Kincardine
Principal Sources
OSA Vol 3 No 71
RMS II (147) 1429-30
RMS V (411) 1582
RMS VI (758) 1598
RMS VII (482) 1611 on original of 1608, (2082) 1619
RMS XI (97) 1661
RSS I (3967) 1528
RSS VII (486) 1575-6, (1532) 1578, (1842) 1578-9
RSS VIII (558) 1624 on original of 1622, (1977) 1584
GD23/4/7 1637,
GD93/10 1370-71, GD93/123 1590, GD93/129 1590-1, GD93/140 1596-7, GD93/143 1605, GD93/147 1608, GD93/165 1617, GD93/180 1625, GD93/182 1625, GD 93/201 1639, GD93/219 1658, GD93/236 1667
GD146/22/1 1485
GD274/7/7/1 1633, GD274/7/7/5 1587, GD274/7/7/22 1712
GD297/189 1529, GD297/198 1365, GD297/217 p 52 1602, No 53 (Retour) 1658
GD297/217 No 60 1609
GD305/1/6/1 1652, GD305/1/95/181 1586, GD305/1/95/183 1623, GD305/1/119/474 1708, GD305/1/154/72 1650
RS36/2/30v 1606
RS36/2/173r 1607, RS36/2/302v 1607, RS36/2/369v 1608
RS37/1/141v 1619
RS37/3/168r 1625
RS37/5/71v 1633
RS37/7/32r 1648
RS37/7/50r 1649
RS38/2/55v 1663
RS38/2/249r 1665
RS38/4/347v 1675
ALI (57) 1454, (90) 1467, (104) 1474-5
SC29/1/1 f40r & f40v 1558
CWMF (174) 1624 on original of 1622, (178, 180) 1625, (328) 1726, (393) 1763
Retours (Ross) (5) 1574, (8) 1577, (15) 1601, (18) 1604, (20) 1606, (29) 1608, (31) 1609, (46) 1617, (57, 58) 1621, (64-66) 1623, (81, 83) 1635, (90) 1642, (100) 1649, (108) 1655, (111) 1657, (121, 123) 1666, (150) 1691
Retours (Inverness) (64) 1642, (105) 1682, (127) 1613.
RHP 1453 1846, RHP 1454/1 1874, RHP 1471 1875, RHP 1470/1 19th C.
RHP 3325 1886, RHP 3521 1808, RHP 3522/1 1871, RHP 3522/2 1833
RHP 13299/37-40, 43-53 1808, RHP 141321/1 1898
Sixth Report of the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts, London, 1877
In some documents Strath Oykel may only have meant the south side of Strath Oykel (i.e. the Kincardine side).
The table gives us a total of 9¼ davachs in Kincardine but there are undoubtedly gaps in the record. Kincardine is a very large parish in the uplands of Ross and I think a number of assessments are uncertain or missing as we move from the East coast into the hinterland.
Changed parish boundaries?
OSA Vol 3 No 71 p 508 notes 2 burial-grounds in the parish plus 3 in Creich which were also used by parishioners. OPS II, II, p 411 fn 9 wondered if part of Creich had formerly belonged to Kincardine. We have references (RSS VII (1532) 1578, RMS V (411) 1582, Retours (Ross) (89) 1642, & (111) 1657) to a 6 davach estate called Dalnachtan and Doune. Retours (Ross) (111) 1657 specifies that 4 of these davachs lay north of the R. Oykel, 2 davachs to the south. RS38/2/249r 1665 refers (three times) to Dallanachtin alias Downe and we are also told that Dallanachtin was a davach and that it had four named sheilings as pendicles. RS36/2/173r 1607 refers to the ‘thrie quarter landis of Dallanachtaine callit ye bray [Brae]’. (Brae is at NC 4300/4301). On balance, therefore, Dalnachtan and Doune appear to have been alternative names for the same davach – the arable land of which was located between c. NC 4300 & c. NC 4500. Forbes’s map of Sutherlandshire (1820), Thomson’s map of Ross-shire (1826) and the OS 6″ 1st Series Index sheet show a northern extension to Kincardine parish lying to the west of the R. Oykel. Part of the area south-west of Loch Ailsh might be the other davach described as south of the River Oykel.
The Ross of Balnagown estate in this area was enormous. RHP 1453 1846 maps a large portion of it. The 4 davachs of Dalnachtan which lay north of the Oykel likely comprise the north-east section of this map between the Rivers Oykel on the SW and Cassley on the NE. On the upper section of the R Cassley there is a place now called Dalnaclave but this is not Dalnachtan. Since these 4 davachs lay north of the R. Oykel, and since that river was the boundary with Sutherland, then they would be regarded as in the parish of Creich. However GD93/328 1726 lists some Glen Cassley properties as ‘in Kincardine’. I suspect that originally the parish bounds of Kincardine matched the Balnagown estate. Over the centuries the 4 davachs between Oykel and Cassley came to belong to Creich in Sutherland – but the parishioners hung on to a memory of the former arrangements.
SC29/1/1 f40r & f40v 1558 (Balnagown estate) refers to Strath Oykel as 4 davach land returning 40m. (This invites comparison with the New Extent valuation of each davach at 10m). It may be that these 4 davachs are those lying on the north side of the River Oykel.
(See also under Creich parish, Sutherland – where I have included these 4 davachs).
Ardgour v Kincardine
ALI (104) 1474-5 is a marriage indenture between Maclean of Lochbuie and Ross of Balnagown which allows us to make some comparisons between the land-assessment of Easter Ross and that of Ardgour (W. side of Loch Linnhe). In one section of the indenture 22m worth of lands in Strath Oykel were matched against 22m worth of lands in Drumgow (i.e. Drumgour, now Ardgour). These two sets of lands were of equal value in terms of merklands. Were they of equal value in terms of the earlier system of davachs? They are if we assume that 1 davach was 10m (New Extent) in both areas
Ardgour (excluding Blaich) is often mentioned as a 22m estate. It is also referred to as 2 ouncelands and since we have valuations in both pennylands and merklands it is clear that the conversion rate was 1 ounceland to 10 merklands. Ardgour is part of the area where I think an ounceland was the same as a davach so each davach was also 10m.
However I am more doubtful that 22m of Easter Ross was also just over 2 davachs. I think that under the system of Old Extent (where 1 davach was 4m in Ross) 22m in Easter Ross may actually have represented 5½ davachs. I think that the equation of 22m in Strath Oykel with 22m in Ardgour is a good example of how Old Extent lost its meaning much earlier on the east coast. As far as the participants to the indenture of 1474-5 were concerned they were comparing lands of equal value. But perhaps that was because they had become used to comparing merklands rather than davachs.
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