Nigg, Bishop's House

NH87SW 9 centred 803 717.

(Area NH 804 717) Nigg: behind the parish church the foundations of a building were seen about 1790. A Manor Place, Mansion and moothill are mentioned, inter alia, in a charter of 1581. Possibly the foundations were of either the mansion or Manor Place (OPS 1855).

Possibly foundations visible on RAF air photographs CPE/Scot/UK/223: 3143-4: flown 27 June 1947.

Orig Paroch Scot 1855.

Behind the church are the foundations of a large house above 90' in length, called the Bishops House, of which one of the vaults was entire in 1727.

Statistical Account (OSA) 1794.

Mrs D Scott (Nigg House) believes that the Bishops House stood at NH 8034 7172 in an area that was, until recently, an ornamental garden. There is now no trace. It is alleged to have been a Bishop's summer palace. A track running W from here to the shore at NH 7974 7208 is known as the Bishop's Walk. It is believed that some of the fabric of the outbuildings south of Nigg House (dated 1702) are older than the house itself. The marks on the air photographs are not visible on the ground.

Visited by OS (A A) 26 September 1972.

Timothy Pont's map of Tarbert Ness and Easter Ross depicts a tower, evidently intended to represent the Bishop's House.

Information from E Curtis, 1 November 2008; Stone 1989, 201.