The Immeasurable Wilds: Travellers to the Far North of Scotland

Geographia Scotiae: Kitchin's Early Pocket Atlas, Complete

Thomas Kitchin's Geographia Scotiae is a very early complete atlas of Scotland, the first pocket atlas. It was first published in 1749. The very first atlas of Scotland was, of course, the magnificent Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, Volume V, which was published by the Dutch mapmaker Ioannis Blaeu in 1654, though this did not cover the whole of the country. This was quickly followed by a similar atlas, the Nieuwen Atlas, Volume IV, which was issued in 1659, which added little to the known details of the country at that time. Herman Moll then compiled A Set of Thirty-Six New and Correct Maps of Scotland in 1725, with an updated edition released in 1745. The maps cover all of Scotland, but do not necessarily follow each of the county boundaries. Kitchin's atlas could, therefore, be said to be the first precise County Atlas of Scotland, and it is certainly the first pocket atlas.

I have a copy of this atlas, though it is a slightly later, 1756 edition. Kitchin has been able to incorporate some of the important improvements which had been portrayed on maps of this key period, such as that of the North Coast by Alexander Bryce (1744), and that of the whole of the country by James Dorret (1750). Where Moll's maps show the old-established confusion between Faro Head and Cape Wrath, Kitchin can offer a comparatively accurate depiction of the north coast. His maps also show the roads in each of the counties. Significantly, he marks no road on the mainland north of Inverness. He might have included the road that hugged the east coast up to Thurso, but those along the north and west coasts were indeed virtually non-existent at that time.

I looked in vain for a copy of this atlas online, so I am pleased to be able to exhibit my clean copy on this website, complete. Should you wish to see each map in greater detail, I think you can enlarge the page in the usual way using the zoom facility (three dots, top right on my PC).

Edinburgh-shire                                                                                                        Elgin & Nairn 

Fife & Kinross                                                                                                               Forfar

Haddington-shire                                                                                                        Inverness-shire

Kincardinshire                                                                                                            Kirkoudbrightshire

Kyle & Carrick, the South Part of Aire-shire                                                          Shires of Lanerk & Peebles

Linlithgowshire                                                                                                       Orkney

Perthshire                                                                                                                   Renfrewshire

Ross & Cromarty                                                                                                        Roxburg-shire 

Selkirk-shire                                                                                                               Sutherlandshire

Wigton-shire                                                                                                                          The Western Islands

Illay, Jura &c., part of Argile-shire                                                                             Mull, Coll, Tyrree &c.

Shetland                                                                                                                        Isle of Sky

These are the last maps in the atlas