Canisbay, Caithness : Historical writing

Descriptive gazetteer entries

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

Place Type of entry Source
Canisbay coastal parish Bartholomew
Canisbay a parish Groome

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

Place Type of entry Source
Auchingill coastal village Bartholomew
Barrogill Castle seat Bartholomew
Barrogill Castle a mansion Groome
Bucholie a ruined castle Groome
Bucholie ruined castle Bartholomew
Duncansbay Head a promontory Groome
Freswick village with half-yearly fairs Bartholomew
Gills village Bartholomew
Houna or Huna a hamlet Groome
John o' Groat's House a quondam octagonal domicile Groome
Men of Mey dangerous reefs Bartholomew
Mey a hamlet Groome
Mey hamlet Bartholomew
Stroma island 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 Canisbay 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 2
Thomas Pennant August 18-29: Sutherland and Caithness 1
Thomas Pennant Appendix VIII: Itinerary 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
Gills 0 2
Huna 1 1
John O Groats 1 2
Stroma 4 1
Mey 2 2
Freswick 6 1
Duncansby 15 2
Bucholly 3 2
Rattar 1 2
Pentland Firth 3 2
Keiss 2 2
Dunnet 3 2
Wester 1 1
Swona 1 2
Skerries 1 2
Bower 1 2
Killimster 1 2
Castletown 0 2
Olrig 1 2
Ackergill 2 2

Names from historical writing

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

Name Author Source
CANESBY Thomas Pennant A Tour in Scotland 1769 (London: Benjamin White, 1776).
CANISBAY John Bartholomew Gazetteer of the British Isles (Edinburgh: Bartholomew, 1887).
F.H. Groome Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland (Edinburgh: T.C. Jack, 1882-4).
CANNESBEY Thomas Pennant A Tour in Scotland 1769 (London: Benjamin White, 1776).
CANNESBY Thomas Pennant A Tour in Scotland 1769 (London: Benjamin White, 1776).

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.