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This famous, although not large, town of great antiquity, is a royal burgh whose earliest charters have been lost, so that no dates or proof can be given, other than the Novo Damus, a renewal issued by James the Fourth in 1496. But Forres was renowned long before, King Duncan held his court here and Macbeth rebelled against him; indeed King Dubh, or Duffus, is reputed to have been murdered in Forres Castle in 967. Also some claim it to have been the Varris mentioned by Ptolemy; and the admittedly unreliable Boece claims that, as early as 535, some of its merchants were executed for some offence. So its antiquity is not in doubt. Today it has a population of just over 10,000. Forres is also a civil parish of 5400 acres, of very irregular shape, in the Laigh of Moray south of Findhorn Bay. Forres is a small town situated in the North of Scotland on the Moray Coast, positioned between Inverness on the west,and Aberdeen in the east. The town lies along the busy A96 Elgin to Inverness road, which has its disadvantages on the score of amenity, but is a pleasant place, backed on one side by wooded hills, and a favoured holiday resort, with a great many large and substantial villas in their own grounds, some now turned into hotels or guest houses.
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 It now
approximates towards the Gothic style, with a steeple, and internally is
large, seated for 1000, with an L-shaped gallery, on only two sides, plus
an aisle and much excellent stained-glass, the gift of Sir Alexander
Grant, Baronet, the Moray philanthropist and friend of Ramsay McDonald, in
1939. There is an attractive baptistry. In the kirkyard there are many
oldish stones. Near by is a good 17th Century L-planned house, at the
corner of Gordon and High Streets, with crowsteps, dormers and coped
chimneys, the ground floor a shop. Still further west is Achernack, a
former Eventide Home, and as such is rather unusually placed in the High
Street. Opposite, on the south side, is the small park of Castlehill, the
site of the ancient castle of Forres, so important to Scotland's early
monarchs, and now completely without trace. | ||
It is an ancient Royal Burgh Town, and well known for its
award wining floral sculptures and steeped in local history and
traditions. St.Lawence is the patron saint, his representation appearing
on the burgh seal, with gridiron and St Lawrence's is the parish church, a
fine and impressive edifice dating variously from 1775, 1839 and 1860, in
an old kirkyard at the north side of the high street towards the west
end.
