Y-DNA does exactly what you are looking for. If you have a male tester then you can test them and find out origins through a Big Y test. It will give you matches, dates of common ancestors with each match, notable connections, ancient connections, migration patterns and a long list of lineage defining mutations that can indeed reveal ancestral locations.
I have personally used Big Y tests a number of times to confirm origins and it provides links to Scotland for Northern Irish lines. I know one line originated in Loudon, Ayrshire, another in the western Hebrides (3 islands specifically) and one of my friends has recently discovered a confirmed link to a specific clan with a long lineage.
Many of my Y-DNA matches are in the 1600-1800 period which is exactly what you are looking for when you are trying to extend family trees backwards beyond the reach of autosomal DNA and paper records.
Y-DNA has come on a long way in the last few years. Big Y tests millions of popints in your DNA and the interpretation of the data is much improved and scientifically validated.
