Freshwater Scottish Loch Settlements of The
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Freshwater Scottish loch settlements of the Late Medieval and Early Modern periods; with particular reference to northern Stirlingshire, central and northern Perthshire, northern Angus, Loch Awe and Loch Lomond Matthew Shelley PhD The University of Edinburgh 2009 Declaration The work contained within this thesis is the candidate’s own and has not been submitted for any other degree or professional qualification. Signed ……………………………………………………………………………… Acknowledgements I would like to thank all those who have provided me with support, advice and information throughout my research. These include: Steve Boardman, Nick Dixon, Gordon Thomas, John Raven, Anne Crone, Chris Fleet, Ian Orrock, Alex Hale, Perth and Kinross Heritage Trust, Scottish Natural Heritage. Abstract Freshwater loch settlements were a feature of society, indeed the societies, which inhabited what we now call Scotland during the prehistoric and historic periods. Considerable research has been carried out into the prehistoric and early historic origins and role of artificial islands, commonly known as crannogs. However archaeologists and historians have paid little attention to either artificial islands, or loch settlements more generally, in the Late Medieval or Early Modern periods. This thesis attempts to open up the field by examining some of the physical, chorographic and other textual evidence for the role of settled freshwater natural, artificial and modified islands during these periods. It principally concentrates on areas of central Scotland but also considers the rest of the mainland. It also places the evidence in a broader British, Irish and European context. The results indicate that islands fulfilled a wide range of functions as secular and religious settlements. They were adopted by groups from different cultural backgrounds and provided those exercising lordship with the opportunity to exercise a degree of social detachment while providing a highly visible means of declaring their authority. This thesis also argues that loch settlements were not a lingering hangover from the past, as some have suggested, but a vibrant part of contemporary culture which remained strong until the latter half of the seventeenth century before going into final decline and disappearing as a significant social phenomenon. Contents Volume 1: Thesis Introduction 1 Background to the study 1 Method and sources 3 Thesis outline 6 Chapter 1: Historiography & Literature Review 11 Introduction 11 From early to twentieth-century sources 11 Recent sources 17 Chapter 2: Case Studies 36 Introduction 36 Case study A: Eilean Craggan 36 Location 37 The name 38 Surveys 39 Historical context 42 Conclusions 50 Case study B: Isle of Loch Clunie 56 Location 57 The name 58 Physical remains 58 Historical context 59 Estate and household in the early sixteenth century 68 Conclusions 78 Chapter 3: Chorography 87 Introduction 87 Early maps of Scotland 88 The significance of Pont 90 Pont as a source 93 Pont’s loch settlements 95 Loch settlement depictions 99 The Pont texts 108 The maps of Robert and James Gordon 111 Site comparisons 117 The Blaeu atlas and the Pont legacy 119 Blaeu’s texts 124 Ports and harbours 129 Conclusions 134 Chapter 4: Secular Loch Settlements 145 Introduction 145 Settlement origins and phases of use 145 Loch settlement characteristics 149 Island structures and sizes 152 Locations and lochs 154 Permanent and seasonal use 158 Situation, space and access 163 Boats and loch settlements 168 Islands and gardens 171 Convention and choice 175 Eilean nam Faoileag 180 Campbell of Glenorchy interests 183 Conclusions 192 Chapter 5: Security & Social Change 194 Introduction 194 Island strengths 194 Social change and the shift to shore 203 Conclusions 213 Chapter 6: Christian Loch Settlements 214 Introduction 214 Origins 215 Christian insular sites in Scotland 219 Change and continuity 222 Altered values 226 New trajectories 229 Other religious islands 237 Co-location and shared sites 241 Island locations and sizes 244 The decline of religious islands 245 Conclusions 246 Conclusion 248 Volume 2: Bibliography & Appendices Contents Bibliography Appendix 1: Technical data Appendix 2: Detail from chorographic maps Appendix 3: Loch settlement illustrations & surveys Appendix 4: Distribution map and table of sources Appendix 5: Report on Loch Tulla shoe Volume 1: Illustrations Fig. 01: Eilean Craggan 52 Fig. 02: Eilean Craggan survey 52 Figs. 03, 04, 05: Detail of OS and M&P maps showing Eilean Craggan 53 Figs. 06, 07, 08: Photographic detail of Eilean Craggan 53 Fig. 09: Stone jetty facing Eilean Craggan 54 Figs. 10, 11, 12: Detail of St Blane’s Chapel 54 Fig. 13: The Glenample or Edinample estate from Pont 21 55 Fig. 14: Map of Loch Earn and Glenample 55 Fig. 15: The Isle of Loch Clunie 80 Fig. 16: Survey of the remaining structures of the Isle of Loch Clunie 80 Figs. 17, 18, 19: OS and M&P map details of Loch Clunie 81 Figs. 20, 21, 23, 24, 25: Photographic detail of structures 81-2 Fig. 26: Nineteenth-century sketch of the Isle of Loch Clunie 83 Fig. 27: Nineteenth-century photograph of Isle of Loch Clunie 83 Fig. 28: 1960s sketch of tower on Isle of Loch Clunie 83 Figs. 29, 30, 31: Detail from chorographic maps 84 Fig. 32: Sketch map showing the Isle of Loch Clunie in relation to other immediately surrounding features 85 Fig. 33: Clunie’s economic relationships – goods and services flowing to and from the island and its properties 85 Fig. 34: Sources of victual receipts 1501-10 86 Fig. 35: Rentals of the bishopric from the Clunie area in 1561 86 Fig. 36: Pont manuscript map coverage of Scotland 136 Fig. 37: Blaeu map coverage of Scotland 137 Fig. 38: Late Medieval and Early Modern loch settlements of Scotland 138 Introduction Background to the study Over the past 150 years antiquarians and archaeologists have shown considerable, though fluctuating, interest in Scotland’s freshwater loch settlements. This has tended to concentrate on artificial islets, often called crannogs, and their Prehistoric and Early Historic origins. Less attention has been paid to their role in the Late Medieval and Early Modern periods. Indeed there has often been the assumption that they were no more than a lingering presence by this time. Likewise there has been little attempt to look beyond ‘crannogs’ and consider the use of occupied islands as a whole whether artificial, modified or natural. This study starts to address these issues by examining the role of Scottish loch settlements in these later periods1 with a particular emphasis on northern Stirlingshire, central and northern Perthshire, northern Angus, Loch Awe and Loch Lomond. It attempts to provide a detailed understanding of their use within these areas while also considering the overall picture in Scotland, principally the mainland, in broader terms. By putting the primary focus on particular areas it has been possible to gain insights into the function and occupancy of specific islands over an extended period of time. It has been possible to look more widely at the number and distribution of loch settlements, the sorts of people who occupied them and whether there were differences in role or perception according to type, size or location. An important aim has been to discover more about the sorts of settlements which existed on islands and how they related to the land and waters around them. This has helped generate suggestions about why people chose to live on islands during the Late Medieval and Early Modern periods and why loch settlements finally went into decline. The principal argument of this thesis is that freshwater loch settlements were a distinctive social phenomenon and should be considered as a group rather than divided up according to whether they existed on natural islands or ones that had once been manufactured. Evidence for islands being built at this time is very limited, 1 This roughly corresponds to the centuries between 1300 and 1700, though places and events are considered either side of this. 1 though there is more for their repair and maintenance. Islands were often put to similar uses regardless of their origin. It is, therefore, more appropriate to regard them as existing as part of the same continuum. There is also little known use of the word ‘crannog’ until mid nineteenth-century antiquarians adopted it from colleagues in Ireland, where it has a long and demonstrable pedigree. Subsequently there has been considerable disagreement over what constitutes a crannog partly because artificiality is not an absolute with some islands created by modifying or extending existing features. For these reasons this study tends to refer to natural, modified and artificial islands – or NIs, MIs and AIs for short.2 The parameters of the study have been carefully considered but it is fully recognised that dividing lines over what sort of islands should be included or excluded, and in which areas, are to some extent pragmatic and a means to enable focused research. The geographical area on which this study mainly concentrates offered abundant opportunities for fieldwork and is well provided for in terms of the survival of a number of contemporary maps and historical texts. The broader limits of the study tend to be the Scottish mainland rather than the Northern Isles and the Hebrides. This is largely because detailed research has been, or is being, carried out on the Western Isles and Orkney. Caldwell, Ewart and others have published on the settlement of the Lords of the Isles at Loch Finlaggan, in Islay, and the full results of this research are expected in due course. Dr John Raven has carried out extensive research of the loch settlements of South Uist On3 and Dr Nick Dixon of the STUA has been involved with a project to investigate the AIs of Orkney.4 At the same time there is only limited evidence for the use of loch settlements in Orkney and Shetland at this time.