Place:Creich, Sutherland, Scotland

source: Family History Library Catalog

The Village

the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

Creich (Scottish Gaelic: Craoich), usually known as Little Creich, is located near Bonar Bridge now in the Highland Council Area, and until 1975 in Sutherland in Scotland.

There is a church (now in ruins) and graveyard for the Parish of Creich. Creich Mains farm is located here. Beside the old (walled) graveyard in a field there is a standing stone engraved with a faint Celtic-style Christian cross. This is associated with a battle between locals and Norsemen/Vikings.

There is a rocky hill forming a peninsula into the Kyle of Sutherland called the Dun Creich, which has the ruins of a vitrified fort on its summit.

The Parish

Creich is a parish in which most of the settlements lie on the north side of the Dornoch Firth and up the River Cassley which feeds into it. It is located in the Highland Council Area, some 7 miles (11 km) west of Lairg and 22 miles (36 km) east of Ullapool.

Prior to 1975 the parish was located in the old county of Sutherland, which was replaced by the Highland Region and in 1996 by the unitary authority named the Highland Council Area.

The parish has an area of 443.3 sq. km (171.1 sq. miles). It includes the settlements of Bonar Bridge, Oykel Bridge, and the even smaller settlements of Achinduich, Altass, Balblair, Brae, Duchally, Invershin, Linsidemore, Little Creich, Migdale, Ochtow, Pulrossie, Rosehall, Spinningdale and Whiteface.

Notes for the Highland Council Area and the Western Isles Council Area

The local archives are held by The Highland Archive Service which is based in Inverness with branches in Stornoway, Fort William and Caithness. It is "responsible for locating, preserving and making accessible archives relating to all aspects of the history of the geographical area of the Highlands."

Family history societies and historical associations covering the Highland Council Area and the Western Isles Council Area are:

• The Highland Family History Society based in Inverness.
• Lochaber and North Argyll Family History Group based in Fort William.

These associations publish their aims on their websites as well as a list of publications. In many cases the publications are also available through the Scottish Genealogy Society (see below).

• The FreeCen Project--Scotland has a searchable (not browsable) transcription for each of the counties in the area. Nairnshire and Caithness have the 1841, 1851, 1861 and 1871 complete. Inverness-shire and Ross and Cromarty have 1841 complete with some work on 1851 and Sutherland has not completed 1841.

Transcriptions of Gravestone Inscriptions

• The Scottish Genealogy Society provides a series of monumental inscriptions either in print in booklet form or on CD for each of the counties in the area (Caithness, Inverness-shire, Nairnshire, Ross and Cromarty, and Sutherland). Some of the booklets cover only one graveyard, others cover a group. Prices vary. In many cases the coverage is of pre-1855 stones only--this is because gravestone inscriptions are often used by family historians as death registration equivalents in the era of the Old Parish Registers (when deaths were not universally recorded).
• The Fearn Peninsula Graveyards Project has a paid website which allows browsing in ten graveyards in Easter Ross. They charge £2.50 for 24 hours of usage with unlimited searches.
• An index of monumental inscriptions from Caithness compiled by D J Ryrie might prove to be a useful start for searching gravestones in that county. GENUKI states "All (?) of the monumental inscriptions (MIs) in Caithness have been collected and are in print currently from Books From Scotland amongst other places." The Scottish Genealogy Society also has a list of their holdings.
• Sutherland cemeteries are covered in Pre-1855 tombstone inscriptions in Sutherland burial grounds by A S Cowper & I Ross, published at Edinburgh in 1989 by the Scottish Genealogy Society.
• There are no specific notes for gravestone transcriptions for either Inverness-shire or Nairnshire in GENUKI. However, the Scottish Genealogy Society lists booklets for both counties.

Sources for Emigration Records

• Hebrides People have a database containing lists of people who emigrated to North America from a number of parishes in the Western Isles.