Fortrose Cathedral

PricingFreeFree for all visitors

Free entry for everyone

Entry

Free for everyone

Pricing details

Free entry for everyone; no membership card is needed.

ParkingNo car park

Arrive on foot, by bike or by public transport.

Parking details

Historic Scotland names no parking; the cathedral is on the A832 in the burgh of Fortrose. Visitors park on the street around Cathedral Square or in the public car parks off Station Road about 200 m to the north, where the town's public toilets also are.

Driving pin: Historic Scotland's own pin on the cathedral in Cathedral Square, 13 m from the Google listing. Historic Scotland gives journey planners only.

About

Fortrose Cathedral was the seat of the bishops of Ross, a diocese that tradition dates to about AD 700, and its red sandstone ruins stand in a quiet green square in the middle of the Black Isle town. The see seems to have moved here between 1214 and 1249, when the oldest standing parts were built. In the late 1300s Euphemia, Countess of Ross, added the elegant south aisle, probably as a chantry chapel, and her canopied tomb is still inside it. Only that aisle, with the clock turret it gained when the burgh used it later, and the older two-storey range of sacristy and chapter house survive, which served the burgh as tolbooth after the Reformation; tradition says Cromwell carried off the rest of the stone to build his citadel at Inverness. Reviewers praise the information boards, the old grave slabs and graffiti, and suggest a wander round the village and a drive to Chanonry Point afterwards.

Check today’s timesPick a day for times and prices

Until 24 Dec: Daily 10:00–16:00, last entry 15:30
25 Dec–7 Jan: Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Sun 10:00–16:00, last entry 15:30
8 Jan–31 Mar: Daily 10:00–16:00, last entry 15:30

Later dates are in the calendar.

Today, Saturday 24 October

Fortrose Cathedral10:00 – 16:00last entry 15:30

Free entry

Opening times may change at short notice.

1 April to 30 September daily 9.30am to 5.30pm; 1 October to 31 March daily 10am to 4pm; last entry 30 minutes before closing; closed 25 and 26 December and 1 and 2 January. No notices on 20 October 2026; not on Historic Scotland's closures page. The site is unstaffed; the south aisle and chapel are seen through railings and the vaulted chapter house is kept locked.

A level green square with paths and information boards; the burial ground still has active lairs and the lych gate is the town's war memorial. No toilets or facilities on site; public toilets are on Station Road.

Photo: The roofless south aisle and chapel of Fortrose Cathedral with its clock turret, behind railings in the green of Cathedral Square. Euan Nelson, CC BY-SA 2.0. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fortrose_Cathedral_-_geograph.org.uk_-_4750665.jpg. Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0. Resized and cropped for display; derivatives retain the source licence.