Ardersier
Ardersier
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 Ardersier
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| Ardersier shown within the Nairn area | |
| OS grid reference | NH782550 |
| Council area | |
| Country | Scotland |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Postcode district | IV2 7 |
| Police | Scottish |
| Fire | Scottish |
| Ambulance | Scottish |
| EU Parliament | Scotland |
| UK Parliament | |
| Scottish Parliament | |
Ardersier (Scottish Gaelic: Àird nan Saor) is a small former fishing village in the Scottish Highlands, on the Moray Firth, east of Inverness, near Fort George, and Nairn. Its name is an anglicisation of the Gaelic "Àird nan Saor", or "Headland of the joiners", one local legend being that carpenters working on the construction of ecclesiastical buildings on the other side of the Moray Firth were quartered here.
Prior to the building of Fort George, a small fishing hamlet called Blacktown existed in the area of Fort George, with an economy based on small-scale commercial fishery. Its relocation eventually led to the creation of the village of Ardersier.
Parts of the land in and about Ardersier were originally owned by the order of the Knights Templar. These lands were referred to as: Temple Land, Temple Cruik, Temple Bank, Bogschand. They were located between Connage and the sea, and between Flemington and the sea. The Temple lands of Ardersier were held by Davidsons and Mackays as portioners. They were acquired by Cawdor in 1626.
A charter granted at Nairn refers to the locus trialis at Ardersier, and according to the historian George Bain, this may have been an ancient place of trial by wager of battle.
Church lands of Ardersier owned by the Bishop of Ross and Delnies had passed into the hands of the Leslies of Ardersier, and they sold them on to Cawdor in the year 1574, "having consideration of the great and intolerable damage, injury, and skaith done to them by Lachlan Mackintosh and others of the Clan Chattan, in harrying, destroying, and making hardships upon the said hail lands of Ardersier and fishings thereof," and no apparent hope of reparation for the "customary enormities of the said Clan Chattan." It is charged against the Mackintoshes that they depauperised the tenants, debarred them from fishing at the stell of Ardersier, breaking their boats and cutting their nets. The Laird of Cawdor was not allowed to have peaceable possession, and he raised an action against Lachlan Mackintosh and his clansmen for the slaughter of several of his servants and tenants. In 1581, Lachlan renounced all claim to the Ardersier lands and to Wester and Easter Delnies, and the legal proceedings were dropped.
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Wikipedia