanton elect MSP's for the Caithness, Sutherland and Ross (Scottish Parliament constituency).
Prior to Brexit in 2020, residents in Evanton voted to elected MEP's for the Scotland constituency in the European Parliament.
For Local Government purposes, it belongs to Highland Council Area. The village falls within Kiltearn Parish which has a community council http://www.kiltearncc.co.uk/
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.General Register Office for Scotland Census analysis . 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 Scotland, almost always coming from England.
Geography
Evanton is more or less enclosed to the northeast and the southwest by two rivers, the Allt Graad and the River Sgitheach. The Allt Graad, sometimes called the River Glass, is a river that flows from Loch Glass, near Ben Wyvis, for until it passes the northern end of the village, and empties into the Cromarty Firth. However, approximately before it reaches the Cromarty Firth, it passes through the Black Rock Gorge. The latter is a few hundred metres in length and reaches in depth.
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 the scene where Harry is chased by a dragon. 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 Cromarty Firth about from the mouth of the Allt Graad.Dornoch and Alness, Invergordon and Tain (Landranger Maps), Ordnance Survey, 2002.
Across from the gorge is the "Glen Glass Hydro Scheme", which is next to a lovely area in glen glass very near Assynt house.
Evanton Community Woods is located from the top of Swordale road down to the Novar Estate. It is 138.82 Acres and it has many sights. There's the Balconie well, a small well that is now filled up and defunct, "The Cabin" a little shelter in the woods, and obviously the Black Rock Gorge.
Economy