Kildonan, Sutherland, Scotland Genealogy

Kildonan # 52

History
Kildonan is derived from Kil, a cell, and Durun or Donan, is distinguished as Saint Donan. The name Kildonan was spelt Keldurunach, in a charter of Gilbert Murray, who was Bishop of Caithness between the years 1222 and 1245; and in the seventeenth century, it was written Kildonnand. This parish is altogether inland, and on the east it is bounded by part of the county of Caithness. The north boundary of the parish of Loth intervenes between Kildonan as its southern boundary.

Helmsdale is the nearest town, a distance of two miles from the south boundary, and nine miles from the manse and church.

In the sixteenth century, the chiefs and a great body of the clan Gun settled in this parish, and until lately, has been their chief place of residence. The clan Gun have at all times been considered throughout the North Highlands as descended from the Norwegian Kings of Man; and Lochlin, the Gaelic name for ancient Scandinavia.

His Grace the Duke of Sutherland is proprietor of the whole parish, which has been part of the ancient Eardom of Sutherland from the earliest time to which the national records go back.

The population in 1801 was 1440, and by the 1831 census it has decreased to 257 people. This decrease is accounted for by the change that occurred in the rural economy of the parish, by the substitution of Cheviot sheep for Highland cattle, between the years 1811 and 1821. Almost all the of the whole parish is occupied as sheep farms.

The patronage of the parish has, since the Reformation, been vested in the Sutherland family. All of the inhabitants of the parish belong to the Church of Scotland.

No mention if made of any church records having been kept.

This account was written February 1840.

Source: New Statistical Account of Scotland, FHL book 941 B4sa, series 2, vol. 15.

Condition of Original Registers—
Index: For an index to these records, see the Scottish Church Records Index available on computers at the Family History Library and family history centers. The records may be indexed in the International Genealogical Index. Births: There is a separate record from 1801 of children baptized in the Heights of Kildonan and there are irregular entries on two pages at end of record. Source: Key to the Parochial Registers of Scotland, by V. Ben Bloxham, pub. 1970. British Book 941 K23b.

Established Church—Kirk Session Records
Minutes 1851–1911 Note: Available at the National Archives of Scotland, Edinburgh, record CH2/804.

Nonconformist Church Records
No known nonconformist groups. See Loth parish.