organisation:

ARCH Highland

26 March 2019, Starts: 19:30

Cromarty – A great War Harbour

Talk by Allan Kilpatrick, Historic Environment Scotland

Dingwall Community Centre. Organised by ARCH

he great natural harbour of the Cromarty Firth is the forgotten anchorage of the Grand Fleet and it played a significant role in the First World War. Established just before the war and championed by Churchill, the small town of Invergordon became a huge naval base with a resultant massive population explosion.

The Cromarty Firth with its narrow entrance between the imposing cliffs of the North and South Sutors, was ideal for the construction of the only naval designed fixed defences and the first anti-submarine boom. Invergordon was converted into a huge naval base centred around a large fleet repair and supply facility. New workshops and maintenance sheds were constructed, a huge oil tank farm built, at least two floating docks and new piers. Dockyard workers were brought in from other ports and housed in a huge hutted camp. Workers families were provided for by construction of 100 cottages.  Despite being the home to a battleship and cruiser squadron, the base has attracted very little study, with the exception of the loss of HMS Natal in 1915.

In 1918 the Cromarty Firth and nearby Inverness Naval base became the home to the US Navy when they created the Northern Barrage minefield across the North Sea. The two US bases required purpose built infrastructure and massive resources.