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Historic core and burgh of Forres. the burgh of Forres was granted by Robert I to Thomas Randolph, Earl of Moray in 1312 and forfeited to the Crown in 1455. Forres still displays much of the medieval layout, with long narrow plots running at right angles to the High Street, also referred to as the 'kin's calsay' (causeway). In the original burgh layout the burgage plots are roughly eighteen and a half feet wide. There is some evidence for an east port (gateway) at the point of entry to the High Street (about the location of the present Masonic Hall) and which was still standing in 1769. A north port may have stood at the foot of Kirk Vennel (Gordon Street), a west port would have been located at the start of the High Street to control the crossing of the Mosset Burn, and a further port could have been located at the foot of Tolbooth Wynd, but the locations of these are only conjectural. In 1390 Forres was destroyed by fire in an attack by the 'Wolf of Badenoch' (Alexander Stewart, Earl of Buchan). In 1496 King James IV granted a confirming charter setting out the rights, privileges and duties of the burghers. The settlement expanded greatly in the 19th Century.
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