The Immeasurable Wilds: Travellers to the Far North of Scotland

More Maps of Scotland

I have more maps of Scotland to share with you, which I shall do without using the slideshow facility on this page.

There are few more decorative maps of Scotland than the sea charts of the van Keulen family, who published maps between 1680 - 1823. The Dutch, of course, are great mariners and were regular visitors to Scottish waters seeking fish.

Paseaert van de Westkuft van Schotlant...

A chart that extends from the West Coast of the mainland as far out as St Kilda. By "Johannus van Keulen."

Detail from the above                                                                                                              Detail from the above

Paseaert van de westkuft van Schotlant..."

A even more decorative chart of the West Coast, with part of Northern Ireland. Again, by "Johannes van Keulen."

A third map by "Joannes van Keulen" shows the Orkney Islands. Note that the stack called The Old Man of Hoy is not marked, but that the survey of Murdoch Mackenzie is acknowledged in the title.

Nieuwe Generale Caart van de Orcades

Another splendidly ornate map is this one by Coronelli, published in 1690-1691 in his Atlante Veneto.  Coronelli was a Franciscan priest, but also famous as a mathematician as well as a cartographer and globe-maker.

Scitia Parte Settentrionale

Stockdale's map published in 1806 was complete Scotland the largest scale before the Ordnance Survey issued their maps. It was issued on 12 sheets. This is the sheet showing the North Coast.

Enlarged detail of the mainland on Stockdale's map, 1806, showing much of Sutherland and Caithness

The roads are marked with some accuracy.