Burghead

	BURGHEAD Country: United Kingdom Scotland Incorporated into: 1975 Moray District Council 1996 Moray Area Council Status: (< 1975) Burgh Loading map... {"minzoom":false,"maxzoom":false,"mappingservice":"leaflet","width":"250px","height":"250px","centre":false,"title":"","label":"","icon":"","lines":[],"polygons":[],"circles":[],"rectangles":[],"copycoords":false,"static":false,"zoom":7,"defzoom":14,"layers":["OpenStreetMap"],"image layers":[],"overlays":[],"resizable":false,"fullscreen":false,"scrollwheelzoom":true,"cluster":false,"clustermaxzoom":20,"clusterzoomonclick":true,"clustermaxradius":80,"clusterspiderfy":true,"geojson":"","clicktarget":"","imageLayers":[],"locations":[{"text":"","title":"","link":"","lat":57.701099999999996725819073617458343505859375,"lon":-3.48970000000000002415845301584340631961822509765625,"icon":""}],"imageoverlays":null}

Official blazon
English	Per fess Argent and Gules, a bar wreathed Or and Azure, between a beacon Sable in flames of the Second upon a hill Vert issuant from the bar, all in chief, and in base a bull passant contournee of the Third. The Shield ensigned of a coronet proper to a Burgh.

Origin/meaning

The arms were granted on August 10, 1957.

Burghead stands on a headland named "Promontorium Taurodunum" in Ptolemy's Map of the British Isles and in a bog, during excavations for harbour improvements, over thirty ancient stone carvings of bulls were found there, as well as remains of what may have been a Mithraic temple.

The arms, which follow closely the device on the Burgh seal, have the old silver and red colours of Moray. The flaming beacon recalls the annual "Burning of the Clavie", an age-old tradition observed each year at Burghead on Old New Year's Eve; the wreath bar in the gold and blue of Orkney, the Norse borg founded there in 880 by Jarl Sigurd of Orkney; the bull, the name given by Ptolemy to the headland on which the town is built; and its gold colour, the Mithraic practice of sacrificing bulls to the sun.

The red and gold colours in the base could also allude to the Sutherland family whose stronghold, Duffus Castle, is in the immediate vicinity and was once the home of Freskinus de Moravia, one of the famed warriors of King David I.

The arms are now used by the Burghead and Cummingston Community Council.

Image gallery

Seal of the burgh as used in the 1890s

Literature: Porteous, 1906; Urquhart, 1974

United Kingdom heraldry portal

This page is part of the United Kingdom heraldry portal	Heraldry of the World
Civic heraldry: National arms of United Kingdom Arms of Counties Arms of cities and towns Heraldry in England Heraldry in Scotland Heraldry in Wales Heraldry in Northern Ireland Channel Islands Overseas possessions Heraldic literature of United Kingdom Total pages non military heraldry in the United Kingdom section : 8,936 of which images : 6,466 Total pages in the military heraldry of the United Kingdom section : 7,919 of which images : 4,178	Other heraldry: Ecclesiastical heraldry Military heraldry Educational heraldry Institutional heraldry Corporate heraldry Heraldic postcards Heraldic stamps Personal arms