A monthly blog sharing extracts from the diaries of Dàibhidh MacLeòid, great-grand-uncle of Dòrlach convenor Àdhamh MacLeòid Ó Broin, spanning the period 1874-1892 in the Parish of Latheron, Caithness. Beginning on the 148th anniversary of the writing of the diaries, the blog also contains supplementary information on genealogy, local history and the Gaelic dialect of Latheron Parish and surrounding area.
Latha math dhuibh, a chàrdan. This month, David continues his young working life in Edinburgh, taking his usual long rambles on foot and visiting friends and relatives whenever he has time off. It is a life that appears at points…
Latha math dhuibh, a chàrdan. It is March 1876 and David continues both his working and social lives in the centre of Victorian Edinburgh. Alexander Graham Bell patents the telephone and General Crook burns a Cheyenne village in the continued…
Latha math dhuibh, a chàrdan. In this month’s blog covering the month of February 1876, life continues on for David in the big smoke as he endeavours to make a living in Victorian Edinburgh working at J.B. Low the grocer’s…
Latha math dhuibh, a chàrdan. A very good New Year to you all and thank you for reading thus far. It’s now time to begin sharing the diary entries themselves, which range from the absolutely mundane to the completely fascinating.…
Latha math dhuibh, a chàrdan. Our next blog features David’s description of his early life and schooling, unfortunately focussing on the latter in a strictly documentarian fashion with nothing of a personal or cultural nature included. This in some ways…
Latha math dhuibh, a chàrdan. Time now to look at the short section of David MacLeod’s diaries which deal with his namesake and uncle David Sutherland and also at how David himself came to be named after him. David is…
Latha math dhuibh, a chàrdan. Time now to have a look at David MacLeod’s own family; his parents and siblings. The family inhabited Bàrd an Tuath (perhaps meaning “enclosure of the farm” – Eng. Bardintua) croft before taking on the…
Latha math dhuibh, a chàrdan. Before David’s first diary begins, we look again at the account he gives of his ancestry, this time at his mother’s people. David’s paternal line comes originally from mostly outside of Latheron Parish, either from…
Latha math dhuibh, a chàrdan. Before David’s first diary begins, we look at the account he gives of his ancestry. Despite this being written in English, there is a regard for tradition evident in David’s intentional listing of his forefathers.…
Thank you, in the first instance, for reading. I am writing what will be a very personal exposé on the nature of both what I received in the way of cultural inheritance and also what I didn’t, to illustrate before…
Fàilte chridheil, chàirdeil oirbh. It is my intention in beginning this new blog to expand on the current understanding of the ancestral Gaelic culture of south-western Caithness, namely Latheron Parish, by sharing monthly excerpts of my great-grand-uncle David MacLeod’s diaries,…