Posted on 09th May 2023.

Having commissioned software design company, Cromarty-based Plexus Media Ltd,, Highland Historic Buildings Trust has just launched the Easter Ross and Black Isle Churches Heritage Trail website, as a promotional and informative website that will be freely accessible through desktop computers, tablets and smartphones, 

w:https://easterrosschurches.co.uk/

Originally compiled by Dr Jim Mackay of the Kirkmichael Trust, and then substantially edited and extended by Mary Miers, Director/Trustee of Highland Historic Buildings Trust (HHBT), the Easter Ross and Black Isle Churches Heritage Trail comprises a comprehensive guide to the Pre- and Post-Reformation (Church of Scotland) sites of religious worship, covering some 34 properties.

The homepage of the website features a large interactive map programmed with ‘hotspots’ identifying the survey sites, with each site linked via the website database to images and a page of information about the property. The website also features a simple grid list page of all the properties, so that users can scroll quickly through the list and summaries to find what they seek.

HHBT envisages the Heritage Trail being linked to its own website, as well as to those of other bodies with an interest in the built heritage, such as Highland Council (Highland Historic Environment Record), local heritage groups, community councils and schools. It would also add value—and possibly attract a wider and more diverse audience—as an appendage to the websites of the NC500, the John O’ Groats Trail, the Great Glen Way, the Kintyre Trail, and Scotland’s Pilgrim Journeys.

In addition, there would be the opportunity to link the Heritage Trail with a cycle route that could form part of the most northerly section of the National Cycle Network, specifically the Black Isle/Easter Ross Loop.

Funding for the Easter Ross and Black Isle Churches Heritage Trail has been obtained from the North Highlands Initiative and the Highland Council’s Ward Discretionary Fund.