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Alness ~ PastPresent: In the Beginning
The first recorded mention of Alness dates back to 1227 when it was referred to as 'Alenes'. Adam Bur was the Parson of Alness in 1227 when he and James, the Vicar met with other clergy from Ross-shire at Kenedor in Moray
According to tradition, the original Alness lay slightly to the south of the modern day town and would only have been a small crofting township. Averon, the local name for the Alness river takes its name from the Gaelic 'Abharan' - a small river. Intriguingly the statistical accounts of 1797 states that' ...it is now known by the name Water of Alness'.
Tracing the ancient past of Alness is nigh on impossible given the lack of any detailed account of any Archaeology. The first farmers came to Scotland around 3,500 b.c and the fertile land of Easter Ross witnessed a lot of activity around that time and chambered cairns litter the district. The hills along the Alness - Tain road have no less than eight chambered tombs. The valley of the Averon river is the site of several more, the best preserved of these being at Stittenham where a much disturbed 12 metre (40ft) diameter cairn surrounds the remains of a polygonal chamber. Burials around 2000bc were
accompanied by 'beakers', highly decorated pottery. They were probably designed to hold food and drink for the journey to the afterlife.
These 'Beaker People' appear to be responsible for bringing the techniques of copper and bronze from their European homelands. Beaker burials in unmarked graves were found during the construction of the railway at Dalmore in 1878.
Bronze age remains include two burnt mounds at Balnacraig. Burnt mounds were just that. Mounds of circular or kidney shape composed of burnt stone, ash and charcoal. They are usually found near fresh water and the two at Balnacraig lie close to a small stream which flows into the Averon.
When the Picts inhabited Ross-shire, they left a plethora of artefacts and stones. The Pictish Symbol stones bore beautiful decoration often of animal life. The Eagle Stone at Strathpeffer and the Wolf and Deer Stones found at Ardross are prime examples of class 1 stones.
On the shore road to Invergordon lies Clach a'Meirlich whose symbols are now very eroded, but there are traces of a crescent and what resembles a tuning fork can still be made out. In the field beside Salvasen Crescent lies Carn Liath, a five chambered cairn. It is approximately 30 feet in diameter with a retaining wall. The burial cist lies in the centre covered by a large stone.
Alness is actually made up of two parishes; Alness to the west and Rosskeen in the east and divided by the Averon River. The river was first bridged by William Ross in 1383. It was replaced in 1439 and the river was only properly bridged in 1810. Before that a succession of wooden bridges, were, in turn, built and swept away again by the river.
In 1690 an act of the Scottish Parliament was passed stating:
...that Lauchlaine McIntosh of Torcastle, his airs and successors to have...a weekly mercat in the toune of Obsdale in Ross to be holden on wednesdays yearly...and erects on the said toune of Obsdale in a Burgh of Barony in all time coming...
In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries few roads existed until 1810 when, along with a stone bridge, the first road to the north was laid down. In 1819 the first mail coach ran from Inverness to Thurso and then
another from Inverness to Tain. The coach horses were housed in a building to the west of the Alness Town Hall.
The Highland Clearances had their impact inthe farms of Easter Ross around 1845. Many of the dispossessed helped to increase the population of the now growing villages of Alness and Bridgend. The standard of living began to improve around this time, although there were still many poor people.
The age of steam did not pass Alness by and in the Museum of Steam in Lincoln there is an engine built by Alnessian John Fraser. The advent of the railway also brought new trading possibilities for the area. In 1860 Sir Alexander Matheson secured the passage of the Inverness and Ross-shire Railway Act and the first sod of the new line was cut at Inverness by his wife. In March 1861 the contract was signed for 13 miles between Dingwall and Invergordon and the completed line was opened on 25th March 1863.A later spur line to Dalmore Distillery was built in 1878. Alness even had her own town crier who would walk from one end of the village to the other calling out the news of the day, employment wanted, etc.