Undiscovered Scotland

 

Munlochy is a small village lying at the head of narrow Munlochy Bay and just off the line of the A832 from Fortrose to the A9 at Tore.

Early records of a settlement here are scarce, but it seems likely that some of Munlochy's early growth was to house workers quarrying stone nearby for the building of Fort Georgeon the far side of the Moray Firth in the 1760s.

Further growth followed the building of a station at Munlochy on the Fortrose branch of the Highland Railway in 1894.

Munlochy Station closed in 1951 and the railway disappeared altogether in 1960. However the completion of the Kessock Bridge in 1982 placed Munlochy just six miles by road from Inverness, now one of the fastest growing cities in Europe, and brought another bout of growth as new housing was built.

In a way it is surprising that Munlochy doesn't have a longer recorded history. On the A832 just to the north of the village is the Clootie Well where pilgrims came (and still come) to leave strips of cloth as offering to cure illness.

Modern Munlochy benefits not just from its proximity to Inverness, but also from the importance of Munlochy Bay as a breeding area for birds. Here they find a range of habitats including tidal sand and mud, and salt flats: and attract large numbers of bird watchers. Munlochy Bay has been designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest.

A different sort of attraction (though probably equally welcome to many bird watchers) can be found a couple of miles to the west of Munlochy, in the form of the Black Isle Brewery.