A copy of an Indian city gate on a hilltop above the Cromarty Firth, built in 1782 for a general back from India
General Sir Hector Munro of Novar took the port of Negapatam in southern India for the British in 1781, and the next year he had this row of stone arches built on Fyrish Hill, modelled on the town’s gate. It is a folly, a building put up for show rather than use. Munro is said to have built it to give work to local people at a time when many were being cleared off the land, and the story goes that he had stones rolled back down the hill so the job would last longer. From the top you look out over the Cromarty Firth, with Ben Wyvis to the west. A path climbs through the forest to the monument from a car park on the north-east side of the hill.
