one castell called Breokill. hard by is Rona, a smal Ile, pertyning to that gentleman also.’
You can study the subject of old maps in A Guide to the Early Maps of Scotland to 1850 (Scottish Royal Geographical Society, 1973).
The Pont maps were saved from almost certain oblivion by Sir James Balfour of Denmilne, Fife (c.1590s-1657), Lord Lyon King of Arms, whose third wife Margaret Arnot of Ferny was a distant cousin of mine. He assembled an important collection of old manuscripts on Scottish history, which is now in the NLS.
The Pont map showing Lochs Awe and Fyne, Co. Argyll.
The Ordnance Survey
One of the finest graphic sources for your family history, often showing your family’s actual homes, are Ordnance Survey maps. Many, both current and historical (dating back over the last two hundred years), are found at local archives.
The Survey was sparked by Bonnie Prince Charlie’s rebellion, known as the ‘45, when King George II’s generals realized they had no serviceable maps of the realm (those that existed stopped at county boundaries, so were useless for military purposes). Between 1747 and 1755 William Roy of the Royal Engineers organized a survey of Scotland, and in 1791 the creation of accurate topographical maps of all Britain began. The Trigonometrical Survey, renamed the Ordnance Survey, created maps to different scales; the most detailed (such as the 1:25,000 Explorer series) will show the shapes of fields and general shape of buildings in the countryside, and the town plans go to sufficient scale to see door steps and bay windows.
It’s hard to date the maps to specific years. A map ‘of 1880’ may have been surveyed a decade before. Some maps showing railways are actually much older maps with new railway lines engraved over the top. This is not a problem if you are aware of the issues and take time to find out the history of the particular map you are studying. For help contact The Ordnance Survey’s Library (Room C454, Ordnance Survey, Romsey Road, Southampton, SO16 4GU, 0845 605 0505, www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk). See also www.Old-Maps.co.uk, where you can search and zoom in on Britain’s Ordnance Survey County Series, 1:10,560 scale, First Edition maps (surveyed from 1846-99).
Finding Cnocaneach
I first encountered the name Cnocaneach, Sutherland, in Malcolm Bangor-Jones’s The Assynt Clearances (The Assynt Press, 2001), which brings together information from sheriff or local court papers and the Sutherland estate papers. We had just bought the booklet in Achins’ book-cum-coffee shop at Inverkirkaig, and were scrutinizing it for more information about the MacLeods in Badnaban. This is what leapt out: ‘Cnocaneach and Badnaban were held [from the Sutherland Estate] by George Ross from Easter Ross who went to work for the Custom House in Ullapool. He had removed people from Cnocaneach prior to 1812. The MacLeods, who were removed when the lands became part of Culag sheepfarm in 1812, accepted holdings in Baddidarrach but then changed their minds.
| Cleared | Head of Household | Destination |
|---|---|---|
| 1812 | Alexander MacLeod | Langwell sheepfarm, Coigach |
| 1812 | Angus MacLeod (son of the above) | Badnaban |
| Roderick Ross | Bad a’ Ghrianan’ |
There were several MacLeod families in Badnaban, and Angus’s was only one, but it was tremendously exciting to have confirmation of exactly where any of them came from, and to discover they had come to Badnaban due to the notorious Highland Clearances (see pp. 147-50).
But where was Cnocaneach? Five minutes scrutinizing the Ordnance Survey’s Explorer Series map of the area revealed ‘Cnoc Innis nan Each’ just next to Badnaban – but that was a red herring: the correct ‘Cnocaneach’ (the hill of the horse’) was a mile and a half away to the east (about 2 kilometers).
An hour later found us panting up the track towards the hollow outlines of buildings indicated by the map. At last, we saw amidst the bracken a ruined dwelling! And then, just round a bend in the track, a derelict house, rebuilt in 1870, but on the ruins of an older one. Round about, various walls indicated where yards and paddocks had been. The MacLeods and the Rosses had been thrown out of Cnocaneach in 1812, and here were their two ruined homes.
It would have been a tough place to live, but not nearly so much as Badnaban on the coast. The MacLeods probably went down to Badnaban in subdued silence, and as we walked back down to the loch, we felt an immense sadness, knowing that the MacLeods had trudged the same path in 1812, carrying all their worldly possessions, leaving their precious crops to be eaten by the landlord’s sheep, and with a very uncertain future ahead of them.
This map, showing both Badnaban and Cnocaneach, was found through a search under ‘Assynt’ at www.nls.uk/maps. The maps are accompanied by Hume’s comments on the farms. Cnocaneach was described as ‘most beautifully situated upon the East side of the Hill of that name, the North and West Sides of which Hills are cover’d with fine full grown Trees, consisting of Oak, Ash, Birch, &c’. Of Badnaban, on the other hand, Hume wrote ‘this small Farm on the South side of Loch Inver at the March with Cullack, is only a subsett, belonging to InverChirkag: it is situate near a Creak of the sea, where Boats land safely, and is occupied by two or three people who complain much of the small priviledge allowed them by their Landlord of the Hill pasture’. The land by the farmhouses was ‘pretty much broke & interjected with Rocks and Stony Baulks’. It was to Badnaban, in full knowledge of Hume’s comments, that people from Cnocaneach were cleared in 1812. From John Hume’s Survey of Assynt, 1774 (courtesy of Lord Strathnaver).
Mary Ann White, wife of Ally Alistair MacLeod, on the family croft at Badnaban with her grandson Murdo.
The impressive tombs in the Glasgow Necropolis have many elaborate memorial inscriptions of interest to family history researchers.
Scotland is leading the way in making genealogical records available to the public online. With material from national and many local archives now accessible through the internet, and often very simply searchable as a result, it has never been easier to research Scottish family history. This section guides you through the many types of records that can be searched either online or in the archives, and that will reveal fascinating details about your ancestors’ lives.
CHAPTER 5 General Registration
You’ve quizzed your elderly relatives, perhaps found some new ones, and have learned