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Avoch is a harbour-village located on the Black Isle, on the Moray Firth. The village's name is pronounced "Och" (as in the well-known Scots interjection "Och aye the noo").

Ormond Castle or Avoch Castle was a stronghold built on the site and served as a royal castle to William the Lion; passed on to the Morays of Petty then Archibald the Grim, Lord of Galloway, upon his marriage to Joanna de Moravia in 1362. Descendants of Archibald, were to take the title of Earl of Ormonde from the castle.

Legend has it that the village was founded by survivors of the Spanish Armada.

Intrepid Scottish-Canadian explorer Sir Alexander MacKenzie, the first European to explore the great Canadian river now known as the Mackenzie River, crossing North America twice, to the Arctic Ocean in 1789 and Pacific Ocean in 1793, retired to Avoch in 1812 where he died in 1820 and was buried in the old Avoch Parish churchyard.

Avoch was the location of Rosehaugh (Pittanochtie) House, perhaps the most magnificent mansion house in the Scottish Highlands until it was demolished in the 1959.

Craigie Well at Avoch on the Black Isle has offerings of both coins and clouties. Rags, wool and human hair were also used as charms against sorcery, and as tokens of penenace and fulfilment of a vow.

Much of Avoch's wealth once came from its fishing industry, which in modern times has decreased with Cromarty taking most of the business. Wildlife-watching boat trips still run, taking visitors to see the dolphins in the inner Moray Firth at Chanonry Point. Tourists now provide much of the village's income.

Rosemarkie is a village on the south coast of the Black Isle peninsula in northern Scotland

Rosemarkie lies a quarter of a mile east of the town of Fortrose. The pair make up the Royal Burgh Of Fortrose and Rosemarkie, and are located approximately twelve miles north-east of Inverness.

Rosemarkie fronts on a wide, picturesque bay, with views of Fort George and the Moray coastline across the Moray Firth. Rosemarkie has one of the finest beaches on the Moray Firth Coast Line. At the Fortrose end of the bay is Chanonry Point, reputed to be the best location on the United Kingdom mainland from which to see dolphins.

Rosemarkie is linked to Inverness by fairly irregular bus services, which are provided by Stagecoach Group.

Rosemarkie is probably best known for its collection of finely carved Pictish stones, which is one of the largest in Scotland at a single site. These 8th-9th century sculptures, found in and around the village churchyard, are displayed in the Groam House Museum, a converted 18th century town-house on the High Street (open in summer; entrance charge). These carved stones are evidence for a major early monastery at Rosemarkie, founded by, or associated with, Saint Moluag (d. 592) and Boniface, otherwise known as Curetán (fl. early 8th century). The sculptures include cross-slabs, shrine fragments and architectural pieces. One small fragment of a stone from Rosemarkie is in the Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh. Ormond Castle, also known as Avoch Castle, was a powerful stronghold, overlooking the village of Avoch, on the Black Isle, in the former county of Ross and Cromarty, now part of Highland, Scotland.

It is conceivable that it was one of the two castles known to have been erected during the reign of William the Lion on the Black Isle, as royal fortalices.

By the thirteenth century, the castle was in the hands of the de Moravias of Petty and was where they ruled their vast tracts of land across Moray. Andrew de Moravia mustered the men of Moray to join King John Baliol at Ormond Castle following his dishonour in front of Edward I of England, at the outset of Wars of Scottish Independence.