Ten things you didn't know about... Nairnshire

When King James VI, son of Mary, Queen of Scots, went to London to become King of England, he claimed that Nairn's only street was so long that the people living at one end of it couldn't understand the language of those living at the other.

While Nairnshire's main town, Nairn, has a very long history, it wasn't until the development of Nairn Harbour by Thomas Telford in 1820, and the arrival of the Inverness rail line in 1855, that the town began to thrive. By the 1880s, it had become known as the Brighton of Scotland.

Willie Whitelaw, Home Secretary and later Deputy Prime Minister in Margaret Thatcher's government, was born in Nairn, the seat of Nairnshire. Before retiring from politics in 1987, he served as Leader of the House of Lords. As Thatcher once famously remarked: "Every prime minister needs a Willie."

In 1999, the Nairn Golf Club hosted the biggest points victory for Great Britain and Ireland in the history of the Walker Cup, as the team of amateurs led by captain Peter McEvoy beat America's top amateurs 15-9 over the two-day biennial event.

Nairn, the seat of former country Nairnshire, boasts more hours of sunshine than any other Scottish town.

The annual Nairn Show, organised by the Nairnshire Agricultural Society, went ahead in the midst of the foot and mouth epidemic in 2001 without any animals. The show hosted a float pageant instead of the usual grand parade of stock. The show has been held on the last week of July since 1798.

According to Shakespeare's play, Cawdor Castle in Nairnshire was the scene in which Macbeth murdered Duncan, Thane of Cawdor and King of Scotland, in 1040. Whilst the date was accurate, the construction of the castle did not actually begin until at least 1400, thereby illustrating Shakespeare's liberal use of dramatic license!

Between 1708 and 1832, the constituencies of Nairnshire and Cromartyshire alternated having a Member of Parliament at Westminster. From 1832, changes resulted in the creation of constituencies called Ross and Cromarty, and Elginshire and Nairnshire—and they had permanent representation, whether they wanted it or not.