The Culdee College continued at Rosemarkie till the Romanising influences of Queen Margaret’s sons were brought to bear upon it. In 1126 there occurs the first mention of the Bishop of Rosemarkie in a charter of David I. It seems probable that here, as at other places, King David converted the existing Culdee College into a chapter, and appointed the abbot, or prior, as the bishop of the diocese. The Bishop of Ross has this peculiarity, that he takes his title from the province, and not from the town, where he holds his see. When Argyle had been brought under the royal power, the whole of North Argyle was, in 1221, added to the Earldom of Ross, and the diocese was largely increased by the addition to it of the churches in that county. Up to 1227 the Chapter of Rosemarkie was small, consisting of the dean, the treasurer, the archdeacon, and four canons; but in 1235 Pope Gregory IX. gave leave to the bishop to found and endow new canonries, and increase the endowment of the other four.[151] It seems probable that at the period of the enlargement of the chapter the cathedral was moved from Rosemarkie to Chanonry, or Fortrose. Although most of the buildings which would have fixed the date of this change are now removed, there still remains one structure which, from its style, seems to be of the first half of the thirteenth century. This is the undercroft of the sacristy, an erection the enlargement of which would be called for by the increased size of the chapter. The cathedral then constructed was a large and important building. It stood on level ground not far from the Moray Frith, over which it commanded a fine prospect. The ruins still occupy the central position in the town of Fortrose, and stand in a large open plot of grassy ground, where they can be well seen, and where they are well cared for. The existing portions of the cathedral are very fragmentary. The greater part of the church and the houses of the bishop and chapter have entirely disappeared. All that now remains consists of the south aisle of the nave and the sacristy or undercroft of the chapter house. So completely have the nave and choir of the church been swept away, that Mr. Muir was led to imagine that the existing south transept was the main body of the cathedral, and that it had only had an aisle on the north side.[152] But the excavations undertaken, about twenty-five years ago, by the Commissioners of Her Majesty’s Woods and Forests, laid bare the foundations of the choir and nave, and showed that the cathedral had been a complete structure, with a choir 85 feet in length, and a nave 100 feet in length, the width of both being 25 feet. What the style of the edifice was we have now no means of knowing; but it may be assumed that, like the sacristy, it was built in the first pointed style, which prevailed in the thirteenth century, when the see is believed to have been removed from Rosemarkie to Fortrose.