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Portmahomack (; 'Haven of My i.e. Colmóc') is a small fishing village in Easter Ross, Scotland. It is situated in the Tarbat Peninsula in the parish of Tarbat.
Tarbat Ness Lighthouse is about from the village at the end of the Tarbat Peninsula. Ballone Castle lies about from the village. There is evidence of early settlement, and the area seems to have been the site of significant activity during the time of the Picts, the Ancient Rome (possiblethe lighthouse was built on the foundations of a possible Roman empire fortification,([1]) Roman foundations of the lighthouse that were later identified in the Middle Ages as a "Roman landmark" near Port a' Chait that is now called "Port a Chaistell".), early Christianity and the Vikings. The village is situated on a sandy bay and has a small harbour designed by Thomas Telford: it shares with Hunstanton the unusual distinction of being on the east coast but facing west. Portmahomack lies inside the Moray Firth Special Area of Conservation Recovered 2011-02-12 with the associated dolphin and whale watching activity.
The village has a primary school, golf course, hotel, a number of places to eat and a shop with a sub-post office. The nearest rail access is at Fearn railway station and the nearest commercial airport is at Inverness Airport. The nearest town with full services is Tain lying approximately west. Tain also has rail access. The hamlet of Rockfield is nearby and is accessed via the village of Portmahomack.
There are the remains of an Iron Age broch a little to the west of the village. Finds of elaborate early Christian carved stones dating to the 8th–9th centuries (including one with an inscription), in and around the churchyard, had long suggested that Portmahomack was the site of an important early church in the sixth-seventh century.
It had apparently been defaced by 1872 during land reclamation, but in Crawford's opinion there may be some traces of the Roman camp still visible or to be discovered. "Port A' Chaistell" RCAHMS. Retrieved 6 July 2010 The tentative identification was by Crawford, O.G.S. (1949) Topography of Roman Scotland north of the Antonine Wall. Cambridge. p. 148
Furthermore it has been suggested (by Montesanti MONTESANTI'S "ORKNEY: THE 6TH PROVINCE OF BRITANNIA" ([4])) that the supposed camp was visited by emperor Septimius Severus, based on remarks made by the Roman historian Cassius Dio: "Severus did not desist until he approached the extremity of the island (of Britain)"."Aros" The Romans in Caledonia
The monastery began around 550 AD and was destroyed by fire in about 800 AD. It had a burial ground with cist and head-support burials, a stone church, at least four monumental stone crosses and workshops making church plate and early Christian books. The making of vellum in an early medieval site was detected for the first time here by Cecily Spall of FAS Ltd.
Over two hundred pieces of sculpture have been found, some of it broken up in a layer of burning suggesting that the monastic buildings were violently destroyed, possibly in a Viking raid, about the year 800. The Book of Kells contains display capitals in a style similar to the sculptures, suggesting according to the scholar Victoria Whitworth that it may derive from the Portmahomack monastery, not Iona.
The present restored building, adapted to house a museum after lying empty for a number of years, has been shown by archaeological investigation to be itself a monument of great interest, of multi-phase construction, the oldest part (the east wall of the crypt) having been built as early as the 9th century. The museum and visitor centre in the remodeled parish church is managed by the Tarbat Historic Trust.
Recent research on the ancient trench around the local monastery found organic samples in the date range from 140 AD to 590 AD. The area enclosed by the ditch may have been a "settlement, craft-working centre and/or hub of a Pictish community", connected to the possible Roman fortification in Port a Chaistell. Archaeology on Monastery trench
In the Battle of Tarbat in the 1480s, a raiding party from the Clan Mackay of Strathnaver were cornered in the Tarbat church by the Clan Ross, who killed many of them before setting fire to the church.
Notable among these are a large collection of fragments of Pictish stone sculpture, many of them superbly carved with figures of ecclesiastics, fantastic and realistic animals, 'Celtic' interlace and key-pattern, and other motifs. The large elaborate late seventeenth- or early eighteenth-century bell-turret on the west gable of the church is an unusual and distinctive feature.
Some important Pictish carved stones from Portmahomack are on display in the Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh with replicas in the Tarbat Discovery Centre.
Two other important historic buildings in Portmahomack are adjoining 'girnals' (storehouses), built in the late 17th century and 1779, overlooking the harbour (restored as housing). The former is one of the oldest such buildings to survive in Scotland. The village also features a number of attractive 18th/early 19th century houses lining the shore.
The murder-mystery writer Anne Perry (1938-2023) lived adjacent to the village for a number of years.
John Shepherd-Barron (1925-2010), the inventor of the ATM (Auto-Teller Machine), lived in the nearby community of Geanies until his death in 2010. Montreal Gazette, Retrieved 2011-02-12
Professor Thomas Summers West (1927-2010), was a famous son of the Village with an Exhibition held in his name at the Tarbat Discovery Centre in 2011.
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