Black Isle Military Road

Start location: wood edge by Mount High (NH 693 627)
End location: wood edge by Wester Strath (NH 663 583)
Geographical area: Ross and Cromarty
Path Type: Military Road
Path distance: 5.4km
Accessibility info: Suitable for pedestrians

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Route Description

This path runs in a straight line south west from Mount High before gradually turning south to reach Wester Strath.  We have no recent survey of this path and so if anyone knows of its accessibility we'd be grateful to hear about it.

OS Landranger 21 (Dornoch, Alness & Invergordon area) & 26 (Inverness & Strathglass area)

Heritage Information

This road is something of a mystery as William Taylor doesn't mention it at all in his book The Military Roads of Scotland and it doesn't appear to be part of any of the Wade, Caulfeild or post Caulfeild military roads.  Yet the modern Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 map names it as a military road and it certainly appears in old maps like John Thomson's map of 1832.

Therefore it is a contemporary of the 18th century military roads but doesn't seem to have been built in the same phase.  The most likely conclusion is that the Ordnance Survey are incorrect in naming it as a military road and that it is simply an very old direct route to Cromarty. Perhaps the famous geologist Hugh Miller used it when leaving his hometown of Cromarty. 

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