Place:Talisker, Inverness-shire, Scotland

Watchers
NameTalisker
TypeInhabited place
Coordinates57.283°N 6.45°W
Located inInverness-shire, Scotland     ( - 1975)
Also located inHighland Region, Scotland     (1975 - 1996)
Highland (council area), Scotland     (1996 - )
See alsoSkye, Inverness-shire, Scotlandisland on which it is situated
Bracadale, Inverness-shire, Scotlandparish in which it is located
source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names
the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

Talisker (Scottish Gaelic:Talasgair) is a settlement on the Minginish peninsula in the parish of Bracadale in the Isle of Skye. The Talisker whisky is produced in the neighbouring village of Carbost.

Contents

History

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Talisker was for centuries a possession of the Clan Macleod. For nearly two hundred years it was associated with a cadet branch of the chiefly line, founded by Sir Roderick Macleod, 1st of Talisker (1606-1675). Sir Roderick was the second son of Rory Mor Macleod (d.1626) and Isabel, daughter of Donald Macdonell, 8th of Glengarry. Along with his brother, Sir Norman Macleod of Bernera, he was knighted in 1661 for his services to the royalist cause. He married first a daughter of Lord Reay and secondly Mary, daughter of Lachlan Og Mackinnon of Mackinnon.

John Macleod, 2nd of Talisker, who died in about 1700 was the subject of an elegy, Cumha do Fhear Thalasgair (“Lament for the Laird of Talisker”), written by the blind harpist, Ruaidhri Dall MacMhurich.

Johnson and Boswell visited Talisker in 1773. Johnson’s Journey reveals him to have been impressed by his host, Talisker’s then tacksman, John Macleod, 4th of Talisker, but less so by the location itself:
...our next stage was to Talisker, the house of colonel Macleod, an officer in the Dutch service, who in this time of universal peace, has for several years been permitted to be absent from his regiment. Having been bred to physick, he is consequently a scholar, and his lady, by accompanying him in his different places of residence, is become skilful in several languages. Talisker is the place beyond all that I have seen, from which the gay and the jovial seem utterly excluded; and where the hermit might expect to grow old in meditation, without possibility of disturbance or interruption. It is situated very near the sea, but upon a coast where no vessel lands but when it is driven by a tempest on the rocks. Towards the land are lofty hills streaming with waterfalls. The garden is sheltered by firs, or pines, which grow there so prosperously, that some, which the present inhabitant planted, are very high and thick.

Boswell’s own Journal confirms Johnson’s description in its physical essentials, but concludes more charitably that “Talisker is a better place than one commonly finds in Sky”.

In 1820 Donald Macleod, 6th of Talisker, a major in the 56th Regiment, sold his interest in Talisker and emigrated to Van Diemen’s Land (financed by his father-in-law, Alexander Maclean of Coll). He travelled with 36 Highlanders of his connection and secured a grant of .

In 1825, Hugh MacAskill took over the Talisker estate and completed the clearance process begun under his predecessor. Five years later, he founded the Talisker distillery, which is in fact located some away from Talisker at Carbost, Loch Harport. MacAskill gave up his lease of the Talisker lands in 1849.


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:

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.
This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original content was at Talisker, Skye. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with WeRelate, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.