Dumbarton, Dunbartonshire : Historical writing

Descriptive gazetteer entries

These other entries in our collection of descriptive gazetteers are also about Dumbarton. You may be able to find further references to Dumbarton in the descriptive gazetteers by doing a full-text search here.

Place Type of entry Source
Dumbarton capital of county, parliamentary and royal burgh, parish, market town, and seaport Bartholomew
Dumbarton a town and parish Groome

This additional information from our descriptive gazetteers is for locations within the parish or parishes associated with Dumbarton.

Place Type of entry Source
Achenreoch a moorland tract Groome
Murroch Burn a rivulet Groome

Travel writing

This website includes the complete texts of books describing journeys around Britain, written between the twelfth and nineteenth centuries. Selecting one of the links below will take you to the first reference to Dumbarton within the selected text. This will not always be a description of a visit: travellers often mention places other than where they are, for example as a basis for comparison.

Traveller Section No. of Refs.
Thomas Pennant September 5-17: Inveraray to Edinburgh 8
Daniel Defoe Letter 12, Part 2: Glasgow and central Scotland 5
William Camden Scotland: South of the Antonine Wall 4
Daniel Defoe Letter 13, Part 2: Dundee, Aberdeen and the Highlands 3
James Boswell October 27th to November 7th, 1773: Through Glasgow to Ayrshire 1
William Camden Scotland: North of the Antonine Wall 1
Thomas Pennant July 24-31: Fife and Perthshire 1
Thomas Pennant Appendix VII: Of the Massacre of the Colquhouns 1
Thomas Pennant Appendix VIII: Itinerary 1

This website includes two large libraries, of historical travel writing and of entries from nineteenth century gazetteers describing places. We have text from these sources available for these places near your location:

Place Mentioned in Travel Writing Mentioned in Historical Gazetteer
Dumbuck 0 1
Vale of Leven 6 2
Langbank 0 2
Renton 0 2
Bonhill 1 2
Erskine 0 2
Dunglass 1 2
Alexandria 0 2
Bowling 0 2
Bishopton 0 2
Cardross 0 2
Jamestown 0 2
Balloch 0 3
Newark 0 2
Kilmacolm 0 2
Old Kilpatrick 2 2
Port Glasgow 7 4
Houston 0 4
Dalmuir 0 2
Bridge of Weir 0 3

Names from historical writing

The following appear as names for Dumbarton. Follow the links for what the author actually said:

Name Author Source
ALCLUID Thomas Pennant A Tour in Scotland 1769 (London: Benjamin White, 1776).
AL CLUYD William Camden Britain, or, a Chorographicall Description of the most flourishing Kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland (London: George Bishop and John Norton, 1610).
ARCLUID Thomas Pennant A Tour in Scotland 1769 (London: Benjamin White, 1776).
AR CLUYD William Camden Britain, or, a Chorographicall Description of the most flourishing Kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland (London: George Bishop and John Norton, 1610).
DUMBARTON John Bartholomew Gazetteer of the British Isles (Edinburgh: Bartholomew, 1887).
F.H. Groome Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland (Edinburgh: T.C. Jack, 1882-4).
DUNBARTON James Boswell The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson, LL.D. (Oxford, Mississippi, 2004).
William Camden Britain, or, a Chorographicall Description of the most flourishing Kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland (London: George Bishop and John Norton, 1610).
Daniel Defoe A tour thro' the whole island of Great Britain, divided into circuits or journies (London: JM Dent and Co, 1927).
Thomas Pennant A Tour in Scotland 1769 (London: Benjamin White, 1776).
DUNBRITON Daniel Defoe A tour thro' the whole island of Great Britain, divided into circuits or journies (London: JM Dent and Co, 1927).
DUN BRITTON Thomas Pennant A Tour in Scotland 1769 (London: Benjamin White, 1776).
DUNBRITTON William Camden Britain, or, a Chorographicall Description of the most flourishing Kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland (London: George Bishop and John Norton, 1610).

NB: These variant names come from our collections of historical travel writing and descriptive gazetteers:

  • The above links take you to the first reference to this particular version of the name within a book of travel writing, or to the relevant gazetteer entry.
  • Some names may derive from research by antiquarian writers such as William Camden and Thomas Pennant into the Roman, Saxon and medieval names of places. Their claims are not always supported by modern place-name researchers.
  • References by travel writers to the place using its "normal" name are not included. Descriptive gazetteer entries are included only if the name does not appear anywhere else.