AYR Ayrshire
(from SPNS Newsletter 22, Spring 2007)
Mapping a pair of Ayrshire twins
During a recent work trip in Ayrshire, on a country road some
9km
ESE of central Ayr and 2½km WSW of Drongan, the names of two
adjacent farms demanded attention. They were Sandhill, at National Grid
reference NS412175, and Bargenoch, at NS415714. These farms, on a small
ridge between burns about 1km east of Martnaham Loch, are in an area
with a wonderful linguistic mix of place-names. Besides the
mass-produced Burnside, Hillhead and Mossend there are the hand-crafted
Chipper-lagan, Cloquhairnan and Millmannoch. As well as the predominant
Scots and the ubiquitous Gaelic, a Cumbric presence declares itself in
the large village of Ochiltree, 9km ENE of the twins. Somewhat more
distant place-names like Prestwick and Maybole recall the period of
Northumbrian overlordship.
Genoch is a name that occurs just inland from the Heads of Ayr and
again at the head of Luce Bay in Galloway, where Genoch Mains is beside
the vast expanse of sand of the Torrs Warren. It is a reasonable
supposition that it records a south-western pronunciation of Gaelic
gainmheach (fem.), ‘fine sand’. Hence the pairing
of
Sandhill and a name which appears to mean the same in Gaelic (with
bàrr, ‘top’, extremely common in names
of places on
hills in the South West, as the generic), is so striking. Maps
available online through the National Library of Scotland are the most
accessible way of checking whether the pairing may have coexisted for
centuries. (Thanks to NLS for making the following maps freely
available.)
From Johan Blaeu: Coila Provincia 1654
Unfortunately there is no surviving Timothy Pont manuscript map of the
area. The first published map of the area is Johan Blaeu’s
mid
17th century map based on Pont’s. This has Bargannoch
where we should expect it. It also has a San,
between Bargannoch and Martnaham Loch. But does this represent a
simplex Sand,
with <d> assimilated to <n>? Or was it a
case of a longer
name of which only the first three letters were readable on a worn
manuscript?
Andrew Armstrong’s New Map of Ayrshire (1775) has Bargannoch
again, unfortunately close to the edge of a sheet. There is no sign of
Sandhill on this sheet or its neighbour.
From Andrew Armstrong: New Map of Ayrshire 1775
However, from Thomson’s map of 1820 onwards, the pair of
names is
always side by side, though Thomson’s Gaelic twin is Bargonoch.
Whether that <o> is deliberate or a transcription error
for Bargenoch one cannot tell.
From John Thomson’s maps of Ayrshire 1820
Since the Ordnance Survey First Edition 1859-60 that name has remained
Bargenoch and the twins have been inseparable. Recourse to a few maps
has not satisfied curiosity as to whether Sandhill is a conscious
translation name or an independent naming from the same
geomorphological circumstances. But it has been a pleasant reminder of
the artistic quality of work by the early surveyors and mapmakers, in a
toponymically fascinating area.
William Patterson
(from SPNS Newsletter 9, Autumn 2000)
Place-Names of the Parish of New Cumnock
In 1650 the parish of Cumnock was sub-divided into the two new parishes
of Old Cumnock and New Cumnock. The existing parish church of Cumnock
served the parish of Old Cumnock whilst a new parish church was built
for New Cumnock some five miles to the southeast on the site of Cumnock
Castle, the ancient seat of the Barons of Cumnock. The element 'new' in
New Cumnock is simply a reference to this new church (c. 1659).
Most attempts to explain the name Cumnock have concentrated on the
geography and history of Old Cumnock with the similar attributes of New
Cumnock largely being ignored. Although James B Johnston did suggest
that the name was a diminutive form of O.G. cuman
'a shrine' on the strength the presence of a St. Bride's Bank nearby to
Cumnock Castle (New Cumnock) - Pont gives this as Brydsbank.
Another offering put forward by Cumnock historians is cumar
'confluence' and oich
'water', giving Cumnock as 'the confluence of the waters'. My own
research suggests that this may well be the meaning of the name Cumnock
but with a different derivation and location.
The inspiration came from the Gaelic form of the Scottish Place-Name
Society, i.e., comann 'society'. W J Watson
provides examples of comunn being found in the context of confluence
and therefore I believe Cumnock is comunn ach 'the
place of the confluence', where the confluence is the meeting of the
Afton Water with the mighty River Nith - less than half-a-mile from the
site of Cumnock Castle in the heart of the parish of New Cumnock.
I am in the process of developing a web-site where I give some old and
some new ideas to the meanings of some of my favourite names in the
parish. I have also documented all the names given by Timothy Pont
along with their modern day equivalents. I would be pleased to hear
from any member of the SPNSociety that may have some alternative
suggestions.
Bob Guthrie.
see also Bob Guthrie's website.
(from SPNS Newsletter 6, Spring 1999)
James Brown, a recent member of
the Society, writes of his work in Carrick, Ayrshire:
I have become entranced by Project Pont through the enthusiasm and
research of Professor McKean and my restoration proposals for Baltersan
Tower-house, Kirkoswald parish, AYR. The original manuscripts by Pont
of this area, sadly, do not seem to exist, so I am researching the
origins and meanings of place-names on the North Carrick map in Blaeu's
Atlas Novus of 1654. There are over 530 names to investigate including
the delightfully enigmatic "Poggyrodd"! My working title is "One
drew over the Cuckoo's Nest" from the glorious name of Net
Whowaig or Geik's Seit (Gowk's Seat),
which is mentioned in Watson's Celtic Place-Names.
The last native Gaelic speaker here reputedly died when Robert Burns
was 2 years old. Carrick was once part of the Lordship of Galloway, so
there is a long period of Gaelic-speaking, possibly in 2 directions,
from Galloway northwards and Argyll southwards.
There is a fair sprinkling of Welsh from the kingdom of Strathclyde of
course, and Northumbrian influences too. Ayrshire Scots still
flourishes in everyday speech here, so capturing the sounds of these
ancient names is that bit easier. I will be consulting local residents,
including a 92-year-old in Girvan !
This place-name work coincides with my research on the Kennedies of
Baltersan and their immediate contacts.
More details of Project Pont
can be obtained from Map Library, NLS, 33 Salisbury Place, Edinburgh
EH9 1SL <maps@nls.uk>
Bibliography (to see the full bibliography, click here)
Ansell, Michael, 2008, ‘Carsphairn and Dalmellington
Re-visited’, JSNS
2, 1–10.
Brooke, D. 1983 'Kirk-Compound Place-Names in Galloway and Carrick', Transactions
of the Dumfries and Galloway Natural History and Antiquarian Society
58, 56-71.
Brooke, D., 1991, 'The Northumbrian settlements in Galloway and
Carrick: an historical assessment', PSAS 121,
295-327.
Clancy, Thomas Owen, 2008, Two Ayrshire Place-names, JSNS 2,
99–114 [Pulprestwic and Trearne]
Grant, Alison, 2005, ‘The Origin of the Ayrshire
Bý Names’, in Cultural
Contacts in the North Atlantic Region: The Evidence of Names,
edd. Peder Gammeltoft, Carole Hough and Doreen Waugh [Shetland],
127–40.
MacQueen, J., 1973, 'The Gaelic Speakers of Galloway and Carrick', Scottish
Studies 17, 17-33. [saints names in place-names]