The Sutors of Cromarty
Nigg's cultural heritage has been formed largely by its geology and its geography. The sheltered western slopes of the Hill of Nigg have, over the ages, provided farmers with prime arable land, grazing and woodland. Viewed from inland, the Hill gives an impression of being pastoral fields and meadow land but behind that peaceful scene lies the force of The Moray Firth with dramatically sheer cliffs dropping straight down into the sea, protecting the Hill on the landward side. To the north, the Hill gently descends to sea level but to the south it ends in the North Sutor which forms, with the South Sutor, above Cromarty, ‘The Sutors of Cromarty’. The Sutors are rightly considered to be one of the great sights of the Highlands. They are the oldest geological features of a landscape, teeming with fossils, perpetually providing an impressive natural gateway to the safe and deep harbour of the Cromarty Firth, clearly visible from the Nairn side of the Moray Firth. The Sutors stand guard over the Firth and many stories were told about them. ‘Sutor’ is the Scots word for shoemaker, and one story goes that two giant shoemakers, the sutors, used the two cliffs as their workbenches, tossing tools one to the other as necessary. In folklore, the Hill has always been regarded as a suitable terrain for the activities of a race of giants. In historic times men, too, have exploited the North Sutor for defensive purposes. Scotland's great twelfth-century king, William the Lion, built a formidable royal stronghold overlooking the entrance to the Firth - Dunskaith Castle, the remains of the curtain walls of which can still be traced among grass and bracken as you go up the Hill from the Ferry to Castlecraig. The cultural continuity of the North Sutor is dramatically demonstrated by the presence of twentieth-century military installations in amongst the castle remains. In both World Wars this was a vital focus for Britain's defence.

The Rarichie Fortifications
Back in the prehistoric Iron Age, the other end of the Hill had a similarly defensive role. A grouping of fortified structures occupies the top of the western slopes of the Rarichies, Easter and Wester, above Shandwick, and very close to the site of the proposed windfarm. The main fortification commands extensive views that look directly along the coast and over to the great seventh-century Pictish coastal fortress at Burghead, near Forres. Cultural continuity of a defensive site is shown here also for the central fortification at Easter Rarichie later acquired, but still in prehistoric times, a secondary 'dun' built within its ramparts.

The Cromarty - Nigg Ferry, known as The King's Ferry
There has been a ferry running between Cromarty and Nigg at least since the 1100s and probably earlier, for it would have been a natural route from the south and west of Scotland at all periods, including that of the Picts. Pictish royal connections have been claimed as being present in place-names on the Hill. Cadha Neachdain, (Nechtan's Path) a steep path leading down the Nigg cliffs to Uamh an Righ (the King's Cave) have been associated with the eighth-century Pictish King Nechtan who secured the independence of the Pictish church from Irish domination - a move supported by a saint whose career is linked with Rosemarkie on the Black Isle. Nechtan was a devout king and is known to have retreated into clerical life. So it is not impossible that, when in the district, he crossed on the ferry to secure at Nigg a place of retreat from the world, facing the ocean. More certain is the royal association of the ferry with King William the Lion, for ferry revenues were expected to contribute to the upkeep of Dunskaith Castle. The King of Scots most closely connected with the ferry is, of course, James IV, whose typically late medieval piety involved many visits to a celebrated northern shrine, that of the historically elusive St Duthac at Tain.

The Nigg Cross-slab
The monks of Saint Columba of lona will have sailed in their currachs (hide boats) over from Cromarty to Nigg on their way to make a start on the conversion of the northern Picts. The continuing relationship between lona and Nigg is demonstrated by the give and take of cultural exchange discernible in the sculpture at Portmahomack and notably by the carving of the Nigg Pictish cross-slab, now housed in Nigg Old Church. The slab is acknowledged as the finest work of art of its period in Scotland. It and its related monuments at Shandwick, Hilton and Portmahomack are all made of the fine buff-coloured sandstone cut from bedrock on the shore just beyond Hilton. Sculptors at Nigg and on Iona both use the astonishingly intricate decorative motif of large stud-like bosses made up of snakes' bodies. It has been suggested that it was the Picts who taught the Iona craftsmen to carve in relief on their High Crosses these same sculptural marvels. The complicated spiral work on the Nigg slab is exactly paralleled in the pages of the great Gospel Book of Kells, produced on Iona in the second half of the eighth century, so the slab must date from around the same time. Many an Abbot of lona must have sailed over to Nigg from Cromarty. The most remarkable feature of the slab is a figurative scene set immediately above the cross. It illustrates in unique detail a story told by the fifth century 'Father of the Church', St Jerome, about the founders of monasticism, the Egyptian Saints Paul and Antony. Its central incident is the sharing of the heavenly bread sent daily to Saint Paul. Because of its monastic associations the story was a popular one, frequently depicted in contemporary English and Irish sculpture but only the version at Nigg presents the Saints as deacons jointly celebrating Holy Mass.

But Nigg Ferry also brought easy access to the south of Scotland, with all the opportunities that opened up there. In the later medieval period the 'Kirk of Nigg’ was important because of its grain production. Its farm produced a surplus which formed part of the revenues of the Bishopric of Ross. Naturally enough, the place itself, with its ancient Christian origins, attracted the Bishop. He had a residence here with access to the Hill from Nigg Bay via what is still known as the Bishop's Walk. The Nigg community has plans to clear a section of the Walk for the use of residents and visitors. The part of the Hill opposite the Old Church of Nigg is, in early maps, called The Bishop's Forest, so no doubt the Bishop's huntsmen will have been busy there in pursuit of wild boar and deer. The Bishop's farm may well lie somewhere below the foundations of Nigg Mains, over the wall from Nigg Old Church.

Nigg Old Church
Nigg Old Church stands on a long oval hill with two deep gorges on either side of it, a typically early Christian monastic site. The present building dates from the seventeenth century but the thickness of the walls and several curious features of the structure suggest that medieval masonry underlies the whole.
Little is known about religious life at Nigg in the period immediately after the Reformation but in the seventeenth century, in the reign of Charles II, was born at Nigg an extraordinary religious leader, one Donald Roy, who, after a misspent youth, became the focus of an enthusiastic spiritual movement as one of 'The Men of Nigg', whose evangelical influence was felt far and wide in the North. Various forms of evangelical Christianity have flourished in this area ever since. Hugh Miller, the famous nineteenth-century geologist, one of the first to interpret the lesson of the fossil beds of the Black Isle and Nigg, was the direct descendant of old Donald Roy and narrates many strange legends about his ancestor.

In a sense, Hugh Miller himself has a direct descendant here at Nigg, in that his scientific interest in the physical nature of the Hill and its surroundings is paralleled in the geological explorations elsewhere that led to modem industrial developments exploiting natural resources, such as the discovery and utilisation of North Sea Oil in the 1970s. At the same time, modern archaeological and art-historical science is opening up to an ever-widening audience the wonders of Nigg and area as a place of great cultural and historical achievement.