It was a moving experience to stand on the Links at Cromarty and read the words of Hugh Miller, the famous stone mason, writer and geologist, engraved on the Emigration Stone which commemorates the people from the Highlands who made the long journey to Canada at the time of Highland clearances.   Miller’s words come from the Inverness Courier in June 1831, marking the departure of the Cleopatra from Cromarty.

The Cleopatra, as she swept past the town of Cromarty, was greeted with three cheers by crowds of the inhabitants and the emigrants returned the salute, but mingled with the dash of the waves and the murmurs of the breeze their faint huzzas seemed rather sounds of wailing and lamentation than of a congratulatory farewell.

The town was a main embarkation port for the emigrants and the names of 39 ships known to have set sail from there in the 1830s and 40s are carved round the edge of the stone.

The gull perched on the top of the stone looks towards the harbour at Cromarty which has changed very little since Miller’s days.  All that has changed are the boats that can be seen there.

What you can see in the Cromarty Firth these days are oil rigs, presently laid up because of the downturn in the North Sea Oil industry.   It seems appropriate that my picture of the Emigration Stone and the oil platform are seen together, signs of the effect of economics on the lives of so many ordinary people.