ELO East Lothian

Bibliography

KILMURDO
In William Patterson's piece on East Lothian place-names (see below) mention was made of a possible cill- ('church') place-name KILMURDO. This name, which no longer appears on OS maps, has in fact some remarkably early attestations, and points to a very non-ecclesiastical derivation.
The name first occurs in the 13th-century record as Carmurdac (written Carnundac) or Karmurdath (or Karmurdach): The Lanercost Cartulary ed. J. M. Todd (Surtees Society no. 23, 1997), pp. 85, 190. Perhaps the 'prominent natural knowe' really was a fort of some kind, or perhaps caer (car) was used as a nickname? The name appears with a note in the OS Name Book for Dirleton parish, mentioning i.a. stone coffins.

Geoffrey Barrow

CARMINSTAN
On a recent first-time visit to a house at Gifford, East Lothian, I noted that as well as the numbered address as used by the occupants it bore a sign with the name 'Carminstan'. Was this perhaps after some previously unheard of but linguistically intriguing hillfort? Well, no: apparently the previous owners had three dogs: Caroline, Minetta and Stanley.

William Patterson

THE LAND AND ITS OCCUPANTS: CLUES AND CHALLENGES IN THE PLACE-NAMES OF EAST LOTHIAN
This was the title of the third paper at the May 1999 Conference, given by William Patterson from East Linton. A thought-provoking and wide-ranging survey of East Lothian, it drew on Mr Patterson's extensive knowledge of places and place-names in that toponymically rich but neglected county. Northumbrian (northern Anglo-Saxon) names arrived as early as the 7th century AD, and to the earliest stratum of these names may belong the lost medieval Lyneringham, probably surviving in the field-name Laringham Hill between East Linton and Stenton. Another early Northumbrian name is probably Whitberry, surviving in Whitberry Point, a low, rocky promontory on the north side of Tyne Mouth. On Whitberry Point is a large, round mound. RCAHMS in 1975 deleted the record of this mound as a presumed Bronze Age cairn on the basis of information from the Tyninghame Estate factor that there had been a wartime installation there. However, OS maps before WW1 show a ‘cairn' there. It is likely that this cairn is the be(o)rg (berry) of the name, an Anglo-Saxon word which can mean both ‘hill' and ‘burial mound'. This name is not to be found on modern OS Pathfinder or Landranger maps. Nor is ‘Kilmurdie', first recorded on 18th-century estate plans, applied to a small but prominent natural knowe s.w. of North Berwick. The personal name Muiredach (modern Gaelic Muireach, English Murdoch) combined with Gaelic cill ‘church'? If this was a genuine cill-name, it would be an important addition to the group of such early names in eastern Scotland. Another late-recorded name which might reflect early Gaelic church presence is the 18th-century field-name Dysart above Phantassie near East Linton.
Brittonic (Cumbric) names are of course more frequent and better documented, as this was the underlying linguistic stratum in East Lothian to which Northumbrian, Gaelic and, later, Scots, were added. Some of these names confirm the picture from modern archaeology that by Votadini times (i.e. late Roman period) East Lothian was already a relatively treeless and intensively farmed and managed countryside, with those place-names containing elements meaning ‘tree' or ‘wood' showing that these must have been rare enough to serve as a distinguising feature. A remarkable example of continuity regarding woodland is Pressmennan (Presmunet 1160 Melrose Lib.) ‘copse or small wood of the hill or upland', by Stenton (NT6273): Pressmennan Wood is today the site of one of East Lothian's oldest fragments of woodland. More substantial woodland is indicated by Cumbric *coet (modern Welsh coed) ‘wood, forest'. Apart from its well-known occurrence in such place-names as Keith (the territory containing Humbie), Pencaitland and Dalkeith (MLO), it might be found in Sauchet Water, the name of the burn which flows past Stenton. This may represent Cumbric ‘willow wood', but unfortunately no early forms of this name exist.

Bibliography (to see full bibliography, click here)

Survey in Watson CPNS