Timothy Pont's Maps of Scotland

[Inchlaggan]

The gentleman came up in conversation yesterday (at "second can of beer" time, so it was a fairly informed talk).
For those of you who have not come across this fascinating aspect of Scottish history, this is a good place to start-

http://maps.nls.uk/pont/view/?id=pont05#id=pont05&zoom=4&lat=4768.82433&lon=1690&layers=BT

[Fishtales]

They take a bit of reading though. There are features that aren't fully rubbed out in some of them where the feature has been moved so that you get two instances of the same thing. The one of my area has the same loch in three different locations which makes it look as if there are three lochs Unless you know it can be confusing 

[Inchlaggan]

They take a bit of reading though.

Yes, if you really want to get into them you need "The Nation Survey'd" Edited by Ian Cunningham which decodes many of the symbols.

[Fishtales]

When I first found them years ago it took me weeks to figure out that the two lochs sitting side by side, where there are actually two lochs, was the same loch which he had rubbed out and redrawn but hadn't drawn in the second loch It also took a while to figure out that it is drawn in a linear fashion and the features weren't always positioned where they should be but they were in a relative position to each other, if that makes sense I have a screen shot of it somewhere if I can find it I will post it.

[Inchlaggan]

Yes, for example-he puts the headwaters of Glen Garry at the top of the page and follows the sequence Quoich, Garry, Oich and Ness in a straight line down the page.

[Bobfly]

The local detail sketching on these maps was used to give the most significant part of the scheduling for the areas which have now become designated as Ancient and Semi-Natural woodlands. He recorded these sorts of details very well and timber was then an important resource. Subsequent maps indicate what of that 1700s forest cover remains .... not a lot !