Gaelic speaking parishes c. 1790

The adjacent map shows the information provided by reports from parish ministers contributing to 'The Statistical Account of Scotland'.  Areas where Gaelic was still spoken are in the extreme south-west of the county, a mountainous area (Cairngorms) with the population restricted to the valleys.  The map includes Kirkmichael parish which, at that time, was in Banffshire.  For Mortlach parish, also  in Banffshire, the mininister says "there is hardly a word of Erse now spoken.  If anywhere, it is in Glen Rinnes". 

There is a zone of parishes apparently one parish removed from the Gaelic speaking area. In these, the parish minister specifically commented either that no Gaelic was spoken or that the language was English or Scots. There seems to be a buffer zone between these parishes and the Gaelic parishes to the south west where there  was no reference made to language. Perhaps, there was still a small number of Gaelic speakers there.

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Details of the reports by local ministers are to be found in Appendix 1