Kiltarlity and Convinth
Principal Sources
OSA Vol 13 No 32
Mor. Reg No 21 pp 15-16
Mor. Reg. No 51 pp 59-60 c. 1221
Mor. Reg. No 127 pp 140-2
RMS II (178) 1416, (220) 1439 on original of 1438, (618, 645) 1458, (1368) 1477-8, (2320) 1496, (3158) 1507, (3184) 1507-8 on original of 1501, (3531) 1509, (3602) 1511, (3730) 1512, (3831) 1513
RMS III (285) 1524, (1601) 1536, (1943) 1538-9, (1958) 1539, (2733) 1542
RMS IV (704) 1552, (987) 1554-5, (2348) 1568
RMS VII (1791, 1820) 1618
RMS IX (658) 1637 on original of 1636; (1093) 1642, (1260,1) 1642, (1260,2) 1640, (1260,4) 1640
RMS X (406) 1655
RSS II (4673) 1542
RSS VII (2006) 1579
ER VIII p 60 1470-1, pp 168 & 183 1473, p 416 1477
ER IX p 111 1481, p 166 1482, p 396 1486, p 478 1487
ER X p 11 1488, p 769 1494
ER XI p 390 p 446 1499, pp 352-3 1499/1500-1500/1501
ER XII pp 58-9 1501-2, p 127 1502-3, pp 217-18 1503-4, pp 347-8 1504-5, p 415 1505-6, p 516 1506-7, p 666 1506
ER XIII pp 598-9 1511/12, p 658 1508
ER XIV p 565 1514
ER XV p 583 1524, pp 625-6 1524-5
ER XIX p 553 1566, p 562 1567
ER XX p 534 1578
ER XXI pp 87-8 1580, pp 182-3 1582
GD1/408/4 1572/3
GD23/10/1 1522, GD23/10/2 1541, GD23/10/7 1637, GD23/10/14 1640, GD23/10/124 1675, GD23/10/136 1677, GD23/10/299 1690, GD23/10/400 1700, GD23/10/592 1781
GD176/83 1567, GD176/269 1617
GD296/12 1638
GD443/13/5 1766
RH15/13/46 1726
NLS Dep.327/59/2 is original for RMS II (3602) 1511. See ST2 p 146.
NLS Dep.327/78 1622; NLS Dep.327/78 1695; NLS Dep.327/91
NLS Digital Map Library:- Lovat (and other) Estate Maps
Lovat028, Lovat041, Lovat042, Lovat043, Lovat045, Lovat046, Lovat047, Lovat049, Lovat050, Lovat051, Lovat052, Lovat054, Lovat055, Lovat056, Lovat057, Lovat060, Lovat086, Lovat097, Lovat098, Lovat105, Lovat116, Lovat131, Lovat132, Lovat134, Lovat136, Lovat139, Lovat142, Lovat145, Lovat149, Lovat152, Lovat157, Lovat161, Lovat162, Lovat163, Lovat164, Lovat167, Lovat176, Lovat179, Lovat180, Lovat182, Lovat184, Lovat186, Lovat188, Lovat189, Lovat193, Lovat194, Lovat195, Lovat197, Lovat198, Lovat199, Lovat200, Lovat206, Lovat208, Lovat211, Lovat212, Lovat213, Lovat216, Lovat225, Lovat239, Lovat244, Lovat257, Lovat258, Lovat263, Lovat268, Lovat276, Lovat285, Lovat312, Lovat337, Lovat340, Lovat344, Lovat347, Lovat355, Lovat356, Lovat359, Lovat360, Lovat370, Lovat371
GB028, GB030, GB032, GB034, GB036, GB038, GB040, GB042, GB044, GB046, GB048, GB050, GB052, GB054, GB056, GB058, GB060, GB062, GB064, GB066, GB068, GB070, GB072, GB074, GB076, GB078, GB080, GB082, GB084, GB086, GB088, GB111
Belladrum07, 09
RS36/2/190v 1607, RS36/2/192r 1607, RS36/2/194v 1607, RS36/2/368r 1608, RS36/2/374v 1608
RS37/4/96v 1628
RS37/7/3v 1648, RS37/7/117v 1651, RS37/7/124v 1651
RS38/2/153r 1664
RS38/3/27r 1666, RS38/3/28r 1666
RS38/5/344r 1685, RS38/5/624v 1693
RS38/7/119v 1711
RS38/9/288r 1742
RS38/11/328r 1763
RS38/13/176v 1774
Retours (Inverness) (5) 1566, (8) 1578, (31) 1617, (38) 1620, (52) 1633, (57) 1634, (67) 1642, (70) 1647, (74) 1650, (84) 1657, (97) 1665, (98) 1666, (100) 1670, (107) 1685, (114) 1691, (116) 1693, (119) 1696, (125) 1596, (129) 1630?
FM 772 (Fraser-Mackintosh Collection, Inverness Reference Library).
Acts of the Lords of Council, Volume III, 1501-3, ed. A.B. Calderwood, Edinburgh, 1993
RHP 3608 1852
RHP 3650 1852
RHP 11605 1795
RHP 11638 1807
RHP 11963 1864 Boundary with Glenurquhart
RHP 11964 1852 Boundary with Glenurquhart
RHP 23986 1828 Plans of estate of Belladrum
RHP 23994 1856 Guisachan
RHP 46402
Plan: Davoch of Clachan by JA Chapman 1809
Plan of Belladrum by G Brown 1798 in FM 772
Batten, E.C., The Charters of the Priory of Beauly, London, 1877
Barron, H., ‘Some Notes on the Parish of Kiltarlity’, TGSI 50 (1976-8) pp 40-59 (republished by GSI, Inverness, 2011, pp 234-252).
Barron, H., ‘Notes on the Aird’, TGSI (Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness) 45, 1967-8, pp 196-231, (republished by GSI, Inverness, 2011, pp 47-79).
Cowan, I.B., Mackay, P.H.R. & Macquarrie, A. The Knights of St John of Jerusalem in Scotland, Scottish History Society, Edinburgh, 1983
RH MacDonald, Estate of Chisholm – Surviving Rental Lists of 1665 to 1871, TGSI 54, pp 58-136, 1984-6
W Macgill, Old Ross-shire and Scotland as seen in the Tain and Balnagown Documents, Inverness, 1909
IR Mackay, ‘The Davoch of Clachan’ in TGSI vol 45 (1967-8) pp 393-412
W Mackay (ed.), Chronicles of the Frasers (The Wardlaw Manuscript), Scottish History Society, Edinburgh, 1905.
AH Millar, Scottish Forfeited Estates Papers, SHS, Edinburgh, 1909
J Munro, The Inventory of Chisholm Writs 1456-1810, Scottish Record Society, Edinburgh, 1992
H Paton (ed) The Mackintosh Muniments, Edinburgh, 1903. (No 269).
Registrum Episcopatus Moraviensis, Edinburgh, 1837. = Mor. Reg.
Ross, A., The Province of Moray, c. 1000-1230, unpublished PhD thesis, Aberdeen, 2003. = Ross(1)
Ross, A., Land Assessment and Lordship in Medieval Northern Scotland, Brepols, 2015. = Ross(2)
S Taylor, Place-Name Survey of the parishes of Kilmorack, Kiltarlity & Convinth, and Kirkhill, Inverness-shire, 2002 (Pdf file available on the Internet). = ST1
S Taylor with R MacLean & Jacob King, Place-Names of the Aird and Strathglass, Inverness-shire, Kiltarlity Community Council, 2019. = ST2
The Book of the Thanes of Cawdor, (pp 87-8, 1497), Edinburgh, 1859
Two particularly important sources for this parish are Simon Taylor’s Place-Names of the Aird and Strathglass and the Lovat Estate Maps which are available on the internet via the National Library of Scotland’s Digital Map Library. The latter resource offers enormous potential in tracing earlier settlement boundaries. So, for instance, Lovat047 of 1848-51 shows field systems very much as they are appear on maps today. Some of the internal boundaries will be new as Highland farms moved from runrig to enclosure but the external boundaries between units may be centuries older. (GB068 1800 shows parts of Ardblair ‘in runridge’). Untangling these layers will be complex but may give us further insight into the system of davachs which underlay the rural Highland economy from at least the early mediaeval period. Whole fields of enquiry open up if we consider how the boundaries of baronies and parishes may have matched with davachs.
Kiltarlity parish includes the two older parishes of Kiltarlity and Convinth. Both Taylor & Ross state that Kiltarlity was the smaller. Ross(2) p 269 suggests 4 davachs, Taylor (ST2 p 129) suggests Eskadale, Fanellan & Culburnie. My table gives 6 davachs to Kiltarlity although Mauld is a bit of an outlier. The principal farms in the former Kiltarlity parish were Mauld, Main, Eskadale, Cruive, Knockvuy, Kineras, Culburnie, Fanellan, Culachan, Ruttle, Kiltarlity and Annat.
The former parish of Convinth was itself a composite consisting of Glen Convinth and part of Strath Glass. Mor. Reg. No 21 1221 gives us 11 davachs of Convinth which looks a nice and straightforward allocation of davachs to support a parish church. However, of these 11, one (Buntait), is in the completely separate district of Glen Urquhart while another three, (Guisachan, Erchless and Comar), are in Strath Glass and not Glen Convinth. Neither do the remaining seven davachs make up the whole of Glen Convinth which probably amounted to at least 11 davachs. In other words, even as early as 1221, parishes could be a hotch-potch. The early-thirteenth-century parish of Convinth was not a compact unit of neighbouring davachs. It looks more like an estate with bits missing in Glen Convinth and bits tagged on from elsewhere. The combined parish came to 21¼ davachs.
RMS II (178) 1416 deals with a grant of Ensowchtan (Guisachan), Kyrkomyr (Kirkcomar), Maule (Mauld) & Woster Eskdole (Wester Eskadale) ‘in name and assent of 20 markis’. I suspect this means that the 4 properties had an ‘extent’ of 20 marks. The latter three were a half-davach each. Since a davach was reckoned at 10m around 1500 it seems likely that these were 5m each. Guisachan was a davach but it is possible the document is only referring to half of this farm in which case the total amounts to 2 davachs or 20 merks. If this is the case then it is significant that davachs were reckoned at 10m as early as 1416. (Certainly the davach of Buntait was 10m extent in the same document). This ratio of 1 davach to 10 merks has a bearing on our dating of ‘New Extent’.
Ross(1) wondered if Allt an Loin may have been part of the old parochial boundary between Kiltarlity and Convinth. The fact that Convinth parish included Bruiach in the 1220s suggests that the parish then comprised the two glens of Convinth and Bruiach. I would therefore expect the old parish boundary to run along the watershed west of Glen Bruiach. It probably joined the Beauly River somewhere between (old) Kiltarlity and Beaufort Castle.
Shielings
For discussion of shielings in this parish and Kilmorack see text file for Kilmorack parish.
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