From the Moray Firth it extends inland in a westerly and then south-westerly direction for a distance of 19 miles. Excepting at the Bay of Nigg, on the northern shore, and at Cromarty Bay, on the southern shore, where it is about 5 m. wide (due North and South), and at Alness Bay, where it is 2 miles wide, it has an average width of 1 mile and a depth varying from 5 to ?? fathoms, forming one of the safest and most commodious anchorages in the north of Scotland. Besides other streams it receives the Coruon, Peffery, Skiack and Alness, and the principal places on its shores are Dingwall near the head, Cromarty near the mouth, Kiltearn, Invergordon and Kilmuir on the north.
The entrance is guarded by two precipitous rocks ? the one on the north 400 feet high, that on the south 463 feet high ? called the Sutors from a fancied resemblance to a couple of shoemakers (in Scots: souters), bending over their lasts.
Originally from http://1911encyclopedia.org. .