Saddell Abbey properties

(figures in brackets are derived values)

(d) = pennyland valuation, (m) = merkland valuation, Date = date of source document, Donor = original donor – only stated in some documents

Lands Area (d) (m) Source Date Donor Comments
Saddell N Kintyre 5 (20) HP IV pp 146-9 1393 Reginald ‘Vallis de Sagadyl’ = the valley or dale of Saddell.
Saddell N Kintyre RH6/614B 1498 Reginald ‘Vallis de Sagadull’
Saddell N Kintyre RMS II (3170.1) 1507-8 Reginald ‘Glensagadull’
Mains N Kintyre (1) 4 OPS II, I, p 24 1556 =Mains of Saddell
Torrisdale N Kintyre 1 (4) HP IV pp 146-9 1393 Roderick Chorsradyl
Torrisdale N Kintyre RH6/614B 1498 Reginald ‘Vallis de Torsasdull’
Torrisdale N Kintyre RMS II (3170.3) 1507-8 Roderick Glentorsadull
Torrisdale N Kintyre 3 OPS II, I, p 24 1556 Corscadill
Lephincorrach N Kintyre (½) OPS II, I, p 24 1556 Leffenchorraucht. First element is leth-pheighinn or ½d. Expected value 2m.
Lephinbeag N Kintyre (½) OPS II, I, p 24 1556 Leffenbeg. First element is leth-pheighinn or ½d. Expected value 2m.
Ulladale N Kintyre (¼) 1 OPS II, I, p 24 1556 Vlladill. Now Whitestone.
Kilmichael N Kintyre (¼) 1 OPS II, I, p 24 1556 Kilmichell. Lost church site preceding Saddell Abbey’s foundation? With Invernan (Iffernan) as 2½m in 1751.
Lephinmore N Kintyre (½) 2 OPS II, I, p 24 1556 Leffenmoir. First element is leth-pheighinn or ½d.
Guesdale N Kintyre (½) 2 OPS II, I, p 24 1556
Ifferdale N Kintyre OPS II, I, p 24 1556
Bradiffernan N Kintyre OPS II, I, p 24 1556 < ‘braghad’ (upper part, brae) of Iffernan.
Monychwill N Kintyre OPS II, I, p 24 1556 Killean parish(1678).
(High) Ugadale N Kintyre (½) HP IV pp 146-9 1393 Roderick ½ Wgladal
(High) Ugadale N Kintyre RH6/614B 1498 Reginald Ugladull – I think the precept is mistaken over donor.
(High) Ugadale N Kintyre RMS II (3170.3) 1507-8 Roderick Ugladull
(High) Ugadale N Kintyre (½) 2 OPS II, I, p 24 1556 Wggadill
Kildonan N Kintyre (½) 2 OPS II, I, p 24 1556 Kildonane. See below.
Ormisary S Kintyre (¼) 1 OPS II, I, p 24 1556 Probably 1m of the 3m belonging to Saddell in S Kintyre according to ER evidence.
Knockhantybeg S Kintyre RMS II (3170.7) 1507-8 John & Angus Not mentioned in 1498.
Knockhantybeg S Kintyre (½) 2 OPS II, I, p 24 1556 6m of 2 ‘Knokantis & Calybole’ in RMS II (1485) of 1481 but individual values not given.
Kellipol S Kintyre RMS II (3170.7) 1507-8 John & Angus Not mentioned in 1498. See below.
Kellipol S Kintyre OPS II, I, p 24 1556 8s in 1556 but correctly 8s 4d.
Darneychan NorthKintyre ½ (2) HP IV pp 146-9 1393 John See below.
Lesenmarg NorthKintyre 2 RH6/614B 1498 John Lesenmarg
Lesenmarg NorthKintyre (½) 2 RMS II (3170.5) 1507-8 John =½ ‘old mark’? (leth + sean + marg); = Darneychan?There is a full discussion below the N Kintyre table.
Lessewark NorthKintyre 2 OPS II, I, p 24 1556 =Lesenmarg?
Eilean Davaar S Kintyre ⅜? HP IV pp 146-9 1393 ChristinaMacruari Insulam Daabhara – 5s annual value implies only ⅜m.
Eilean Davaar S Kintyre RH6/614B 1498 The precept of 1498 does not specify the donor of the ‘insula Skbarre’.
Eilean Davaar S Kintyre RMS II (3170.6) 1507-8 Alexander Insula de Sanctbarre – donor an error.
Eilean Davaar S Kintyre (⅛) ½ OPS II, I, p 24 1556 Elleindawar. ½m in 1612, 1615, 1634, 1678 & 1751.
Ballevain N Kintyre 10 (40) HP IV 146-9 1393 Reginald
Ballevain N Kintyre 12 RH6/614B 1498 Reginald Baltebeani
Ballevain N Kintyre 12 RMS II (3170.1) 1507-8 Reginald
Ballevain N Kintyre 2 OPS II, I, p 24 1556
Cnoc a’ Choire N Kintyre OPS II, I, p 24 1556 Knokingor. Part of Ballevain estate.
Drumalea N Kintyre OPS II, I, p 24 1556 Drummaylay. Part of Ballevain estate.
Bordadubh N Kintyre 1 OPS II, I, p 24 1556 Bordadow. Part of Ballevain estate.
Kilmory N Kintyre 4 OPS II, I, p 24 1556 Described in 1678 rental as Kilmorrie of Saddell lands.See below.
Auchaluskin N Kintyre 3 OPS II, I, p 24 1556 Auchinleskin. Laigh Auchaloiskan lies immediately south of  South Kilmorry in ABA DR 4/9/1 of G or A Langlands (nd)
Drumnamuckloch N Kintyre OPS II, I, p 24 1556 Drumnamwkloche. Just south of Auchaluskin.
Total in Kintyre 48 OPS II, I, p 24 1556 c. 47⅛m is given.
Shiskine Arran 5 (30) HP IV pp 146-9 1393 Reginald 5d ‘Steschayn’ in Arran should be 30m at 1d:6m.
Shiskine Arran 20 RH6/614B 1498 Reginald Seskan
Shiskine Arran 20 RMS II (3170.2) 1507-8 Reginald ‘Ceskene’, =3⅓d at 1d:6m.18m(1607), 20m(1615). See below.
Kildomine Carrick 1 RH6/614B 1498 Nigel (Neill) Chapel of exchanged with Crossraguel for parish church of Inchmarnock c. 1360 (Highland Papers IV pp 142-4).The spelling in HP IV is Kyldomine.
Tresboyog Carrick 1 RH6/614B 1498 Isabella First letter possibly ‘C’.
Kildonune &Creisboig Carrick 2 RMS II (3170.4) 1507-8 Nigel (Neill)&’Isobelle’ RMS II (3170) lumps Kildonune & Creisboig together as 2d. Chapel of former exchanged with Crossraguel for parish church of Inchmarnock c. 1360 (Highland Papers IV pp 142-4).
Inchmarnock(parish church of) by Bute HP IV pp 142-4 c. 1360 Exchanged with Crossraguel for chapel of Kyldomine.Island of Inchmarnock was 7½m in 1540.
Creag Bhan Gigha 2 RH6/614B 1498 The precept of 1498 does not specify the donor of ‘Cregban’.
Creag Bhan Gigha 2 RMS II (3170.6) 1507-8 Alexander Cregban
Barrandaimh NorthKnapdale ½ (2) RMS II (3170.8) 1507-8 DuncanCampbell ‘Barrandayb’ with ‘Blairnatibrade’ was an ‘oblata’ which is normally ½d. ½m by itself in 1533. See below.
Blarantibert NorthKnapdale RMS II (3170.8) 1507-8 DuncanCampbell ‘Blairnatibrade’ – included in ‘oblata’ with ‘Barrandayb’ above. 1½m by itself in 1591 & 1618. See below.
Total 82

 

The 1393 Papal confirmation is printed (in Latin & English) in HP IV pp 146-9. It also appears, in English, on pp 193-4 of Papal Letters to Scotland (Clement VII of Avignon), SHS, 1976.

 

J & RW Munro explain (Acts of the Lords of the Isles pp 71-3) that RMS II (3170) of 1507-8 was preceded by a precept dated 1498. There are shades of difference between the two documents which I have incorporated above. The original of the precept is RH6/614B and there is a MS translation in the bound volumes of RH6 in NAS.

 

Kildonan

Either there were two parts to Kildonan, one secular, one Saddell’s (each worth 2m) – which is rather at odds with later assessments – or this Kildonan refers to the Kildonan in Ayrshire and recurs as something of a ghost-name like Lesenmarg. It was exchanged for the parish church of Inchmarnock c. 1360 but the latter does not appear in later documents referring to Saddell.

 

Kellipol

‘Kellipull’ at 12 ‘unciatis’ (ouncelands) in RMS II (3170.7). This is plainly an error since the whole of Kintyre only came to 8 ouncelands. We can be confident Kellipol was 8s 4d or ⅝m. Could it be one-twelfth of an ounceland? On this basis an ounceland would be the same as 7½m or £5 which is also wrong since 8m was only 2d. In fact Kellipol was only 1/128 of an ounceland and the sole explanation I can offer is that the Saddell estate was reckoned at 48m (or 12 davachs) in 1556. It is possible to imagine some missing words in the source document to the effect that Saddell as a whole was worth 12 davachs – and in the NW Highlands this would indeed mean 12 ouncelands. However this is very tenuous.

 

Darneychan & Lesenmarg

I have placed these in North Kintyre on the grounds that Machrihanish, Darlachan & ‘Lesragan’ were regarded as part of Kilmichael parish in the rental of 1678. In the same rental Trodigal is part of Kilkivan parish (South Kintyre) so Machrihanish Water was probably the boundary between the two.

 

Kilmory

In RMS II (3136) of 26 September 1507 James IV confirms a number of earlier charters to the Bishopric of Lismore (Argyll). The first of these was a charter of Alexander II’s dated 1243 which granted the church of ‘Kilicane’ in Kintyre. The fourth was a charter of Roderick, son of Reginald and Lord of Kintyre, who granted to the church of St John in Kintyre, 5 pennylands comprising 3 pennylands of the church of St John and 2 pennylands of the church of St ‘Marie’. OPS II, I p 21 equates this church of St Marie with the parish of Kilmarow centred on Killarow (NM 663281) but in Vol II, II p 821 modifies this to suggest that the church of St Marie was Kilmory by Killean instead. I agree with this latter view but wonder if the church was actually to Maolrubha rather than Mary. Dedications to the Virgin Mary are uncommon on the west coast and I suspect that a scribe has ‘rationalised’ the name during transmission, either at the time of Roderick’s original gift or in James IV’s day. There may have been two early Christian sites in close proximity which Roderick was now effectively combining into one parish church – perhaps even giving the principal one a new dedication to St John. Certainly the Kilmory by Killean is recorded as Saddell’s in 1678.

 

Cowan (Parishes of Medieval Scotland p 101) implicitly equates Kilicane with Killean. I am not certain about this. Kilicane might be Kilkivan (of which there are two examples in S Kintyre, one of them thought to be mis-spelt on the Campbeltown Cross), or another Early Christian site now lost to us. Furthermore there is a possible conflict between Roderick’s grant, which may have taken place before 1222 (Munro ALI p 283), and Alexander II’s grant of 1243. If Killean parish church had been given the 2d or 8m of Kilmory before 1222 and Killean was then given to the Bishopric in 1243 how is it that the Kilmory lands end up with Saddell Abbey? I do not think we are going to be able to resolve this problem since there are several possible explanations. One is to view Alexander’s gift as a modification of Roderick’s original grant. Perhaps Alexander only meant to allocate the 3d of Killean to the bishopric. Perhaps Saddell had already acquired the 2d of Kilmory as part of an agreement to service the needs of the parish church of Killean. (The three farms of Kilmory, Auchaluskin and Drumnamuckloch come to 8½m which is just over 2d).

 

Saddell’s foothold on the west coast helps make sense of some of the events of 1263. The Saddell abbot who came to visit Hakon as he lay anchored off Gigha may have been as concerned for the protection of his lands at Kilmory as he was for those in Saddell (Anderson, Early Sources II p 617). (It is puzzling, though, to know what charter Hakon could have given him since Kintyre was technically part of the Scottish kingdom. Perhaps Hakon merely inspected the abbot’s charter). About this time a Norwegian friar called Simon died and was taken ashore to Kintyre and buried by the Saddell monks. One version (Anderson, Early Sources II p 619 main text) has him buried in Saddell Abbey. Other versions (ES p 619 footnote 10) have him buried in ‘their church’ which may not have been Saddell but perhaps Killean or even Kilmory (which may still have had its own burial ground). This is at least as likely as carrying his corpse across the width of Kintyre.

 

Shiskine

Bute Retours (15) of 1607 refers to the 18m (OE) of Sascan in Arran. RMS VII (760) of 1612 confirms a charter of 1556 for ‘Caskane’ or ‘Ceskane’. RMS VII (1243) of 1615 refers to 20m (OE) of Ceskane. See also Arran table.

 

Barrandaimh & Blarantibert

According to RMS II (3170) (8) of 1507-8 Blarantibert belonged to Saddell Abbey. However RMS V (1933) of 1591 says that it was formerly Oronsay Priory’s. Possibly it was transferred to Oronsay when the Saddell estate was broken up. It is 1½m in AS  I (55) of 1618. ½m Barindaif was given on a charter by the Earl of Argyll dated 10 December 1533 quoted in Genealogist (38) 1922 p 138 No 1. In the abstract by Herbert Campbell there is no mention of the lands having formerly belonged to Saddell although the vicars of Kilmartin and Inishail are among the witnesses. In 1507-8 Barrandaimh and Blarantibert together amounted to one ‘oblata’ or ½d. At a ratio of 1d : 4m (in both Knapdale & Kintyre) then ½d equals 2m which was in fact the merkland valuation of Barrandaimh (½m) plus Blarantibert (1½m). AL Brown suggests the gift occurred 1425-1450. Not mentioned in 1498.

 

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