Dornoch, Sutherland : Historical writing

Descriptive gazetteer entries

These other entries in our collection of descriptive gazetteers are also about Dornoch. You may be able to find further references to Dornoch in the descriptive gazetteers by doing a full-text search here.

Place Type of entry Source
Dornoch capital of county, parliamentary and royal burgh, seaport, and parish Bartholomew
Dornoch a coast town Groome
Dornoch Firth inlet of the North Sea Bartholomew
Dornoch, Firth of the estuary of the river Oikel Groome

This additional information from our descriptive gazetteers is for locations within the parish or parishes associated with Dornoch.

Place Type of entry Source
Achavandra hamlet Bartholomew
Achavandra a hamlet Groome
Achvaich a small strath Groome
Achvaich small strath Bartholomew
Cairnaig or Carnach a rivulet Groome
Clashmore place with inn Bartholomew
Embo fishing village Bartholomew
Embo a fishing village, with a public school Groome
Evelix a stream Groome
Rhiarchar place with school Bartholomew
Skelbo Castle ancient seat Bartholomew
Skelbo Castle the ancient seat of the Sutherlands Groome
Skibo Castle a modern mansion Groome
Skibo Castle seat Bartholomew
Strath Carnach valley Bartholomew
The Poles Bartholomew

Travel writing

This website includes the complete texts of books describing journeys around Britain, written between the twelfth and nineteenth centuries. Selecting one of the links below will take you to the first reference to Dornoch within the selected text. This will not always be a description of a visit: travellers often mention places other than where they are, for example as a basis for comparison.

Traveller Section No. of Refs.
Thomas Pennant Appendix V: Of Caithness, Strathnavern, and Sutherland 5
Thomas Pennant August 14-18: Inverness and the Black Isle 2
William Camden Scotland: North of the Antonine Wall 1
Daniel Defoe Letter 13, Part 2: Dundee, Aberdeen and the Highlands 1
Thomas Pennant August 18-29: Sutherland and Caithness 1
Thomas Pennant Appendix VIII: Itinerary 1

This website includes two large libraries, of historical travel writing and of entries from nineteenth century gazetteers describing places. We have text from these sources available for these places near your location:

Place Mentioned in Travel Writing Mentioned in Historical Gazetteer
Hilton 2 0
Embo 3 2
Skelbo 0 2
Littleferry 2 2
Skibo 3 2
Tain 6 2
Culmaily 2 1
Edderton 0 2
Balblair 0 2
Golspie 3 2
Tarbat 2 2
Dunrobin 9 2
Fearn 0 2
Portmahomack 0 2
Logie Easter 0 1
Balnagown 3 2
Kildary 0 2
Rogart 1 2
Milton 0 2
Doll 1 1

Names from historical writing

The following appear as names for Dornoch. Follow the links for what the author actually said:

Name Author Source
DORNOCH John Bartholomew Gazetteer of the British Isles (Edinburgh: Bartholomew, 1887).
F.H. Groome Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland (Edinburgh: T.C. Jack, 1882-4).
DORNOCH FIRTH John Bartholomew Gazetteer of the British Isles (Edinburgh: Bartholomew, 1887).
DORNOCH FIRTH OF F.H. Groome Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland (Edinburgh: T.C. Jack, 1882-4).
DORNOK William Camden Britain, or, a Chorographicall Description of the most flourishing Kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland (London: George Bishop and John Norton, 1610).

NB: These variant names come from our collections of historical travel writing and descriptive gazetteers:

  • The above links take you to the first reference to this particular version of the name within a book of travel writing, or to the relevant gazetteer entry.
  • Some names may derive from research by antiquarian writers such as William Camden and Thomas Pennant into the Roman, Saxon and medieval names of places. Their claims are not always supported by modern place-name researchers.
  • References by travel writers to the place using its "normal" name are not included. Descriptive gazetteer entries are included only if the name does not appear anywhere else.