Glengarry Summary

Glengarry

 

Principal Sources

 

RMS II (2559) 1500

RMS III (1034) 1531, (1924) 1538-9, (2238) 1540

RMS IV (204) 1548, (2270) 1574

RMS VIII (1064) 1627

RMS IX (677) 1637

RSS II (2079) 1536, (2506) 1538

 

ER XI p 460 c. 1501

GD44/1/1/9/9/1 1607

GD44/25/29/2/5 Rental 1760

GD44/51/743/2 Lochaber Rental 1648

Inverness Retours (106) 1684

NLS Delvine Papers, MS 1313, Rental 1762

NLS Delvine Papers MS 1313  Printed Sale Sheet 1768

RHP 1300 G Campbell Smith’s Estate map of 1840

RHP 22810 – J Anderson, 1825

RHP 22811 – J Anderson, 1825

 

Laing Charters (3326) 1770 refers to parish of Killanen.

 

J Munro (ed), The Lochiel Inventory, Edinburgh, 2000, pp 15, 19

C Fraser-Mackintosh, Antiquarian Notes (1897) pp 121-2

C Fraser-Mackintosh, Concerning Lochiel and Glengarry Part XII, Celtic Monthly Vol IX, 1901, pp 51-54

NH MacDonald, The ClanRanald of Knoydart & Glengarry, Edinburgh, 1979

Rental of the Lordship of Huntly 1600, in Miscellany of the Spalding Club, vol IV p 295, Aberdeen, 1849

 

Glengarry was composed of three separate parts – Achadrom (the field of the ridge); ‘Sleismene’ (Slios min or smooth side) and ‘Sleisgarow’ (Slios garbh or rough side). (Both these latter terms also occur beside Loch Beoraid in South Morar and there is a Slios Garbh in Glen Nevis). We have a number of references to the values of the separate parts:

 

RSS II (2079) 1536 specifies the £6 (9m) of ‘Sleisgarow’ of Glengarry.

GD 44/51/743/2 (Lochaber Rental) 1648 twice refers to the £10 land of Glengarrie called Sleisgarrow.

RMS IV (204) 1548 specifies a third of Glengarry extending to 20m Old Extent.

ER XI p 460 c. 1501 refers to the £20 of Glengarry which was separate to Invergarry and the £10 of Achadrom.

RSS II (2506) 1538, RMS III (1924) 1538-9, RMS VIII (1064) 1627 and the printed sale notice in NLS MS 1313 of 1768 all specify the ‘Sleismene’ of Glengarry as 20d. The fact that the properties within ‘Sleismene’ come to at least 19½m suggests that the ratio between ouncelands and merklands was 1:20 or 1d:1m.

 

Unfortunately not all this data is mutually compatible. It looks as if the north side of Glengarry (Sleismene) was worth 20d or 20m. The south side (Sleisgarrow) was worth either £6 (9m) or £10 (15m) while Achadrom was worth £10 (15m). Our maximum total so far is 50m but if one-third of Glengarry in 1548 was 20m then our grand total should be 60m (£40).

 

I find 20½m within what might be loosely defined as Achadrom, 11m in Sleisgarrow and 19½m in Sleismene – which together come to 51m. Although the attrition of time usually means some loss of data I am not confident of projecting a total of 60m on the basis of one piece of evidence and so rest with the provisional figure of 51m.

 

I also have a single piece of evidence for davachs in Glengarry. In an article in Celtic Monthly in 1901, Fraser-Mackintosh refers to a charter from Glengarry to Lundie presumably dating from c. 1631. The phrase he gives is ‘the half of Davoch of Faichaam, extending to 5 merks of land’. If a half-davach was equivalent to 5m of land (5 merklands) then a davach was worth 10m which often seems to be its value (New Extent) in other parts of Northern Scotland.