Nigg Bay ( gd, Camas Neig) is a large, relatively shallow sandy bay, consisting of mudflats,

saltmarsh A salt marsh or saltmarsh, also known as a coastal salt marsh or a tidal marsh, is a coastal ecosystem in the upper coastal intertidal zone between land and open saltwater or brackish water that is regularly flooded by the tides. It is dominated ...

and wet

grassland A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominated by grasses (Poaceae). However, sedge (Cyperaceae) and rush (Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes, like clover, and other herbs. Grasslands occur natur ...

, located on the north east coast of the

Cromarty Firth The Cromarty Firth (; gd, Caolas Chrombaidh ; literally "kyles /nowiki>straits.html"_;"title="strait.html"_;"title="/nowiki>strait">/nowiki>straits">strait.html"_;"title="/nowiki>strait">/nowiki>straitsof_Cromarty.html" ;"title="strait">/no ...

, east of

Invergordon Invergordon (; gd, Inbhir Ghòrdain or ) is a town and port in Easter Ross, in Ross and Cromarty, Highland (council area), Highland, Scotland. It lies in the parish of Rosskeen. History The town built up around the harbour which was establish ...

, in the district of

Ross and Cromarty Ross and Cromarty ( gd, Ros agus Cromba), sometimes referred to as Ross-shire and Cromartyshire, is a variously defined area in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. There is a registration county and a lieutenancy area in current use, the latt ...

and in the Scottish council area of

Highland Highlands or uplands are areas of high elevation such as a mountainous region, elevated mountainous plateau or high hills. Generally speaking, upland (or uplands) refers to ranges of hills, typically from up to while highland (or highlands) is ...

. At low tide, the Sands of Nigg are exposed. Nigg Bay can be said to start at Balintraid pier – probably the oldest pier on the Cromarty Firth – built by

Thomas Telford Thomas Telford FRS, FRSE, (9 August 1757 – 2 September 1834) was a Scottish civil engineer. After establishing himself as an engineer of road and canal projects in Shropshire, he designed numerous infrastructure projects in his native Scotla ...

in 1821. There is a wartime

mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic via ...

base alongside the pier and a series of coastal gun emplacements on the road to North Sutor.

RSPB Reserve

Nigg Bay is an extensive area of mudflats, saltmarsh and wet grassland on the Cromarty Firth. Visitors between October and March are sure to see countless wading birds and wildfowl, such as bar-tailed godwits, knots, pink-footed geese and wigeon, feeding and roosting on the mudflats, moving with the tide in and out of the bay. The best time to visit is two hours either side of high-tide, as the birds are pushed up closer to the hide. The summer months bring breeding birds to the wetland areas and saltmarsh. The RSPB are also creating a new area of wet grassland to attract breeding lapwings and redshanks. Up to 10,000 pink-footed geese can be seen feeding in the bay on their return migration to their breeding grounds. Lapwings and oystercatchers prepare for the breeding season here in spring The reserve is well equipped with one wheelchair accessible hide and it is also pushchair friendly.RSPB

Villages

On the south east coast of Nigg Bay lie the village and parish of Nigg, which took its name from the bay, with the village of

Pitcalnie Pitcalnie ( gd, Baile Chailnidh or Cuilt Eararaidh) is a small hamlet on the north east corner of Nigg Bay in Ross-shire, Scottish Highlands and is in the Scottish council area of Highland Highlands or uplands are areas of high elevation suc ...

further up the coast. On the north west shore of the bay are the villages of

Milton Milton may refer to: Names * Milton (surname), a surname (and list of people with that surname) ** John Milton (1608–1674), English poet * Milton (given name) ** Milton Friedman (1912–2006), Nobel laureate in Economics, author of '' Free t ...

to the east side of the shore,

Barbaraville Barbaraville ( gd, An Cladach) is a small settlement on the north shore of Nigg Bay in the Cromarty Firth in the Highland (council area), Highland council area of Scotland. Housing dates from 1820 on when local people were allowed to build on p ...

almost directly across from the fabrication yard and Balintraid further west. A

ferry A ferry is a ship, watercraft or amphibious vehicle used to carry passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water taxi ...

links the villages of

Cromarty Cromarty (; gd, Cromba, ) is a town, civil parish and former royal burgh in Ross and Cromarty, in the Highland area of Scotland. Situated at the tip of the Black Isle on the southern shore of the mouth of Cromarty Firth, it is seaward from In ...

on the

Black Isle The Black Isle ( gd, an t-Eilean Dubh, ) is a peninsula within Ross and Cromarty, in the Scottish Highlands. It includes the towns of Cromarty and Fortrose, and the villages of Culbokie, Jemimaville, Rosemarkie, Avoch, Munlochy, Tore, and Nor ...

Nigg Ferry Nigg (from the gd, An Neag meaning "the notch", referring to a feature of the hills above the parish church) is a village and parish in Easter Ross, administered by the Highland Council. It lies on the north shore of the entrance to the Cromarty ...

just prior to its opening into the

Moray Firth The Moray Firth (; Scottish Gaelic: ''An Cuan Moireach'', ''Linne Mhoireibh'' or ''Caolas Mhoireibh'') is a roughly triangular inlet (or firth) of the North Sea, north and east of Inverness, which is in the Highland council area of north of Scotl ...

Industry

At the south east corner of the bay, is the former oil platform construction and fabrication yard, opened in 1972 by a joint venture of

Brown & Root KBR, Inc. (formerly Kellogg Brown & Root) is a U.S. based company operating in fields of science, technology and engineering. KBR works in various markets including aerospace, defense, industrial and intelligence. After Halliburton acquired Dress ...

and

Wimpey Construction George Wimpey was a British construction firm. Formed in 1880 and based in Hammersmith, it initially operated largely as a road surfacing contractor. The business was acquired by Godfrey Mitchell in 1919, and he developed it into a constructi ...

. The fabrication yard was " mothballed" some years ago and was put up for sale by KBR in 2006. In 2012 the yard was taken over by the Global Energy Group and renamed Nigg Energy Park. Since the purchase of the fabrication yard by Global Energy Group in 2011 and with investment from the Scottish Government the area has begun to see a new influx of workers to the area again with the yard having plenty of work in the renewable energy sector and also in oil drilling rig refurbishment. In 2012 Global Energy Group set up a skills academy to create new jobs for local residents and young people and this has resulted in a fall in unemployment in the area and a welcome boost to the local economy. The extra work at Nigg has also seen an increase in work at the docks in Invergordon. In addition to this there is also an oil depot operated by

Talisman Energy Talisman Energy Inc. was a Canadian independent petroleum company that existed between 1993 and 2015. The company was created from the assets of BP Canada after British Petroleum divested its 57 percent stake in June 1992. It was one of Canada' ...

where there is a crude oil storage and processing depot for oil piped in from the Beatrice oil field in the Moray Firth.

Balintraid Pier

Probably the oldest pier on the Cromarty Firth built by

in 1821, The 9th report to the Commission on Highland Roads and Bridges, 1821, noted " a Landing Pier of massive dimensions has been erected for the express purpose of facilitating the importation of lime, coals and other articles of consumption in the very fertile district of Easter Ross, and for the exportation of corn and timber." the cost is noted as amounting to "about Two Thousand Four Hundred Pounds; of which Mr Kenneth Macleay contributes a Moiety." The pier still stands today but as of May 2018 the pier is in a very poor state and much of it is beginning to collapse. It has been listed as a "Building at Risk" by "Buildings at Risk Scotland"

References

External links