Knoydart Summary

Knoydart

 

Principal Sources

 

RMS I, App I, No 9 of c. 1309

 

RMS III (1721) 1537

RMS VII (871) 1611

RMS IX (677) 1637

RSS II (2079) 1536, (2549) 1538

RSS VI (1067) 1570-1

NLS Delvine Papers MS 1313  f 8 1633

NLS Delvine Papers MS 1313  ff 9-12

NLS Delvine Papers MS 1313  p 83

NLS Delvine Papers MS 1313  Glengarry Estate Rental 1762

NLS Delvine Papers MS 1313  Printed Sale Sheet 1768

ER XI  p 460

Retours (Inverness) (4) 1563, (17) 1607, (75) 1650, (118) 1695

GD44/25/29/2/5 Glengarry Estate Rental 1760

Macfarlane’s Geographical Collections II pp 168-9, 174, 522, 525

1. Fraser-Mackintosh, Antiquarian Notes (1897) pp 120-3

C Fraser-Mackintosh, Excerpta e Sasinarum Registris Vice-Comitatum de Inverness, Vol III No’s 895 & 903 (1840)

 

D Rixson, Knoydart, 1999

NLS EMS S.461.B – Plan of Knoydart, copied from plan of 1812

RHP 11608 – Plan of Road from Loch Nevis to Achnacarry, G Brown, 1796

 

 

Our earliest charter for Knoydart gives it as 3 davachs (RMS I, App I, No 9 of c. 1309). In other documents Knoydart is consistently given as 60d (or 3 ouncelands of 20d each) which again shows that davachs and ouncelands were regarded as equivalent in the north-west Highlands. RMS IX (677) of 1637 lists 56½d (out of a possible 60d). I find 56⅝d.

 

The true merkland extent of Knoydart has proved something of a problem. If Knoydart was like Morar, Arisaig & Moidart (to the south) then we would expect 1d to be 1m in which case the total value would be 60m. If Knoydart was like Glenelg (immediately to the north) then we would expect the total value to be only 12m. In fact we have very few merkland assessments for Knoydart and none of them match with either of these projections! Our earliest reference is an undated comment (but c. 1501) in ER XI p 460 which refers to:

Knodisfurd alias Knodart 40 merk or £20 at the lest.

i.e. £26-13s-4d or £20 at least!

 

RMS III (1721) of 1537 refers to 60d Knokdort – extenden ad 10 libras annuatim (extending to £10 yearly) – which sounds more like a yearly render than a land-valuation. In RSS II (2549) of 1538 there is reference to the £10 (15m) land of Knodort. Inverness Retours (4) of 1563 gives the 60d of Knoydart as 40s (£2 or 3m) old extent and £10 (15m) new extent – as do Retours (17) of 1607 and (75) of 1650. RSS VI (1067) of 1570-1 refers to the £20 Niknodort. RMS VII (871) of 1613 refers to 60d Knockdort extending to 40s (£2) old extent. The Minutes of the Synod of Argyll (1639-1651) p 57 refer to the £20 land of Knoydart in 1642.

 

On this basis we can confidently aver that Knoydart was worth £2 (3m) or £10 (15m) or £20 (30m) or £26-13s-4d (40m)! When we would it expect it to be either 12m (£8) or 60m (£40)! Which brings us back to the sense of ignorance and frustration first expressed c. 1501. To illustrate the dilemma let us consider what an old extent valuation of £2 (3m) would imply. It would mean that the exchange rate between ouncelands and merklands in Knoydart was 1 ounceland to 1 mark. This would make each pennyland of Knoydart worth only 1/20th of a pennyland in Morar just across the other side of Loch Nevis. This is a major anomaly.

 

I do not know the old extent merkland valuation of Knoydart but would expect it to be 60m. This would accord with the rest of Garmoran to the south and much of Lochaber to the east. Somehow Knoydart’s merkland assessment became lost or confused. It may have been muddled with an annual render. At any rate even the Scottish authorities were unsure of it by 1501.