Descriptive gazetteer entries

We have no further entries in our collection of 19th century descriptive gazetteers about Reay, but we do have this information about localities within the associated parish or parishes. You may be able to find further references to Reay in the descriptive gazetteers by doing a full-text search here.

Place	Type of entry	Source
Acharainey	a hamlet	Groome
Ben Freiceadain	hill with ancient fort	Bartholomew
Ben Freiceadain	a steep rocky hill	Groome
Ben Ratha	a hill	Groome
Ben Ratha	hill with curious cave	Bartholomew
Borrowstoun	a hamlet	Groome
Borrowstown	coastal hamlet	Bartholomew
Cailam	small loch	Bartholomew
Crokach	a loch	Groome
Crokach	loch	Bartholomew
Dalhalvaig	school	Bartholomew
Dounreay	hamlet	Bartholomew
Forsinard	railway station and inn	Bartholomew
Halladale	a river	Groome
Halladale	river	Bartholomew
Helshetter	place with mineral spring	Bartholomew
Isauld	hamlet	Bartholomew
Melvich	village with inn	Bartholomew
Melvich	a scattered village	Groome
Portskerra (and Melvich)	village	Bartholomew
Sandside House	seat	Bartholomew
Shebster	hamlet	Bartholomew

Descriptive gazetteer entries

In 1887, John Bartholomew's Gazetteer of the British Isles described Reay like this:

Reay, vil., Caithness, and par. partly also in Sutherland - par., 115,301 ac., pop. 2191; vil., near Sandside Bay, 10½ miles W. of Thurso; P.O., T.O.; gives the title of baron to the family of Mackay, from whom a large section of Sutherland took the name of "Lord Reay's Country".

This is the only descriptive gazetter entry we have found, but you may be able to find further references to Reay by doing a full-text search here.

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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 Reay 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	3
Thomas Pennant	August 18-29: Sutherland and Caithness	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 Hist. Gazetteer
Sandside	0	1
Dounreay	0	1
Shebster	0	1
Melvich	0	2
Portskerra	0	1
Westfield	0	1
Brims	0	2
Halladale	0	2
Strathy	0	1
Shurrery	0	1
Dalhalvaig	0	1
Calder	0	2
Scrabster	0	1
Thurso	0	3
Skinnet	0	1
Armadale	0	1
Halkirk	0	2
Braal	0	2
Harpsdale	0	1
Murkle	0	2