page_title: Knapdale
section_title: Early Scottish Knapdale
hierarchical_section_title: Knapdale / History / Early Scottish Knapdale
caption_attribution_description: Zoom into this map at maps.bpl.org. Author: Greene, Robert Publisher: Greene, Robert Date: 1689 Location: Scotland Dimensions: 46 x 52 cm. Scale: [ca. 1:847,500] Call Number: G1015 .C651 1630
context_page_description: Knapdale forms a rural district of Argyll and Bute in the Scottish Highlands, adjoining Kintyre to the south, and divided from the rest of Argyll to the north by the Crinan Canal. It includes two parishes, North Knapdale and South Knapdale. The area is bounded by sea to the east and west, whilst the sea loch of West Loch Tarbert almost completely cuts off the area from Kintyre to the south. The name is derived from two Gaelic elements: Cnap meaning hill and Dall meaning field.
  Knapdale gives its name to the Knapdale National Scenic Area, one of the forty national scenic areas in Scotland, which are defined so as to identify areas of exceptional scenery and to ensure its protection from inappropriate development. The designated area covers 32,832 ha in total, of which 20,821 ha is on land, with a further 12,011 ha being marine.
context_section_description: By the 13th century, Somerled's descendants had formed into three main families: the MacDougalls, MacRorys and the MacDonalds. At the end of the century, a dispute arose over the Scottish kingship between John Balliol and Robert de Bruys; the MacSweens backed John, hoping to recover Knapdale, the MacDougalls also took John's side, while the MacDonalds and MacRory backed de Bruys. When de Bruys defeated John, he declared the MacDougall lands forfeit, and gave them to the MacDonalds; the MacSweens largely became gallowglass mercenaries in Ireland. De Bruys awarded landlordship of the MacSween's former Knapdale lands to Walter's descendants.
  The head of the MacDonald family married the heir of the MacRory family, thereby acquiring the remaining share Somerled's realm, and transforming it into the Lordship of the Isles, which lasted for over a century. After 4 years and 3 children, he divorced Amy, and married Margaret, the daughter of Robert II, the Scottish king, who gave him Knapdale as a dowry.
  In 1462, however, John, the then Lord of the Isles, plotted with the English king to conquer Scotland; civil war in England delayed the discovery of this for a decade. Upon the discovery, in 1475, there was a call for forfeiture, but a year John calmed the matter, by quitclaiming Ross (Easter, Wester, and Skye), Kintyre, and Knapdale, to Scotland.
  As a comital province (medieval Latin:provincia), Knapdale was extended to include the adjacent lands between Loch Awe and Loch Fyne, which had been under MacSween lordship. In shrieval terms, Knapdale was initially served by the Sheriff of Perth; 5 years later, however, it was transferred to Tarbertshire. Gradually, when the Campbells to the east and north grew more powerful, the centre of power shifted towards them, and the sheriff court moved to Inveraray at the extreme northeast of the then Knapdale. Somewhat inevitably, in 1633, shrieval authority was annexed by the sheriff of Argyll.
  When the comital powers were abolished by the Heritable Jurisdictions Act, provincial Knapdale ceased to exist, and the term came to exclusively refer to the present district, south of Lochgilphead. In 1899, counties were formally created, on shrieval boundaries, by a Scottish Local Government Act; the district of Knapdale - together with the rest of the former province - therefore became part of the County of Argyll.
caption: A 1689 map of mainland provinces (and individual islands), showing the wider province of Knapdale (in yellow); the north western border runs between Ormaig (adjacent to at the northern tip of Eilean Rìgh) and Anagra
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