Notes have vanished

I have just removed my @mac.com account in Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars.

I didn't realise but my notes must have been created and saved on my mac.com account as they have now disappeared.

I've tried to switch on notes sync in my icould account settings (signed into using my @mac.com ID) but it asked me to create an icloud.com email address. I already have one of those so I tried to set up a new account using @icould.com as an ID. This enabled me to sync notes, but this hasn't reinstated the old notes.

Any help gratefully received.