Fort William, Inverness Shire : Historical writing

Descriptive gazetteer entries

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

Place Type of entry Source
Fort William small town (police burgh) Bartholomew
Maryburgh former name of Bartholomew
William, Fort a small town Groome

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 Fort William 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 August 30-September 5: The Great Glen and Argyll 8
Daniel Defoe Letter 13, Part 2: Dundee, Aberdeen and the Highlands 2
Daniel Defoe Letter 12, Part 2: Glasgow and central Scotland 1
Daniel Defoe Letter 13, Part 1: Fife and Perth 1
George Head Up the West Highland Coast 1
George Head The Caledonian Canal 1
Thomas Pennant Appendix VI: The Life of Sir Ewen Cameron of Lochiel 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
Auchintore 1 0
Inverlochy 14 2
Corpach 0 2
Banavie 0 2
Kilmallie 0 2
Ben Nevis 2 2
Achdaliew 2 0
Eil 3 2
Lochaber 17 2
Highbridge 2 1
Loch Leven 1 2
Corran 0 2
Kinlochleven 7 2
Onich 0 2
Spean Bridge 0 1
Ballachulish 0 3
Lochy 7 2
Achnacarry 1 2
Glencoe 5 2
Arkaig 1 4

Names from historical writing

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

Name Author Source
FITZWILLIAM George Head A Home Tour through various parts of the United Kingdom (London: John Murray, 1837).
FORT <EM>WILLIAM Thomas Pennant A Tour in Scotland 1769 (London: Benjamin White, 1776).
FORT FITZWILLIAM George Head A Home Tour through various parts of the United Kingdom (London: John Murray, 1837).
FORT WILLIAM John Bartholomew Gazetteer of the British Isles (Edinburgh: Bartholomew, 1887).
GORDONSBURGH John Bartholomew Gazetteer of the British Isles (Edinburgh: Bartholomew, 1887).
INNER LOCHY Daniel Defoe A tour thro' the whole island of Great Britain, divided into circuits or journies (London: JM Dent and Co, 1927).
INNERLOCHY Daniel Defoe A tour thro' the whole island of Great Britain, divided into circuits or journies (London: JM Dent and Co, 1927).
MARYBOROUGH Thomas Pennant A Tour in Scotland 1769 (London: Benjamin White, 1776).
MARYBURGH John Bartholomew Gazetteer of the British Isles (Edinburgh: Bartholomew, 1887).
John Bartholomew Gazetteer of the British Isles (Edinburgh: Bartholomew, 1887).
THIS FORT THE LATE KING WILLIAM Daniel Defoe A tour thro' the whole island of Great Britain, divided into circuits or journies (London: JM Dent and Co, 1927).
WILLIAM FORT 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.