Bring back Nairnshire?
One of the key challenges facing Nairn appears to be the slow but progressive erosion of identity as a standalone and independent town, and a tourist destination in its own right.
Instead, it seems to be being treated as nothing more than a suburb of Inverness, as dictated by a “centralised” local authority which is very much focused in Inverness, and has been clawing away the town’s administrative functions to Inverness.
Perhaps, then, it’s time to look at ways to reinforce the independent identity of Nairn – which seems to have been especially impacted by the removal of “Nairnshire” as a recognised county, along with removal of its town burgh.
With the Ward Councils growing and potentially merging in future, there’s certainly room for political independence to some degree for Nairn and wider Nairnshire.
Maybe we should accelerate the process, through various channels in which we can push “Nairnshire” as an identity – not least in terms of tourism – and ensure that Nairn is not simply designated as within the Highlands, but instead – Nairnshire, Highlands?
Perhaps reclaiming the regional identity has to happen by our own actions in the first place, and then campaigning for wider recognition, rather than waiting for politicians to act?
Just a thought that comes to mind, and wondering if anyone else would like to add input into that – unless, of course, none of this matters. 
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News to me that Nairnshire no longer exists. When did this happen?
It no longer exists as a local authority, and seems little referenced outside of that historical role.
Only the back road signs welcome visitors to Nairnshire, and the post office does not seem to recognise it – instead, the people of Nairn live in “Moray”.
I’m also having trouble locating the use of the term “Nairnshire” in the tourism literature.
Hence why I’m asking if we should promote wider use of it.
The most important thing is that Nairnshire is alive in our minds, just like Maggot Rd, Pig Street and the Sewerage Bridge te Wee Councy lives on.
It has been suggested before in the Gurn that we have a NIP – Nairn Independence Party?
Freedom for Nairnshire!
te Wee Councy lol – The Wee County!
But it remains only in our own minds, then what of its life in the coming generations who may forget it?
Also, why not a “Nairnshire Independent Party”?
Brian
As an IT expert and manipulator of the world of the Web, I wonder if there is scope for you to tackle one of the main sources of the “disappearing Nairnshire” problem.
Many of the online databases used nowadays – eg for the drop-down menus and autofill options in website address-boxes and order forms – either have Nairn specifically labelled as being in Moray, or don’t include “Nairnshire” in the alphabetical list of UK counties. From memory, I think eBay is one that does not recognise or allow “Nairnshire” as a county; and likewise the databases used by some credit card companies/banks.
There can only be a few original-source databases which all these websites use, or link to. Is it possible to get the database owners to amend/insert Nairnshire? There’s a challenge for you!
Actually, when Iain Fairweather made his presentation for Visit Nairn Association last month at the court house, the issue of why Nairn was listed as Moray a lot of the time was raised by someone else – and I believe it was stated that the Post Office database is one such offender, and this is where a lot of the addresses were sourced from.
Therefore if we can get the Post Office to designate Nairnshire as an address, that could certainly be helpful.
I’ve been wondering today how and who to contact in the Post Office to raise this issue – while Nairnshire may be small, I should presume various other counties in the Highlands are represented on a number of databases, not least Sutherland and Caithness.
If not, it may be worth pushing the issue on the Post Office and any other database provider I can find out about – because an additional benefit of such a correction could be to help stop some couriers trying to charge extra on all deliveries to the “Highlands” – not least if we can build in the distinction between remote Highland areas such as Torridon, compared to ones on major transport routes such as Nairn.
I was the disappearing Nairnshire spokesperson at the Nairn forum.
It’s been slowly ebbing away this last twenty years. Time to stop the rot. It gives us a unique identity and should be used , in spite of the ‘machine’ trying to prevent us from doing so
I’m going to see if I can do something.