Brora

(Inverbrora)
Highland

Brora
©2022 Gazetteer for Scotland

Brora

A small town on the east coast of Sutherland, Highland Council Area, Brora lies at the mouth of the River Brora. Originally known as Inverbrora, it was chartered as a burgh of barony in 1345. A seam of Jurassic age coal, mined in the 16th Century to fuel local saltpans, was worked until 1974 and was the only colliery in Britain to mine Jurassic rather than Carboniferous coal. The mine latterly also produced bricks manufactured from the overlying Oxford clay shales. The settlement was laid out in its present form in 1811 and a new harbour built in 1814. The arrival of the railway in 1871 and the creation of an engineering works boosted the local, mining, quarrying, distilling, textile manufacturing and tourism industries and in 1898 an 18-hole golf course was created. Woollen and tweed manufacture was a significant industry until the closure of Hunters of Brora in 2003. Tourism remains important, alongside the provision of goods and services to the surrounding agricultural communities.


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