Dingwall – Summary Table

Dingwall

 

Name	Value	Date	Grid Ref	Map Sources	Other forms, comments etc
Dingwall			NH 5458/5558/5559	Roy(FC) RHP 678 RHP 1474	See Macgill pp 311-12 No 794 for some place-names. Also PNRC pp 93-4. RHP 2999/2 1888, RHP 2999/1 1903 See below.
Pitglassie			NH 5457	Roy(FC) RHP 1458-9 RHP 1475	Taylor & Skinner Plate 23 1776. See below.
Knockbaxter/Bakerhill		1574-5	NH 5357		GD46/21/2 (Inventory p 5 referring to 1608). See below.
Knocklister Knokleaster		1608 1631			GD46/21/2 (Inventory p 5 referring to 1608). GD305/1/139/2 – probably hill of the dyer.
Tulloch	¼ davach	1620	NH 5460	Roy(FC) RHP 1473 RHP 1474 RHP 1475	RMS VIII (1) 1620. RS37/1/266v 1620. Retours (Ross) (127) 1670. 2½m rent & 4s bondages in ER XVII p 671 1539 which is what we would expect from a ¼ davach.
Ballafreis	¼ davach	1620	c. NH 5460	RHP 1473	RMS VIII (1) 1620. RS37/1/266v 1620. Retours (Ross) (127) 1670. 2½m rent & 4s bondages in ER XVII p 671 1539 which is what we would expect from a ¼ davach. RHP 1473 marks ‘Quarter Lands’ – part of Balafrish?
Kildun	¼ davach? ¾ davach	1655   1658	NH 5457	Roy(FC) RHP 678 RHP 1457-9 RHP 2922	The ‘quarter lands of Kildin’ in RMS X (440) 1655.   Kildin in RS37/7/316v 1658. (= a davach in total?) See below.
Kinnairdie   Lytill Kynnardy	(1 davach)	1504   1596-7	NH 5459/5559	OS 6″ LXXVI RHP 1473	See below. RHP 1474 & 1475 ER XXIII p 460 1596-7 implies this held of the chaplains of St Lawrence in Dingwall Castle.
4 x Glaicks Estir & Myd Estir Wester & Mid Wester		1539 1539	c. NH 5560	RHP 1473	See below and under Kinnairdie. ¼ of Kynnairdie according to ER XVII pp 670-1 1539; RSS VIII (1902) 1583-4. Different to Glaick of Tollie in NH 5156.
(Wester) Drynie Easter Drynie	½ davach ½ davach	1504 1607	NH 5360	RHP 1473 RHP 1475	But evidence suggests ½ davach in 1476-9. See below. RS36/2/232r.
Brekanord	¼ davach	1658	c. NH 5456	RHP 678 RHP 1458-9 RHP 2922 RHP 3084	RS37/7/316v 1658.The ‘quarter lands of Brachuard’ in RMS X (440) 1655. Mentioned in Earls of Cromartie II No 529 1454 and Highland Papers II p 342 c. 1726. GD305/1/89/128 1594.
Total	3¾ + davachs?				I am undoubtedly missing valuations in Dingwall parish.

 

 

Dingwall

RRS V (196) 1321; RMS I App 2 Index A No 370, Index B No 17; Index A No 380, Index B No 4. RMS I (741) 1382 – grants the thanage of Dingwall.

RMS II (1457) 1480-1. Fraser, Earls of Cromartie II, No 528 1451, No 529 1454, No 534 1466.

Dingwall, the burgh, paid £5 p.a. burgh rents according to the ER evidence. ER XXI pp 284-5 1586 gives an interesting account of early charters to the burgh.

We have a number of documents (particularly from the Writs of the Munro family of Foulis – GD93 or CWMF) which give us details about arable holdings round Dingwall. We learn of roods, fields, acres, crofts and rigs. We come across place-names like Schort-aker, Crukytdaile, Suttar Inch, Poldam, Fliuris and Longcroft. Unfortunately I cannot put these together to claim a specific number of davachs. I suspect the burgh lands included at least one davach – plus Pitglassie – but I cannot prove it. The following references are to documents which provide such data:

RMS III (380) 1526, GD93/28 1498-9, GD93/29 1499-1500, GD93/30 & 31 1500, GD93/35 1506, GD93/40 1511, GD93/58 1546-7, GD93/60 1548-9, GD93/78 1562-3, GD93/79 1565-6, GD93/89 1573, GD93/145 1607, GD93/152 1611, GD93/171 1621, GD93/199 1638, GD93/352 1738, GD93/403 1777.

Retours (Ross) (108) 1655 & GD305/1/44/13 1673 tell us of the various bogs around Dingwall. Another of these bogs, the ‘marresiam’ of Fesallich, which features in RMS III (380) 1526, is the Fesalloch Burn in the Plan of Dingwall, 1832. (PNRC p 93).

 

Pitglassie

Pitglassie seems to have been divided between the inhabitants of Dingwall by 1400. See GD93 No’s 22, 42, 43, 67, 199, 409 & RMS III (380) 1526.

 

Knockbaxter/Bakerhill

RMS IV (2368) 1574-5 gives Knokbakster. GD93/171 1621 & GD403/59 No 1, 1668, gives Knokbaxter/Knockbaxter. (GD305/1/139/2 1631 gives Knokbarter in a Dingwall context while RMS VIII (1670) 1630 on an original of 1616 has a Roderick Mackenzie of Knokbapar. Behind this place-name probably lay a baxter (baker) in Dingwall or Dingwall castle. Watson (PNRC p 94) refers to ‘Bakerhill’ which is the English equivalent of Knockbaxter. This is marked on OS Explorer map 437 at NH 5357.

 

Kildun

There are a number of notices of Kildun in the Register of Dunfermline. In 1460 the prior of Pluscardine (by this time a daughter-house of Dunfermline Abbey) deals with their possession of Kildon. References include ‘Registrum de Dunfermelyn’ No’s 307, 380 (Kyndun), 457 (Kildon – see also OPS II, II p 839), 494, 495 (Kildun), 519 (Kildwn) & p 498 (Kildin – twice). (See also PF Anson, ‘A Monastery in Moray’, 1959, pp 93-4, GD46/21/2 1767 & GD38/1/9 1505). It also appears that Pluscardine had the church of Dingwall (‘Registrum de Dunfermelyn’ No 468). In the earliest reference in the Register, (No 307), Kyndun (Kildun) is referred to as ‘iuxta’ (near to) Dingwall so it must have been separate to the church of Dingwall. It is interesting that both these churches had passed into monastic possession.

RS36/2/171v 1607 gives 1½ bovates. RS36/2/225r 1607 refers to ‘nayr/nather’ (nether) & ‘over’ Kildun.

 

Kinnairdie

The Mains of Kinnairdie yielded £17-6s-8d in 1476-9 which was the highest rent by a good margin. However ER XII p 664 1504 gives 10m silver rent which is what we might expect from a davach at the time. It also lists 7 bovates and some vacant land so 1 davach is realistic.

However Kinnairdie was important enough to give its name to one of the ‘Quarters’ of Ross and so as well as being the name of a particular farm it could also denote a wider area. In ER XVII pp 670-1 1539 ‘The Four Glakkis’ are described as the fourth quarter of Kinnairdie. It may be that Kinnairdie was originally a four-davach unit and that by 1539 only one of the 4 davachs was being described as Kinnairdie while another was composed of the Four Glaicks. (This might explain why Kinnairdie is often referred to as ‘the mains of …’ – which implies there were other parts which were not mains land. Little Kinnairdie, for instance, was held of the chaplains in Dingwall Castle – ER XXIII p 460 1596-7).

W Fraser, Earls of Cromartie II No 522 pp 317-9 refers to the Earl of Ross’s court at ‘Kunardy‘ in 1338. GD305/1/79/19 1474 and GD305/1/79/20 1475 give further references to this court.

 

4 x Glaicks

The 4 parts are named in 1539. Presumably first Easter and Wester; then each halved again with ‘Myd Estir’ becoming the west half of Easter while ‘Mid Wester’ was the east half of Wester.

 

(Wester) Drynie

There is a Drynie (NH 6650) in Knockbain parish. However this only ever seems to be referred to as ‘Drynie’ and I think both ‘Easter’ and ‘Wester Drynie’ refer to the two halves of the Drynie in Dingwall parish. See RHP 1473.

Westir Drynee appears in ER VIII p 592 ff 1476-9; as 4 bovates (½ davach) Dryne in ER XII p 663 1504; as 4 bovates (½ davach) Wester Dryny in ER XVII p 671 1539; in RMS V (1331) 1587 and, as a half-davach, in Retours (Ross) (127) 1670. Bondages are 8s – as we would expect of a half-davach.

Easter Drynie was often paired with Cultaloid in Kinnettes parish (now Fodderty) – eg in GD96/8 1495, RMS II (3250) 1508 on original of 1507, GD305/1/19/4 1514 & RMS IV (1091) 1556. (See also RMS IV (2466) 1575). GD305/1/19/8 1543 gives ‘the half lands of Easter Dryne and Cultaleoid, which were then valued at £6 and in time of peace [i.e. Old Extent] at 7 merks’. Eist Drynie is a half-davach in RS36/2/232r 1607. In RS36/2/233v 1607 it is described as in the barony of Brayross.

It seems probable that Drynie and Cultaloid were each a davach; that each was divided in half, and that Easter Drynie and half Cultaloid were long associated.

 

 

There are a number of documents which list the estate belonging to the Bain family of Tullich (some of which lay in Dingwall parish). These include RMS III (2737) 1542, Retours (Ross) (14) 1600 & RMS VIII (1) 1620.

 

OPS II, II, p 494, (quoting Rotuli Scotiae I p 25) states that the Templars and the Hospitallers had property in the town of Dingwall in 1296. Cowan, et al., The Knights of St John, p 31, gives 2s as the rent from a tenement in Dingwall in 1539-40.