The Old Orchard

The 'Old Orchard' is the reconstructed garden surrounding Cromarty's oldest inhabited dwelling house (circa 1690). In the early 1770s George Ross, the laird who built Cromarty House from the ruins of Cromarty Castle, constructed the 3m high wall that now forms the principle boundary of the modern garden. The landscaping of the present-day 'Old Orchard' began in 1997 and was inspired by the Cromarty tale of Capt. John Reid who lived in the house in the mid-eighteenth century. According to Hugh Miller in Scenes and Legends, Capt. Reid caught a singing mermaid in the Dropping Cave - along the shore towards the South Sutor. Nearly 175 years later, local artist Thora Brown commemorated this folk event with the casting of a mermaid sculpture in bronze. The mermaid soon found a home in the newly-constructed pond of the 'Old Orchard' - which in turn led to the building of a patio and garden house. The topsoil displaced by this building work was used to form the undulations of the new garden. The winding paths through the little hillocks lead to several small garden areas: a wild corner for 'bees, butterflies and beasties', a greenhouse and raised beds, a cutting garden followed by mixed borders, a herb garden and a heather and conifer bank sloping towards the house. Most of the apple trees in the new orchard are modern varieties, but some are identical to the old cultivars which were planted as cordons along the original brick wall between 1896 and 1905. Although the garden is no longer open to the general public, small, private groups are welcomed during the summer months. Further information on our website.