14/05/2026
With the election now concluded, this week's Dingwall 800 post looks at the town’s long history of parliamentary representation and civic life (Post 8 ).
🏛️ Representing Dingwall 📜🗳️
As a royal burgh, Dingwall was represented by one commissioner to the Parliament of Scotland before the Union of 1707.
Following the Union, the town became part of the Tain (Northern) Burghs district, later Tain Burghs, later Wick Burghs, which returned representatives to the Parliament of Great Britain and later the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The burghs in the district would take it in turn to host the election. Dingwall hosted it in 1710, 1734, 1768, 1796, and 1818. Nowadays, it is part of the Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross UK Parliament Constituency.
Over time, Dingwall also became part of changing county, parliamentary, and local government structures, including Ross and Cromarty and later Highland Council.
With the re-establishment of the Scottish Parliament in 1999, Dingwall once again became part of Scotland’s modern parliamentary story through representation in Holyrood, first as part of the Ross, Skye and Inverness West constituency (1999-2011) and later the Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch constituency.
Although systems and boundaries have changed over the centuries, Dingwall’s connection to public life and representation has remained an important part of the town’s history.
Read more about Dingwall’s history here:
https://www.rossandcromartyheritage.org/home/mid-ross-communities/dingwall/
Photo Credits:
- "The Municipal Buildings, Dingwall", https://www.ambaile.org.uk/asset/32318/.
