Reay, Caithness : Historical writing

Descriptive gazetteer entries

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

Place Type of entry Source
Reay village Bartholomew

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

Place Type of entry Source
Acharainey a hamlet Groome
Ben Freiceadain hill with ancient fort Bartholomew
Ben Freiceadain a steep rocky hill Groome
Ben Ratha a hill Groome
Ben Ratha hill with curious cave Bartholomew
Borrowstoun a hamlet Groome
Borrowstown coastal hamlet Bartholomew
Cailam small loch Bartholomew
Crokach a loch Groome
Crokach loch Bartholomew
Dalhalvaig school Bartholomew
Dounreay hamlet Bartholomew
Forsinard railway station and inn Bartholomew
Halladale a river Groome
Halladale river Bartholomew
Helshetter place with mineral spring Bartholomew
Isauld hamlet Bartholomew
Melvich village with inn Bartholomew
Melvich a scattered village Groome
Portskerra (and Melvich) village Bartholomew
Sandside House seat Bartholomew
Shebster hamlet 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 Reay 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 3
Thomas Pennant August 18-29: Sutherland and Caithness 1

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
Sandside 2 1
Dounreay 1 1
Shebster 1 1
Melvich 0 2
Portskerra 0 1
Westfield 1 1
Brims 2 2
Halladale 2 2
Strathy 5 1
Shurrery 1 1
Dalhalvaig 1 1
Calder 0 2
Scrabster 3 1
Thurso 17 3
Thurso East 4 0
Skinnet 1 1
Armadale 0 1
Halkirk 5 2
Braal 2 2
Harpsdale 1 1

Names from historical writing

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

Name Author Source
REAY John Bartholomew Gazetteer of the British Isles (Edinburgh: Bartholomew, 1887).

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.