Author Topic: Angus MacDonald and Margaret/Peggy MacDonald family, Stoneybridge, South Uist  (Read 10920 times)

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Re: Angus MacDonald and Margaret/Peggy MacDonald family, Stoneybridge, South Uist
« Reply #18 on: Sunday 13 December 20 12:05 GMT (UK) »
That's fascinating, Skoosh.

The more so because even the first edition of the six-inch Ordnance Survey map shows no road or track to Loch na Lairige, or from there to Glen Markie, which would mean not far short of 3 miles of trackless moorland with several burns to cross. So it must have been a pretty rough hard journey.
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Offline Skoosh

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Re: Angus MacDonald and Margaret/Peggy MacDonald family, Stoneybridge, South Uist
« Reply #19 on: Sunday 13 December 20 13:41 GMT (UK) »
Forfarian, loch of the pass right enough but it looks a very high route to carry a coffin when the route west of Geal Charn looks a better bet & more direct?

Skoosh.

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Re: Angus MacDonald and Margaret/Peggy MacDonald family, Stoneybridge, South Uist
« Reply #20 on: Sunday 13 December 20 14:34 GMT (UK) »
I was just trying to follow the route as mapped and described on the South Loch Ness Heritage web site, which shows the it passing the north end of Loch na Lairige and continuing south-east to Glen Markie via the Piper's Burn.

Loch na Lairige is about 730 metres above sea level. if you go south-east from the north end of Loch na Lairige to Glen Markie the highest point is 830 metres. If you go south from Loch na Lairige you have quite a detour west on trackless moor to avoid the summit of Geal Charn at 926 metres, down beside Feith Talagan and then another 4 miles or so on the road from Garva Bridge to Crathie.

It makes absolute sense that people from Crathie and around the headwaters of the Spey would be carried a few miles over the hill for burial at St Kenneth's. It makes very little sense to carry coffins, as a regular practice, 22 miles over the hills from Whitebridge in the parish of Boleskine and Abertarff to St Kenneth's in the parish of Laggan. None of the writers quoted in the South Loch Ness Heritage item actually states that this was the case; what they say is fairly general.

Interestingly, while most of the parish accounts I have read in the Statistical Accounts of Scotland https://stataccscot.edina.ac.uk/static/statacc/dist/home tend to mention the names of the neighbouring parishes, the Old Statistical Accounts of Boleskine with Abertaff and of Laggan do not. From this I infer that there was not much in the way of coming and going between the two parishes, at least in the 1790s.

It would be interesting, and instructive, to see how many of the gravestones at St Kenneth's mention places outwith the parish of Laggan.
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Re: Angus MacDonald and Margaret/Peggy MacDonald family, Stoneybridge, South Uist
« Reply #21 on: Sunday 13 December 20 19:06 GMT (UK) »
Well.

There is a web site https://sites.google.com/site/highlandmemorialinscriptions/home/badenoch-strathspey that has transcription/indexes of gravestones including Laggan Kirk, and the information contains any place mentioned on a stone.

There are 79 place names altogether. Six are overseas, three in England and sixteen in Scotland but not in Inverness-shire. That left 54 places. Of these one (Fort Augustus) is in the parish of Boleskine and Abertarff, three others are in parishes around the Great Glen - Kilmallie, Kilmonivaig, and Inverness - and one which could be in Abernethy and Kincardine.

I then looked at the indexes to places in the OS Name Books at www.scotlandspeople. The parishes of Laggan and Kingussie and Insh are indexed together, which is mildly annoying but doesn't really matter in this case because Kingussie and Insh are both east of Laggan. Using those indexes and the old maps at https://maps.nls.uk/ I was able to identify all but six of them. None of these came up in Boleskine and Abertarff in a full search of Scotland's Places. They are Achnabeaghan, Braeroy, Croftlaggan, Faegour, Glengarth and Lagg (as opposed to Laggan).

The only gravestone in Laggan Kirkyard mentioning anywhere in Boleskine and Abertarff is the Fort Augustus one, which was a burial in 1923, late enough for the body to have been taken there in a motor hearse; and it if had been carried, the most direct route from Fort Augustus would be the much better road over the Corrieyairack Pass.

So if there was ever a tradition of carrying bodies over from Whitebridge, it was not accompanied by a tradition of erecting gravestones with inscriptions recording the fact.




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Offline Skoosh

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Re: Angus MacDonald and Margaret/Peggy MacDonald family, Stoneybridge, South Uist
« Reply #22 on: Sunday 13 December 20 21:34 GMT (UK) »
Forfarian, the SMC Guide for the Central Highlands has an old drove road marked by cairns across the Monadhliath from Glen Markie to Whitebridge, at 3 miles up the glen it ascends NW to Loch na Larige 2,500 ft, passing NE of Geal Charn and descends by the east side of the Allt Chrom to Stronlarig Lodge then to Whitebridge, distance 22 miles. There was also a direct route up Glen Markie, over the pass to the headwaters of the Findhorn and so to Inverness.  This coffin road must have been used only in the dim & distant, when saints meant something and not for ordinary folk.

 The Mackenzies of Gairloch carried members of the chief's  family who died in the west over the hills to the east coast & their vault at Beauly Priory. This took over a hundred bearers, relays of the best men in the district, feeding and drink for the multitude at their overnight stops was organised from Conon House & repeated on the return journey. An expensive business.

 The route from Glen Shero Lodge to Aberarder is called "Mary Mariah's Road" this was improved by Sir John Ramsden as it connected his estates. A great walk.

Bests,
Skoosh.

 
 

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Re: Angus MacDonald and Margaret/Peggy MacDonald family, Stoneybridge, South Uist
« Reply #23 on: Sunday 13 December 20 22:01 GMT (UK) »
Forfarian, the SMC Guide for the Central Highlands has an old drove road marked by cairns across the Monadhliath from Glen Markie to Whitebridge, at 3 miles up the glen it ascends NW to Loch na Larige 2,500 ft, passing NE of Geal Charn and descends by the east side of the Allt Chrom to Stronlarig Lodge then to Whitebridge, distance 22 miles.
Yes, that's the one featured in the South Loch Ness web site.

It's also on the Heritage Paths network map http://www.heritagepaths.co.uk/pathdetails.php?path=327. At 22 km I might even consider walking it - but not until the days are a lot longer. Or maybe not - there's a steep climb of about 400 metres out of Glen Markie!

Quote
There was also a direct route up Glen Markie, over the pass to the headwaters of the Findhorn and so to Inverness.  This coffin road must have been used only in the dim & distant, when saints meant something and not for ordinary folk.
Just interesting that the old OS maps don't show either of these routes. They would need to be well marked with cairns because it would be pretty easy to get lost on the moors.

Quote
The Mackenzies of Gairloch carried members of the chief's  family who died in the west over the hills to the east coast & their vault at Beauly Priory. This took over a hundred bearers, relays of the best men in the district, feeding and drink for the multitude at their overnight stops was organised from Conon House & repeated on the return journey. An expensive business.
Not for your average crofter then! :)

Quote
The route from Glen Shero Lodge to Aberarder is called "Mary Mariah's Road" this was improved by Sir John Ramsden as it connected his estates. A great walk.
Is that the one that crosses the hill and comes down to what used to be the Lochlaggan Inn?

All very interesting stuff.
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Offline Skoosh

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Re: Angus MacDonald and Margaret/Peggy MacDonald family, Stoneybridge, South Uist
« Reply #24 on: Monday 14 December 20 13:00 GMT (UK) »
@ Forfarian, an old pic of Sinclairs Loch Laggan Inn,

https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/27863/loch-laggan-sinclairs-inn

The road from Laggan Bridge to Spean Bridge is a Telford one I believe, prior to which it was the hazardous Corrieyairack which often closed for three months in Winter.

 Until the Great War the inn was a halt for the last Scottish stagecoach which ran from the Duke of Gordon, Kingussie to the station at Tulloch. Better public transport then than now!

Skoosh.
 

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Re: Angus MacDonald and Margaret/Peggy MacDonald family, Stoneybridge, South Uist
« Reply #25 on: Monday 14 December 20 13:25 GMT (UK) »
Thank you, Skoosh. Very interesting.

I often used to drive that road when I lived in Fort William because it was the quickest route between there and my parents' home. In those days (early 1970s) there were a dozen or so rather unappealing wooden holiday chalets on the slope above the filling station at the inn.

Hadn't realised that there was ever a stagecoach between Kingussie and Tullich. Seems odd, given that Kingussie had a station, that it should have continued so long. (I remember the Duke of Gordon quite well - we used to call it the DoG. Never stayed there, but attended various functions, dances and meetings in it.)

I bet the Whitebridge to Glen Markie road, and the Glen Markie to River Findhorn road, were also impassable in most winters.
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Offline DonM

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Re: Angus MacDonald and Margaret/Peggy MacDonald family, Stoneybridge, South Uist
« Reply #26 on: Monday 14 December 20 16:50 GMT (UK) »
Best post I have had in a long time. Very educational and inspiring.  Great job!
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