Nairn (boundaries) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com


County of Nairn To 1891
Missing map
County of Nairn 1891 to 1975

Nairn District 1975 to 1996

Highland council area 1996 to present

Nairn was a general purpose county

Counties of Scotland

The counties of Scotland were the principal local government divisions of Scotland until 1975. Scotland's current lieutenancy areas and registration counties are largely based on them. They are often referred to as historic counties....

of Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

, with the burgh of Nairn as the county town

County town

A county town is a county's administrative centre in the United Kingdom or Ireland. County towns are usually the location of administrative or judicial functions, or established over time as the de facto main town of a county. The concept of a county town eventually became detached from its...

, until 1975, when, under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973

Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973

The Local Government Act 1973 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, that reformed local government in Scotland, on May 16, 1975....

, the county area became one of the eight districts of the two-tier Highland region

Regions and districts of Scotland

The local government areas of Scotland were redefined by the Local Government Act 1973 and redefined again by the Local Government etc Act 1994....

. The county of Nairn survived for registration

Registration county

A registration county was, in Great Britain and Ireland, a statistical unit used for the registration of births, deaths and marriages and for the output of census information. In Scotland registration counties are used for land registration purposes....

purposes and, at the same time, the Nairn lieutenancy

Lord Lieutenant of Nairn

The Lord Lieutenant of Nairn, is the British monarch's personal representative in an area which has been defined since 1975 as consisting of the local government district of Nairn, in Scotland, and this definition was renewed by the Lord-Lieutenants Order 1996...

was defined as having the boundaries of the new district. In 1996, under the Local Government etc (Scotland) Act 1994, the local government district was merged into the unitary Highland council area.

County

The county, also known as Nairnshire , was described in 1846 as:

"about twenty-two miles in length and fifteen miles (35x24 km) in breadth; comprising an area of 200 square miles (518 km²), or 128,000 acres; 2338 houses, of which 2235 are inhabited; and containing a population of 9217."

The county consisted of the royal burgh

Royal burgh

A royal burgh was a type of Scottish burgh which had been founded by, or subsequently granted, a royal charter. Although abolished in 1975, the term is still used in many of the former burghs....

of Nairn

Nairn

Nairn is a town and former burgh in the Highland council area of Scotland. It is an ancient fishing port and market town around east of Inverness...

(chartered in 1476), the four parishes of Ardclach, Auldearn, Dyke & Moy and Nairn; and most of the parish of Cawdor, and parts of those of Croy & Dalcross, Moy & Dalarossie, Petty and Urquhart & Logie Wester.

The county acquired a county council

County council

A county council is the elected administrative body governing an area known as a county. This term has slightly different meanings in different countries.-United Kingdom:...

in 1890, under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889

Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889

The Local Government Act 1889 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which was passed on 26 August 1889. The main effect of the Act was to establish elected county councils in Scotland...

, and, under the same legislation, boundaries were altered to make the county a single contiguous area.

Although the new boundaries were supposed to be valid for all purposes (unlike earlier boundaries, which were really default boundaries and not necessarily those used for any particular purpose), the burgh of Nairn, which had its own town council, retained autonomous status and was generally beyond the writ of the new county council. Also, use of the new boundaries for parliamentary elections was specifically excluded.

The county has always had a northern coastline on the Moray Firth

Moray Firth

The Moray Firth is a roughly triangular inlet of the North Sea, north and east of Inverness, which is in the Highland council area of north of Scotland...

. Until 1891 it had a number of exclaves in other counties, the most considerable of which was situated some distance away from the bulk of the county of Nairn, in the county of Inverness. Another sizable portion existed in the county of Ross, around the village of Urquhart, on the Black Isle

Black Isle

The Black Isle is an eastern area of the Highland local government council area of Scotland, within the county of Ross and Cromarty. The name nearly always includes the article "the"....

. Other, smaller, detached parts (not shown on map due to their small size) existed in the county of Moray

Moray

Moray is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. It lies in the north-east of the country, with coastline on the Moray Firth, and borders the council areas of Aberdeenshire and Highland.- History :...

. Under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889, these detached parts became part of their host territories.

District of Highland, 1975 to 1996

In 1975, under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973

Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973

The Local Government Act 1973 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, that reformed local government in Scotland, on May 16, 1975....

, the local government county was abolished and the area (including the burgh of Nairn) became, without change of boundaries, a district of the two-tier Highland region

Regions and districts of Scotland

The local government areas of Scotland were redefined by the Local Government Act 1973 and redefined again by the Local Government etc Act 1994....

.

Local government functions were divided between the regional council and the district council. For example, education was a regional responsibility, and housing was a district responsibility.

Highland Council management areas, 1996 to present

In 1996, under the Local Government etc (Scotland) Act 1994, districts were abolished and the Highland region became a unitary council area.

The new unitary Highland Council adopted the areas of the former districts as management areas

Politics of the Highland council area

Politics of the Highland council area in Scotland are evident in the deliberations and decisions of the Highland Council, in elections to the council, and in elections to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom and the Scottish Parliament...

. Each management area was represented, initially, by area committee

Area committee

Many large local government councils in the United Kingdom have a system of area committees, with responsibility for services in a particular part of the area covered by the council....

s consisting of councillor

Councillor

A councillor or councilor is a member of a local government council, such as a city council.Often in the United States, the title is councilman or councilwoman.-United Kingdom:...

s elected from areas (groups of local government wards) corresponding to the management areas, but changes to ward boundaries in 1999 created a mismatch between committee areas and management areas.

In 2007, following further changes to ward boundaries, the council created a new management structure, with three new corporate management area

Politics of the Highland council area

s and 16 new ward-level management area

Politics of the Highland council area

s. Therefore Nairn is now both one of the 22 wards of the Highland council area and one of the Highland Council's 16 ward-level management areas.

The Nairn ward

Politics of the Highland council area

elects four of the council's 80 members by the single transferable vote system of election, which is designed to produce a form of proportional representation

Proportional representation

Proportional representation is a concept in voting systems used to elect an assembly or council. PR means that the number of seats won by a party or group of candidates is proportionate to the number of votes received. For example, under a PR voting system if 30% of voters support a particular...

. The ward is on the boundary between the Highland council area and the Moray

Moray

council area, which lies to the east. Within the Highland area there is the Badenoch and Strathspey ward

Politics of the Highland council area

and the Inverness South ward

Politics of the Highland council area

to the south, and the Culloden and Ardersier ward

Politics of the Highland council area

to the west. To the north, the Nairn ward is bounded by the Moray Firth

Moray Firth

The Moray Firth is a roughly triangular inlet of the North Sea, north and east of Inverness, which is in the Highland council area of north of Scotland...

.

The Nairn ward is one of nine within the Highland Council's Inverness, Nairn and Badenoch and Strathspey corporate area

Politics of the Highland council area

, and the Nairn management area

Politics of the Highland council area

is one of six ward-level management areas within the corporate area.

There is significant difference between the boundaries of the new Nairn management area and those of the area abolished in 2007. The new area is smaller, part of the old area being now within the Culloden and Ardersier ward-level area

Politics of the Highland council area

and within Inverness city ward-level area 4

Politics of the Highland council area

Geography and viewshed

Nairn can be seen from several distant points such as Ben Rinnes

Ben Rinnes

Ben Rinnes is a mountain in Moray, in northern Scotland. The mountain is popular with hikers with the sight from the summit that is described as truly amazing....

, a peak that is a common point of distant view to such places as the former county of Inverness and Longman Hill

Longman Hill

Longman Hill is a prehistoric monument in northern Aberdeenshire, Scotland near Banff Bay. Due to the low lying coastal plain characteristics, the elevation of Longman Hill affords a long distance view as far as the Moray Firth....

in the former county of Banff.

Parliamentary constituencies

The parliamentary constituency is the Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey

Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey (UK Parliament constituency)

Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey is a constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom . It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election....

and the MP is Danny Alexander

Danny Alexander

Daniel Grian Alexander is a British Liberal Democrat politician who has been Chief Secretary to the Treasury since 2010. He has been the Member of Parliament for the Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch & Strathspey constituency since 2005....

of the Liberal Democrats.

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