Locating "Ardtraigh" Union Road, Fort William

[johnxyz]

Some of you may have seen via the BBC website the existence of a crowd-sourced project to digitise old UK rainfall records. The bulk of the project ( entering something around 5,000,000 indivifdual data points) was done in a remarkable 3 weeks but work is still being done on locations.

One such, that I am chasing, is for a Colin LIvingston of Fort William. He is widely referenced as living at Ardtraigh and I have traced that as a house on Union Street, from the 1905 Scottish Valuation role. However the name does not seem to appear on any maps, so we wonder if the house was renamed or demolished.  He was the headteacher of the local school, I know that in the 1880s he was living at School House and that that adress is close to the observatory and hence the school. It is though specifically Ardtraigh that is of interest here.

Whilst the location we have is probably enough, it would be good to tie it down.Can anyone cast any light, possibly from the sequence of addresses in the 1901 or 1911 census?

For ease of reference

 https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/side-by-side/#zoom=18&lat=56.81397&lon=-5.11660&layers=170&right=BingHyb

shows the house names somewhat later.

[dowdstree]

I had a few credits to spare for Scotlands People -

1911 Census - Colin Livingston - Age 82 - Retired Schoolmaster - Ardtraigh Union Road Fort William.

Valuation Roll for 1920 - Colin Livingston still listed.
Valuation Roll for 1925 - No house named Ardtraigh listed so can assume that Colin Livingston is now deceased.
Valuation Roll for 1930 - Some Owners as listed in 1925 Valuation Roll still there.

Strangely by the time of the 1935 and 1940 Valuation Rolls no sign of any of the owners or house names in Union Road but the land appears to be owned by Colonel Sir Donald Cameron of Lochiel.

The Highland Park Hotel is still there though.

Hope this helps,

Dorrie

[Forfarian]

Colin Livingston, aged 88, single, retired schoolmaster, died on 9 January 1917 at Ardtraigh, Fort William.

Union Road first appears in the VRs in 1904, but it is on  the second edition of the six-inch Ordnance Survey map which was surveyed in 1899 and published in 1904.

Many of the houses on Union Road are named on the detailed map surveyed in 1963 https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=18&lat=56.81451&lon=-5.11424&layers=170&b=1 but not Ardtraigh.

[Scottish Janealogy]

Trawling the 1901 census. Ardtraigh is schedule 115 in RD 520 (Kilmallie), enumeration district 3. Schedules found so far:
109 - Glendissary House
110 - no name
111 - no name
114 - Maryfield House (could this really be Mayfield??)
116 - Glenan House
117 - Glenan House
118- Ardlair House
120 - Ardllan House (probably Ardlair too - Ancestry transcription)
121- Station Hotel.

NB One house could have more than one household, hence duplicate names.

[Scottish Janealogy]

112 - no name
113 - Maryfield House
122 - Brasside Villa, Fassifern Road (probably Braeside)

111 and 112 could both be Maryfield House too - I suspect several schedules at the same address but Ancestry is unclear.

Initial thought: did Ardtraigh become Clashfern? (adjoins Glenan) and Ardlair (really Ardblair) very close too. Station Hotel breaks the sequence somewhat.
Update: FindMyPast confirms Maryfield is Mayfield and Ardlair is Ardblair.

[johnxyz]

This is extremely helpful, thankyou. Looking at the map, the list skips past Avondale which appears from Google streeview to be on Cameron Rd, and the Station Hotel entrance is drawn in the same small turning off Union Rd as  Clashfern and Glennan. So it looks like a logical sequence since it would actually be encountered after turning towards Clashfern, Glenan etc. It all implies Ardtraigh is Clashfern. 

[abrach1]

The house is still in Union Road and was renamed. I think it is Avondale