Old Map of Kintyre by Joan Blaeu, 1654

Joan Blaeu’s Seventeenth-Century Map of Kintyre

Published in Amsterdam in 1654, Cantyra Chersonesus, Cantyr a Demie-yland formed part of Joan Blaeu’s celebrated Atlas of Scotland. The map was based on the work of Timothy Pont, whose late-sixteenth-century surveys provided the geographical foundation for many of Blaeu’s Scottish maps. Pont is credited directly on surviving examples, while the 1654 printed edition was issued by Joan Blaeu.

Map Details

Original title: Cantyra Chersonesus, Cantyr a Demie-yland

Original cartographer / surveyor: Timothy Pont

Publisher: Joan Blaeu

Published: Amsterdam, 1654

Area shown: The Kintyre peninsula and the Isle of Gigha in western Scotland

Orientation: North is to the right

Principal features: Coastline, lochs, rivers, settlements, castles and the Isle of Gigha

Decoration: Ornamental title and scale cartouches with putti; armillary-sphere detail

Source atlas: Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, sive Atlas Novus — Atlas of Scotland, 1654

Product type: Reproduction of a seventeenth-century copper-engraved map

The unusual title immediately tells us something about the geography being represented. Chersonesus is a classical term for a peninsula, while the accompanying English description, “Cantyr a Demie-yland,” expresses much the same idea: Kintyre is almost an island, joined to mainland Argyll by the narrow neck of land at Tarbert.

The map is oriented with north towards the right, rather than at the top as on a modern map. This allowed the long shape of Kintyre to occupy the sheet efficiently and at a useful scale. Once the orientation is understood, the peninsula’s distinctive outline becomes readily recognisable. The Isle of Gigha lies prominently offshore, while the surrounding seas occupy a substantial part of the composition. Specialist catalogues confirm both the north-right orientation and Blaeu’s inclusion of detailed rivers, villages and castles.

Kintyre was an especially appropriate subject for the maritime style of seventeenth-century cartography. Extending southwards between the Atlantic and the Firth of Clyde and lying comparatively close to the coast of Ireland, the peninsula has always been shaped by the sea. Before modern roads transformed travel, coastal routes linked its communities with neighbouring islands, mainland Scotland and Ireland.

Pont’s achievement in recording such a landscape was considerable. Working decades before systematic national surveying, he travelled through Scotland recording settlements, waterways, castles and the physical form of the countryside. His manuscript material was subsequently gathered and prepared for publication, ultimately becoming the foundation of many maps in Blaeu’s Scottish atlas.

The printed Kintyre sheet preserves that survey information while transforming it into a distinctly Blaeu work of art. Mountains are shown pictorially rather than by contours, rivers wind across the peninsula, and small engraved symbols identify settlements and strongholds. Tarbert Castle, for example, appears in Blaeu’s representation of Kintyre and is independently noted in modern archaeological research discussing the site’s historical cartography.

The decorative treatment is equally characteristic. The title is enclosed within an elaborate cartouche attended by putti, while the scale cartouche is similarly embellished and topped by an armillary sphere. These elements were not merely ornamental additions: they placed the practical geography within the sophisticated visual language expected of one of Europe’s leading seventeenth-century atlas publishers.

Kintyre’s place-names are another particularly engaging aspect of the map. Seventeenth-century spellings frequently differ from their modern equivalents, reflecting the process through which local Gaelic names were heard, recorded in manuscript and eventually transferred onto an engraved plate in Amsterdam. Such forms provide a glimpse of the cultural as well as geographical landscape encountered by early Scottish surveyors.

The map also belongs to a landmark moment in Scottish cartography. Joan Blaeu’s 1654 Atlas of Scotland was the first printed atlas to provide such extensive regional mapping of the country. The National Library of Scotland catalogues Cantyra chersonesus, Cantyr a demie-yland among the Pont-derived maps incorporated into this project.

Later editions of the same plate also appeared in Blaeu’s publications, which is why surviving examples can carry dates after 1654. A 1665 example, for instance, is catalogued with Timothy Pont as creator and Joan Blaeu as publisher. The important distinction for this product is that the first Atlas of Scotland issue dates from 1654.

Today the map gives us an exceptional view of Kintyre before modern roads, large-scale surveying and later development altered the way the peninsula was represented. Its unusual orientation, historic place-names, depiction of Gigha and intricate engraved detail make it both an important cartographic record and one of the most attractive regional maps in Blaeu’s Scottish atlas.

For anyone with a connection to Kintyre, Gigha or western Argyll, it provides a direct visual link with a landscape recorded more than four centuries ago.

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