County of Moray

"Elginshire" redirects here. See also Elginshire (UK Parliament constituency).

Coordinates: 57°18′N 3°18′W / 57.3°N 3.3°W / 57.3; -3.3

Moray
—  County (until circa 1890)  —
Country	Scotland
County town	Elgin
Area
– Total	1,232.7 km2 (475.9 sq mi)
	Ranked 18th
Chapman code	MOR

Moray (pronounced "Murray" and spelled Moireibh in Gaelic) is one of the registration counties of Scotland, bordering Nairnshire to the west, Inverness-shire to the south, and Banffshire to the east. It was formerly in use as a local government county until 1975, when Elgin was the county town.

Prior to 1889 there were two large detached portions of Moray situated locally in Inverness-shire, and a corresponding part of Inverness-shire situated locally in Moray. With the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889 these parts were merged into the areas in which they locally lay. The county was officially called Elginshire, or 'Morayshire', sharing the name of the Elginshire parliamentary constituency, so named since 1708.^[1]

In 1975, under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973, most of the county was combined with Aberlour, Buckie, Cullen, Dufftown, Findochty, Keith and Portknockie areas of the county of Banffshire to form the Moray district of the Grampian region. Grantown-on-Spey and Cromdale areas were combined with Kingussie and Badenoch areas of the county of Inverness-shire to form the Badenoch and Strathspey district of the Highland region. In 1996 this district was superseded by the council area of Moray 1996, under the provisions of the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994.

The registration county, for property, is 'County of Moray', and a slightly smaller area, also based on the former county, is a lieutenancy area named 'Moray'.

Geography

There are a number of mountainous features within Moray, including Bin Hill near Cullen. Bin Hill is visible from a number of distant points including Longman Hill, situated to the east in coastal Aberdeenshire.^[2]

Administrative Morayshire 1889-1975

Towns and villages of the county

• Burghead
• Charlestown of Aberlour
• Craigellachie
• Elgin
• Findochty
• Glenlivet
• Grantown-on-Spey
• Longmorn
• Lossiemouth
• Maggieknockater
• Portknockie
• Rothes
• Dufftown
• Hopeman
• Forres
• Buckie
• Keith
• Kinloss
• Kellas
• Alves
• Fochabers
• Mosstodloch
• Lhanbryde

See also

• List of pre-1975 counties of Scotland

Line notes

1. ^ L.Shaw, 1882
2. ^ C.M. Hogan, 2008

References

• Lachlan Shaw and James Frederick Skinner Gordon (1882) The History of the Province of Moray: Comprising the Counties of Elgin and Nairn, the Greater Part of the County of Inverness and a Portion of the County of Banff, Published by Hamilton, Adams & co.,
• C.Michael Hogan (2008) Longman Hill, The Modern Antiquarian