Brora: the industrial capital of Sutherland A small pocket of
Jurassic rocks containing coal on the east coast of Sutherland
at Brora gave rise to its place in history as the industrial
capital of the Highlands. Coal was mined here for 400 years. The
first reference to coal in Brora occurs in a Sutherland Charter
of 1529. The last pit closed in 1974. Coal powered a range of
local industries including brickworks, textile making,
distilleries and of course salt panning. No trace of the coal
industry upon which the one-time prosperity of Brora so largely
depended, now remains. “The ancient glory of Brora...laid bare”
These words from the Inverness Advertiser in 1869 were reporting
an event in which “the sand banks along the shore have been
considerably encroached upon, and at Port Cheaniraidh (winter
port), a mile to the west of the river, the action of the sea
against the banks has laid bare a row of buildings which must
have been for ages lain imbedded in the sea… Numbers of people
flock to visit this long hid