Watten, Caithness : Historical writing

Descriptive gazetteer entries

These other entries in our collection of descriptive gazetteers are also about Watten. You may be able to find further references to Watten in the descriptive gazetteers by doing a full-text search here.

Place Type of entry Source
Watten parish and railway station Bartholomew
Watten a parish, containing a hamlet Groome

This additional information from our descriptive gazetteers is for locations within the parish or parishes associated with Watten.

Place Type of entry Source
Achavrea a hamlet Groome
Achavrea hamlet Bartholomew
Achay hamlet Bartholomew
Achay a hamlet Groome
Achingale hamlet Bartholomew
Achingale a hamlet Groome
Achmerrel a place Groome
Backlass a hill Groome
Backlass hill Bartholomew
Dunn a hamlet, with an inn Groome
Gersa school Bartholomew
Halsary district Bartholomew
Houstry village Bartholomew
Lanergill school Bartholomew

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 Watten 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 5

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 Historical Gazetteer
Dunn 1 2
Spittal 1 1
Killimster 1 2
Halsary 1 1
Bower 1 2
Altimarlach 1 2
Wester 1 1
Ackergill 2 2
Harpsdale 1 1
Westerdale 0 2
Braal 2 2
Rangag 1 1
Halkirk 5 2
Keiss 2 2
Dirlot 2 2
Wick 8 3
Pulteneytown 0 1
Thrumster 3 2
Skinnet 1 1
Hempriggs 2 2

Names from historical writing

The following appear as names for Watten. Follow the links for what the author actually said:

Name Author Source
WATTEN John Bartholomew Gazetteer of the British Isles (Edinburgh: Bartholomew, 1887).
F.H. Groome Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland (Edinburgh: T.C. Jack, 1882-4).

NB: These variant names come from our collections of historical travel writing and descriptive gazetteers:

  • The above links take you to the first reference to this particular version of the name within a book of travel writing, or to the relevant gazetteer entry.
  • Some names may derive from research by antiquarian writers such as William Camden and Thomas Pennant into the Roman, Saxon and medieval names of places. Their claims are not always supported by modern place-name researchers.
  • References by travel writers to the place using its "normal" name are not included. Descriptive gazetteer entries are included only if the name does not appear anywhere else.