No stonemason listed in Alness yet.

A stonemason works with natural stone - repairing walls, lintels, steps and chimneys, repointing lime mortar joints and carrying out restoration work on older buildings.

In Scotland, with so many stone-built properties, a skilled local stonemason is an essential trade to have access to.

Always check that they use lime mortar rather than cement on traditional stone buildings - using the wrong mortar can cause serious long-term damage to old masonry.

Alness is a town of around 6,000 people in Easter Ross, sitting on the northern shore of the Cromarty Firth where the River Averon meets the sea, about 24 miles north of Inverness.

The town grew significantly in the 1970s and 1980s during the oil fabrication boom, when the Cromarty Firth yards at nearby Nigg brought thousands of workers to the area. Its housing estates date largely from that era.

Alness has a good range of local services including a High Street with shops and takeaways, a community centre, primary and secondary schools and the Dalmore Distillery, which produces one of the Highland's most recognised single malts.

The town is on the Far North Line railway and the A9 and its proximity to Invergordon and Inverness makes it a practical and affordable base in Easter Ross.

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Highland is the largest council area in Scotland by land mass, covering more than 25,000 square kilometres from the Cairngorms in the east to the Atlantic coast in the west and from the Moray Firth northward to the tip of mainland Britain at Dunnet Head.

The region takes in an extraordinary range of landscapes - the Great Glen, Ben Nevis, Loch Ness, the Cairngorm plateau, the Flow Country peatlands of Caithness and Sutherland and hundreds of miles of rugged coastline dotted with fishing villages and sea lochs.

Inverness is the regional capital and the largest settlement, serving as the administrative, commercial and transport hub for the entire north of Scotland. Beyond Inverness, the population is spread across market towns and remote communities - Fort William beneath Ben Nevis, Aviemore in the Cairngorms, Thurso and Wick on the north coast, Nairn on the Moray Firth, Dingwall in Easter Ross and dozens of smaller settlements connected by single-track roads and ferry services.

Despite its remoteness, Highland has a diverse economy built on tourism, whisky distilling, renewable energy, forestry, aquaculture and a growing digital sector enabled by improving broadband connectivity. The region's cultural identity is deeply rooted in Gaelic language and tradition, clan history and a strong sense of place that draws visitors and new residents alike.

Transport links converge on Inverness, with the A9 running south to Perth, the A96 east to Aberdeen, rail services to Edinburgh, Glasgow and London and an airport at Dalcross. The more remote communities depend on trunk roads, the scenic rail lines to Kyle of Lochalsh, Wick and Thurso and the ferry services that connect the west coast to the islands.