RootsChat.Com

Scotland (Counties as in 1851-1901) => Scotland => Moray (Elginshire) => Topic started by: NenNen on Sunday 04 February 18 15:37 GMT (UK)

Title: Where was Atinlia/Attinlia in Moray?
Post by: NenNen on Sunday 04 February 18 15:37 GMT (UK)
The register for Duthil & Rothiemurchus states at baptisms 1800 & 1807 that the father was of Atinlia/Attinlia. I can find no reference to this place.  Was it just a farm maybe?  Can anyone help please?
Title: Re: Where was Atinlia/Attinlia in Moray?
Post by: GR2 on Sunday 04 February 18 16:01 GMT (UK)
Check that the word doesn't actually start with Alt... That indicates a burn and is a common beginning of place-names.
Title: Re: Where was Atinlia/Attinlia in Moray?
Post by: NenNen on Sunday 04 February 18 16:17 GMT (UK)
Very definitely At, once with a single t & once with 2. Very clear hand writing.  I think it has to be a property name
Title: Re: Where was Atinlia/Attinlia in Moray?
Post by: josey on Sunday 04 February 18 16:19 GMT (UK)
Could you post a snip with the word [plus a few surrounding so that we can compare] please?
Title: Re: Where was Atinlia/Attinlia in Moray?
Post by: josey on Sunday 04 February 18 16:25 GMT (UK)
Here's Duthil in 1890s
1:10560
http://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=13&lat=57.3023&lon=-3.7738&layers=1&b=1
not mapped at 1:2500 at that time

ADDED: I can see Achtateang  ??? not sure how it would be pronounced. At[t]inlia may have been a parish clerk's phonetic interpretation of the placename.
Title: Re: Where was Atinlia/Attinlia in Moray?
Post by: DonM on Sunday 04 February 18 18:38 GMT (UK)
Perhaps Aitenlica which was a farm east of there. 

http://maps.nls.uk/view/74400177

Don
Title: Re: Where was Atinlia/Attinlia in Moray?
Post by: Flattybasher9 on Sunday 04 February 18 18:55 GMT (UK)
 Lieut. Charles Grant, 55 th regiment, 2 copiei   J)r Gregory Grant  Enngn john Grant, of Atinlia

From :- http://digital.nls.uk/early-gaelic-book-collections/archive/97339283?mode=transcription

Malky
Title: Re: Where was Atinlia/Attinlia in Moray?
Post by: Forfarian on Sunday 04 February 18 19:49 GMT (UK)
The register for Duthil & Rothiemurchus states at baptisms 1800 & 1807 that the father was of Atinlia/Attinlia. I can find no reference to this place.  Was it just a farm maybe?
It could have been a croft or just a single house. Can you post a copy of it here please?

It isn't listed in the chapter on Duthil in Donald Matheson's 'Place Names of Elginshire', and unless I have missed the reference it isn't mentioned in either the Statistical Account or Lachlan Shaw's 'History of the Province of Moray'.
Title: Re: Where was Atinlia/Attinlia in Moray?
Post by: Skoosh on Sunday 04 February 18 19:55 GMT (UK)
There's a Lagganlia, in Alvie parish, neighbour of Rothiemurchus.

Skoosh.


Aittenlia, found it, it's in the valley of the Dulnain, just by the river & between Caggan, a bothy named Eile & Dalnahiatnich.
Caggan was a bothy & Dalnahaitnach a derelict croft. Aittenlia will just be a pile of stones now. Used to know the upper part of that glen well. Divided between several Speyside estates with roads over the hills, north to the Dulnain. Could be Kinrara  estate so originally part of the Duke of Gordon's vast territories which were split up & sold off. A very wild place, nobody lives up there, the last wolf in Scotlad was killed therraboots!
PS, there were several "Last Wolves!" 
Title: Re: Where was Atinlia/Attinlia in Moray?
Post by: Morvenwalker on Sunday 04 February 18 20:14 GMT (UK)
I was going to suggest you write to Rothiemurchus Estate but if you put Attilia Rothiemurchus into a search engine you will find present day information. Rothiemurchus is just outside Aviemore.
 I also think most of the estate is in Inverness shire shire
Title: Re: Where was Atinlia/Attinlia in Moray?
Post by: Morvenwalker on Sunday 04 February 18 20:24 GMT (UK)
With reference to my last  post the web address was attinlia.blogspot.com  There is a photo of the property and it seems to be on the Dorback estate.
Title: Re: Where was Atinlia/Attinlia in Moray?
Post by: Forfarian on Sunday 04 February 18 20:35 GMT (UK)
Got it. http://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=16&lat=57.2490&lon=-3.9302&layers=5&b=1

I looked at the transcription of the 1841 census at https://www.freecen.org.uk/cgi/search.pl and worked my way through until I found a family at Aitinlea.

Then I found the places I recognised from having been in the area, and followed the census enumerator's route along the left bank of the River Dulnain on the first edition of the six-inch Ordnance Survey map.

It's a bit trickier to find it on a modern map, but it's north-north-west of Garbh-mheall Beag and on the other bank of the river. I am pretty sure that this http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/274320 is it. If you click on the map you will see a larger-scale map which shows some ruins at about the right place.

Noting that the burn north-west of it is named as Allt-an-t-Seilich, I wonder whether the name Attenlia (or however you care to spell it) is a garbled version of that, written down by people who did not speak Gaelic. It means something like 'burn of the willow'.

Howzat?

PS This is indeed in the part of the combined parish of Duthil and Rothiemurchus which is in the county of Inverness. It is in Duthil, however, not in Rothiemurchus.

PPS It is not the place described in http://attinlea.blogspot.co.uk/ which is in http://www.geograph.org.uk/gridref/NJ0517. That one is in the parish of Abernethy and Kincardine.

PPPS there were two households at your Attinlia in the 1841 census. One was John Cameron, age 74 and Alex Cameron, age 40, with one fremale and two male servants, and the other was Alexi Dunbar, aged 40.

PPPPS The one in Abernethy and Kincardine is listed in Donald Matheson's book. He says, "Here we have the root Aitionn, so often found in this parish, meaning juniper or gorse in combination with lea, or meadow or field, and the word Juniperlea was at one time most applicable".  However Matheson is not widely regarded as 100% reliable. My Gaelic dictionary does list aiteann as meaning juniper. It also lists aite as meaning a place or situation. The Ordnance Survey booklet Place names on maps of Scotland and Wales says that lia is from liath meaning grey. I don't know why Matheson might have thought that a place name in Duthil was a hybrid of the Gaelic aiteann and the English word lea. (Also, my Gaelic dictionary gives a completely different word for gorse or whin.)
Title: Re: Where was Atinlia/Attinlia in Moray?
Post by: Skoosh on Sunday 04 February 18 21:09 GMT (UK)
There's a monument around there which marks the house of Iain Beag MacAndra, a wee 17th century archer, the story in,

www.carrbridge.com/index.php/info/History/

Skoosh.
Title: Re: Where was Atinlia/Attinlia in Moray?
Post by: Forfarian on Sunday 04 February 18 21:37 GMT (UK)
There's a monument around there which marks the house of Iain Beag MacAndra, a wee 17th century archer, the story in www.carrbridge.com/index.php/info/History/
Yes. See http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/273338.

The monument is across the river from Dalnahaitnach, which is a couple of kilometres downstream from Attinlia, closer to Carrbridge. See http://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=16&lat=57.2596&lon=-3.9086&layers=5&b=1 - the site of the monument is about where the line from point 1029 meets a track south of point 1038 (The numbers are actually the height above sea level in feet, but they make handy reference points in this case).
Title: Re: Where was Atinlia/Attinlia in Moray?
Post by: josey on Monday 05 February 18 09:49 GMT (UK)
Good sleuthing everyone  ;D ;D.
Title: Re: Where was Atinlia/Attinlia in Moray?
Post by: Skoosh on Monday 05 February 18 10:12 GMT (UK)
Juniper sounds about right, plenty of it in the upper Dulnain!

Skoosh.
Title: Re: Where was Atinlia/Attinlia in Moray?
Post by: NenNen on Monday 05 February 18 18:27 GMT (UK)
Can't thank you all enough for your help - being a Golden Oldie I get a bit confused on these sites.  I will now try to add the PR entries for you all to see. 3rd attempt - I've had to cut them considerably but they are easy to read