Alexander Nimmo's Inverness Survey and Journal, 1806

by Wilkins, Noel P.

• ISBN13: 9781904890744
• ISBN10: 1904890741
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-06-25
• Publisher: Royal Irish Academy

Summary

Alexander Nimmo was Rector of Inverness Academy in 1806 when Scotland's Commission for Highland Roads and Bridges employed him to survey the boundary of Inverness-shire with the adjacent counties. During his survey, Nimmo kept a MS journal (c.17K words) of his 'perambulation.' This journal is a valuable and interesting first-hand account of aspects of the shire and the Highlands at a most important time in its history. Additionally, it is a seminal document in Nimmo's personal transformation from schoolmaster to engineer. Nimmo later resigned his Rector's position in 1811 and took up a post as an engineer with the Commission for the Bogs of Ireland, and he went on to complete amazingly comprehensive and unsurpassed surveys, maps, and reports on the Iveragh peninsula of County Kerry and Connemara in County Galway. This book presents a transcription of the Inverness journal along with an introduction and commentaries, and includes a map showing the territory covered by Nimmo during his 'perambulation.' The commentaries place the man and his survey in the context of: his career as a schoolmaster, the historical events of the time in Scotland and Ireland, the map-making of the region during the period, and Nimmo's subsequent engineering career in Ireland and Britain. It is the first time that Nimmo's journal has been published.