FIF Fife
The Trouble with OUTH:
Defining a boundary in medieval Fife.
Welcome to Fothrif
Maritime Fife: new Placename Research Project (1997)
(from Newsletter23, Autumn 2007)
The Trouble with OUTH:
Defining a boundary in medieval Fife.
This is an extract from a paper
entitled ‘Marches
and Coldrain: exploring the place-names of boundaries and assembly
sites in east central Scotland’, which Simon Taylor gave at
the
Mary Higham Memorial Day Conference held at the University of
Lancaster, 3February 2007. (Photos by author except Figs1 and 2.)
I want to take you on a virtual walk through the eastern Scottish
countryside, which will at the same time be a walk through time - the
kind of walk which Mary Higham so loved. The area I will talk about is
on the border of the modern Fife Council area and Perth and Kinross
Council area. Perth and Kinross is historically and geographically a
very unhelpful administrative unit covering much of east central
Scotland. It is much more helpful if I use for the area I am talking
about the pre-1975 designation ‘Kinross-shire’ -
one of
Scotland’s smallest counties, which sits between west Fife
and
south-east Perthshire, and completely surrounds Loch Leven.
Kinross-shire was historically always much more part of Fife than
Perthshire.
The parishes involved are those of Cleish in Kinross-shire and
Dunfermline in Fife - although in the medieval period, both Cleish and
Dunfermline lay in the sheriffdom of Fife. It was not until 1685 that
the small sheriffdom of Kinross was greatly augmented by the addition
of several parishes, including Cleish.
Medieval monasteries were well-known to have been punctilious
neighbours when it came to boundaries. Usually in any boundary dispute
we see only the final agreement, and not the years of discord which
preceded it. Also, because it is often only the agreement which has
survived, and everyone is trying not to ruffle feathers, it is usually
difficult to decide which party, if any, was the aggressor. However,
there are two boundary charters preserved in the cartulary of
Dunfermline Abbey (hereafter Dunf. Reg.), known as the Dunfermline
Register, which strongly suggest that in these 2 cases, at least, it
was the monks who had orchestrated some kind of offensive on their
neighbours. These two charters record perambulations which were made in
the same year, 1231, and possibly even on the same day or consecutive
days, along the northern and eastern marches of one land-holding
belonging to the monks - that of the forest of Outh
in the northern part of the large parish of Dunfermline. The 2 charters
deal with different stretches of this boundary, and with different
neighbours, but record that exactly the same settlement was made with
each neighbour. That settlement required each of the secular
neighbours, both confusingly called Gilbert, Gilbert of Cleish and
Gilbert of Crambeth, to pay to Dunfermline Abbey 10 shillings a year in
return for the abbey’s quitclaiming all right which the abbot
and
convent of Dunfermline have had or have said that they have in the
previously disputed land. So in effect the 2 secular lairds pay to stop
Dunfermline hassling them along this boundary.
Fig. 1: Modern Outh Hill is the one on the left. The small farm of Outh is in the clump of trees in the middle distance. The picture is taken from West Lethans: the lands of Lethans lay south and west of those of Outh, deriving from Gaelic leathan ‘broad hill-side’. Photo: Eric Titterington.
I want to concentrate on only one of these perambulations, Dunf.
Reg.
no. 192 (translation given in Appendix, below). It concerns the march
between Outh and Cleish. Outh comes from Gaelic uchd
‘breast’, hence ‘rounded, breast-like
hill’
(see Fig.1).
The lands of Outh are almost entirely upland, lying at around 300
metres above sea-level. It was royal forest until King William I gave
it to his illegitimate son Robert of London around 1200,
‘with
the injunction that no-one was to fell timber or hunt there without
Robert’s permission’ (RRS ii no. 463). Shortly
thereafter
Robert gave it to Dunfermline Abbey in return for the abbey’s
quitclaiming of an annual income of 6 merks from another of
Robert’s Fife lands (Dunf. Reg. 167). Its use as a hunting
area,
as well as a source of timber, and no doubt also peat, would have been
continued by the monks. However, aerial photography has shown much
activity of a pastoral and arable nature in the area round Outh Hill,
the centre of the medieval lands of Outh.
Fig. 2: Dow Loch (with Loch Leven in background). The march begins on the ridge immediately behind Dow Loch, on the left. Photo: Eric Titterington.
For the details of the 1231 dispute between Dunfermline Abbey and
Gilbert of Cleish, see Appendix below. Let me take you through the
perambulation from the beginning. It starts at the outflow of Loch
Glow, then goes between the ‘north loch and the middle
one’, which must be modern Lurg Loch and Dow Loch. There is a
distinctive natural ridge which divides the 2 lochs, and which is
clearly the start of a medieval march.
Fig. 3: Middle Innean, showing the anvil shape which gave rise to its name.
The boundary continues in a pleasing symmetry: having gone between the
north and middle loch, it then goes between the north and middle hills
called the Inneans. This refers to a series of elongated hills, running
parallel to each other in a roughly east-west direction. The name
probably derives from Gaelic innean
‘anvil, anvil-shaped hill’, common in Ireland. Note
that in the 1232 text, already the Scots plural -is
has replaced a Gealic plural inneana or the like.
The march continues ‘and so through (or along) the summit of
Dumglow’, the highest of the Cleish Hills, at 379 metres. A
Gaelic name, the first element is dùn
‘hill, often ‘hill-fort’, and there is
indeed a
prehistoric fort on the top. The second element is probably derived
from the nearby loch, and it is suggested that it is an old Celtic
water-word meaning ‘shining’ or
‘clear’,
related to modern Welsh gloyw (same meaning).
At the top of Dumglow you are at the very edge of the upland plateau of
the Cleish Hills. From here you can look down on much of Kinross-shire.
The whole flat, arable area between the Cleish and the Ochils to the
north was once referred to as the Maw, from Gaelic magh
‘plain, fertile stretch of land’, again much better
known in Ireland (e.g. Maynooth, Mayola, Mayo): Old Irish mag
in early medieval Ireland basically represented the agricultural
heart-land of a túath or people.
After Dumglow the march descends ‘down through the hollow way
(le holegath) as far as Cnocenlein,
and so by the valley as far as *Fallowmireside’. The hollow
way
may be the col due west of Dumglow, shown on modern maps as Windy Gate
i.e. a road for the wind or a windy road. The gate
was probably
real as opposed to figurative, as this would have been a convenient
access point from the low-lands of Cleish into the hills. However,
there is another possible referent of the holegath:
down the west side of Dumglow there is a marked groove through which
both a modern fence and an unofficial path now descend.
Fig.4: The holegath is possibly the groove down the west side of Dumglow.
The next stage is problematical, as none of the next four land-marks
are identifiable with any certainty. These are Cnocenlein,
Falumire, Dumghercloihe and Aldendeich.
It is most likely that the boundary continues westward along what later
became the parish and county boundary. If this is accepted, then much
of it falls neatly into place.
Cnocenlein is probably ‘knowe of the shirt
or linen tunic’, Gaelic léine (f.),
which formerly also meant ‘linen cloth, linen’ (DIL).
I do not know why it was so named. It is almost certainly Black Hill
(see Fig.5), along the top of which runs the remains of a large
embankment or fail-dyke, probably the containing embankment of the
medieval forest of Outh. The hill immediately to the south (i.e. left
of picture) is Park Hill, containing Scots park,
that is an area that was emparked for the purpose of keeping in game,
especially deer.
Fig.5: Looking west from Dumglow to Black Hill, probably Cnocenlein, the medieval march between Outh and Cleish still clearly visible in the remains of an embankment. The later dry-stone dyke is now the Fife-Kinross-shire county boundary. In the middle distance is the peak of Mons Sithi, now Wether Hill, mentioned in Dunf. Reg. no. 213 (see Appendix, below). The snow-capped hills on the right are the Ochils.
Fig. 6: Looking east from *Fallowmire up Black Hill (Cnocenlein).
The march then goes ‘per uallem usque Falumireside’,
‘through, by or along the valley as far as
Fallowmireside’.
It is not quite clear what the valley is, unless it is a mistake for uallum
‘embankment’: the original ms (in NLS) needs
checking at
this point. But *Fallowmire must be the large moss or bog which
stretches west from the bottom of Black Hill. The specific element fallow,
defined by DOST
as ‘withered, sere’ is an exact description of the
pale
yellow colour so typical of this upland area (see foreground of Fig.6).
The next land-mark is ‘to the hill which is called Dumghercloihe
‘hill or hill-fort of the short stone’. This must
be modern
Scaur Hill, where there is no shortage of stones, long and short (see
Fig. 7).
Fig. 7: Dumghercloihe or Scaur Hill (containing Scots scaur/score ‘cliff’ (as in The Scores, St Andrews).
From Dumghercloihe we are told that the march then goes as the burn
descends into Aldendeich (probably allt an eich
‘burn of the horse’) and so into the Gairney (that
part of the Gairney now called the Pow Burn).
In the Atlas of Scottish History to 1707, p.415,
Geoffrey
Barrow has produced an excellent composite map of various boundaries in
the Cleish Hills including the Outh-Cleish one. It is only in this very
last stage of the march that his map needs to be adjusted. I agree with
him on all parts of this march except for the last stretch, which he
takes too far to the west, as far as Wether Hill, marking Aldendeich as
the older name for the St Margaret’s Burn. In fact, this
latter
burn marked the boundary between the lands of Outh belonging to
Dunfermline Abbey to the east and the lands of Culross Abbey to the
west, as fixed in the agreement reached between the two monasteries in
1227 (Dunf. Reg. no. 213; see Appendix). Thus the
land between
the Aldendeich and St Margaret’s was a tongue of Dunfermline
Abbey lands which reached down into the fertile valley of the Pow or
Gairney, and in fact this tongue of land was in the anomalous position
until 1891 of being in the parish of Dunfermline but the county of
Kinross.
APPENDIX
Dunf. Reg. no. 192:
‘ratione foresti uel alicuius alterius clamii in terra que
est inter Cles et forestum de Vueth
sicut recognitum fuit per probos homines et per preceptum Alexandri Dei
gracia Regis Scocie anno ab incarnatione Christi mccxxxi. Qui
recognitores in recognoscendo diuisas inter forestum de Vueth
et terram de Cles inceperunt de exitu de Lochglo
inter borealem lacum et mediocrem et sic inter borealem collem et
mediocrem qui uocantur Yneianes et sic per
summitatem montis de Dunglo descendendo per le
holegath usque Cnocenlein et sic per uallem usque Falumireside
et inde usque ad montem qui uocatur Dumghercloihe
et inde sic riuulus descendit in Aldendeich et sic
in Goruin’ (for Gornin) ...
Johanne de Haya, D<aui>d de Lochor,
Patricio de Petglassin, Edmundo de Beeth,
Johanne de Obiruil’ et multis
aliis’
‘To all who will see or hear this present text Gilbert of Cleish (Cles) (gives) salutation. Know that I and my heirs are bound to the house of Dunfermline to pay every year to the said house of Dunfermline 10 s. .... for all time coming ... for quitclaiming the right which the abbot and convent have had or have said that they have by reason of forest or of any other claim in the land which is between Cleish and the forest of Outh (Vueth), as has been investigated by honest men and by precept of Alexander [II] by the grace of God king of Scotland, in the year from the incarnation 1231. And these jurors in investigating the marches between the forest of Outh and the land of Cleish have begun from the outflow of Loch Glow (Lochglo) between the north loch and the middle one[1] and so between the north hill and the middle one which are called Inneans (Yneianes),[2] and so through/along the summit of Dumglow (Dunglo) down through the hollow way as far as Cnocenlein,[3] and so by the valley as far as *Fallowmireside (Falumireside), and then as far as the hill called Dumghercloihe,[4] and then as the burn descends into Aldendeich,[5] and so into the Gairney (Goruin for Gornin).’ Gilbert of Cleish appends his seal to the original document, and it is witnessed by five named members of the gentry, mainly local ‘and many others’.
Dunf. Reg. no. 213 Easter (11 April) 1227,
at
Dunfermline (part of wider agreement reached between the monasteries of
Culross and Dunfermline about various disputes which had arisen between
them, one of which concerned the Forest of Outh):-
‘quod tales sint diuise inter terram de Quichtis
et forestum de Vueth quales fuerunt facte per
dominum M<alcolmum> Comitem de Fif sub
presentia prenominatorum abbatum, scilicet quod incipiant
uersus austrum ab aqua de Letheni per siketum
q<ui> propinquor [sic] est Aldlunahthan
uersus orientem et ita ascendendo in directum per lapides usque ad
lapidem stantem in monte Sithi et sic descendendo
usque ad fontem sub monte et sic per riuulum illius fontis usque in Gorui.
It<a>/It<em> quod monachi de
Culenr’ firmabunt stagna
sua super aquam predictam ubi uoluerint inferius molendino monachorum
de Dunf’ hac occasione.
‘Also it was agreed between the said abbots with the consent
of
their chapters that they would for the sake of peace and usefulness and
perpetual quietness cut off all occasion for dissension between the
said monasteries, agreeing that such may be the marches between the
land of Cult and the forest of Outh as have been made by the lord
Malcolm earl of Fife in the presence of the above-mentioned abbots;
that is that they should begin towards the south from the
Water of Lethans (Letheni) along the syke which is
nearer Aldlunahthan towards the east; and so going
up in a straight line by the stones as far as the standing stone on Sithi
hill, and so going down as far as the spring beneath the hill, and so
along the burn of that spring as far as the Gairney (Gorui
for Gorni).
(And) that the monks of Culross will establish their ponds on the said
water where they may wish lower than the mill of the monks of
Dunfermline.’
[1] Probably Lurg Loch and Dow
Loch respectively.
[2] G innean
‘anvil, anvil-shaped rock or hill’?
[3] Probably G cnoc na
lèine ‘knowe of the shirt’.
[4] G dùn
‘(fortified) hill’ + G geàrr ‘short’
+ genitive of G clach, ‘stone’
(genitive cloiche, so ‘hill of (the)
short stone’.
[5] G allt ‘burn’
+ G definite article + ? G each
‘horse’.
Sources and abbreviations: Atlas of Scottish History to 1707,
edd. Peter G. B. McNeill and Hector L. MacQueen (Edinburgh 1996); Dunf.
Reg. Registrum de Dunfermelyn, Bannatyne Club 1842; G
Scottish Gaelic.
Simon
Taylor, University of Glasgow
(from Newsletter 13, Autumn 2002)
WELCOME TO FOTHRIF
A summary of Simon Taylor's talk 'Welcome to Fothrif: an introduction to the place-names of West Fife', given to the SPNS Conference and AGM, Dunfermline, 11 May 2002.
I started by attempting a definition and an analysis of Fothrif itself. Rather than repeat this material here, I refer the reader to my chapter on Fife place-names in The Fife Book (see reference below).
A glance at the medieval map of Fife shows that Dunfermline parish represents a large, no doubt royal, early territory which stretched from North Queensferry in the south to the boundary of Cleish in the north, including Inverkeithing, which probably became a parish in the late 12th c. through the development of its royal burgh. In other words the territory of Dunfermline ran from Drumfarlane, a field name beside Broomhall on the coast, as far as Dummiefarlane, a hill-fort in the Cleish Hills. It looks very much as though both these names contain the same specific element as Dunfermline, and define an early territory toponymically, just as its old parish boundaries define it administratively. The map also tells us that the bishopric of Dunkeld .was almost as important in west Fife as was the bishopric of St Andrews.
The languages spoken in west Fife over the past 1500 years or more, as well as their sequence and interactions, are similar to those for the whole of former Pictland between the Forth and Beauly Firths, with the earliest clearly identifiable stratum that of Pictish. Examples are Urquhart, an estate immediately west of Dunfermline, whose Pictish credentials are endorsed by the 8th century form Air-chartan of its name-sake Urquhart on Loch Ness, which appears in Adomnan's Vita Columbe. It means 'on the *carden' or '*carden-side'. The meaning of carden, so long assumed to be a Pictish word for 'wood(land)', must remain a matter for further investigation in the light of Andrew Breeze's important note in Scottish Language 18 (1999), which rightly questions the basis for this interpretation, suggesting rather that it refers to some kind of enclosure. The word also appears in the estate-name Carden, better known in the west Fife mining village-name Cardenden (combined as an existing place-name with the Scots element den 'deep valley'). Other Pictish names in west Fife are Aberdour and Abercrombie, now known simply as Crombie, a village, formerly a parish, between Torryburn and Dunfermline.
Gaelic, which will have been well established in Fife by around AD 900, if not before, has left a rich stratum of names. One such is Calais (earlier Kellohouis 1287 x 1299), probably *Coillius 'place of (by or in) a wood', Gaelic coille + location suffix -us 'place of. Its origins have survived its Frenchified orthography, as it is still pronounced locally 'Kalis' (with the first element rhyming with 'ale'), although this has not prevented it from generating the nearby names Dover Strip and Dover Heights!
Scots, which was certainly being used to coin place-names in west Fife by the later 12th century, has also left many place-names, such as Crossford, probably 'ford marked by a cross'. West Fife has its fair share of humorous, and usually depreciating, Scots names, popular in the early modern period, such as Pilkembare ('strip them bare'), Hungerhimout, Gaithercauld, Glowrowrem and the cleverly named Little Honesty (part of the lands of Clune in Carnock parish). Sadly few of these names have survived.
Many names of Celtic origin (i.e. Pictish and Gaelic) must remain unassigned: besides borrowing several elements from Pictish, Gaelic-speakers will also have adapted, even part-translated, existing Pictish names, to an extent which is now impossible to quantify. One element borrowed by Gaelic-speakers is the well-known pett 'estate farm', which occurs more often in the Dunfermline area than in any other area in Scotland, except for Abernethy, Perthshire. This, and the fact that two of the pett-names are combined with an ecclesiastical element (Pitliver and Pitbauchlie), suggests that there was an important church site at Dunfermline before the time of Queen Margaret (which I have argued for in my article 'Some Early Scottish Place-Names and Queen Margaret', Scottish Language 13 (1994), 1-17).
One name which may well have been adapted from a Pictish form is Dunfermline itself, which I tentatively suggested contains two burn-names, the Fern (an old name for the Tower Burn) and the Lyne Burn.
I concluded the talk with a detailed examination of the place-name Pitbauchlie, 'estate of the keeper of the bachall or crozier', now a southern suburb of Dunfermline. I had discussed this name at some length in my above-mentioned article in Scottish Language, but it was only recently that I had become fully aware of an important piece of evidence showing remarkable continuity between the meaning of this early place-name and later tenurial history, at the same time confirming the above interpretation of this name.
The evidence is a Registrum de Dunfermelyn charter (no.339) issued between 1304 and 1313 by the abbot of Dunfermline to Mariota Cook, the present representative of the family which had been renting half the land of Pitbauchlie from the abbey for at least two generations. The charter specifically exempts Mariota and her heirs from various burdens including the payment of dereth' and slother. These are both Gaelic words: dereth' is from G deoradh, 'dewar, relic-keeper', while slother contains the G sluagh 'host, army', and probably represents an original sluaghadh 'hosting, raising an army'. This exemption is unique in Scotland, so we can rule out the idea that they relate to general burdens on lands. These two duties are in fact best explained as forming part of a very old tenurial agreement between the superior of Pitbauchlie and its tenant, who was as the name suggests, the dewar of a saint's crozier. This agreement was to do with the production of the holy relic for purposes of law-enforcement such as the tracking down of stolen property (which was one of the duties of the keeper of St Fillan's crozier in Strathfillan in western Perthshire), encapsulated in the term dereth'. These duties seem to have been commuted to a money-payment by the time this charter was issued, and it is from this payment that the charter exempts them.
This analysis of Pitbauchlie is an excellent example of how toponymics and document-based history can complement each other and deepen our understanding of tenurial relationships in medieval Scotland.
One name which lack of time prevented me from discussing is the small area of east Dunfermline, near to where the conference was being held, called Transy. This first appears in 1781 as Transylvania, but in a sasine of 1812 we are informed that it is henceforth to be named Transy. If only all place-name change was so well documented. The uneasy question remains however: why Transylvania? The bachall of Pitbauchlie might have come in handy on dark nights in Transy.
For further discussion of place-names of Fife, both west and east, see S. Taylor, 'Place-Names of Fife' in The Fife Book ed. D. Omand (Birlinn, Edinburgh, 2000), 205-20.
(from Newsletter 3, Autumn 1997)
Maritime Fife: new Placename Research
Project
For the Maritime Fife project, place-name research is an
invaluable tool which will help us fill in the gaps in our knowledge
about the maritime history and archaeology of Fife. There has clearly
been a tremendous amount of maritime activity around Fife starting with
seasonal settlers fishing the sea at Tenstmuir round 9000 years ago.
The importance of Fife's coast historically can be shown in the fact
that Crail, Inverkeithing, and Kinghorn were royal burghs by the 12th
century.
According to the Old Statistical Account the new
royal
harbour at Kinghorn Wester became known as Burntisland - burnt island -
because fishermen's huts were burnt on a islet near the present harbour
(now incorporated within it). This perhaps happened when the harbour
was being built in the reign of James V. Could this be true? Would any
archaeological evidence for this settlement survive today?
Evidence for another of Fife's medieval industries, salt manufacturer,
can still be found in many of the place-names e.g. Pan Haven near Crail.
For shipwrecks, there are many instances around Scotland where the
event has become incorporated into a place-name (e.g. Schooner Point).
Is Maggie Brady's Rock near Crail named after a real person, or a
vessel wrecked at that point?
A place-name which particularly intrigued me is Pluck the Crow Point at
Newport. MY imagination ran wild with the thought that perhaps this
referred to the perilous rescue of a seaman who had climbed to the
highest rigging (the crow's nest). The unfortunate seaman, knowing his
ship was doomed, was counting on the vessel heeling over to allow him
to be plucked from the crows nest by townsfolk on the cliff. Could the
shipwreck still be there? Perhaps perfectly preserved by the Tay 's
swirling waters?
1 must thank all the kind listeners to my talk who have since written
to give assistance at the start of our research. Pluck the Crow Point
now has a much more plausible origin. [More on this name in the next
News - ed.].
Maritime Fife is an inter-disciplinary research project exploring the
maritime history and archaeology of Fife, based within the Scottish
Institute of Maritime Studies at the University of St. Andrews, Tel.
01334 462997. We would be happy to hear from anyone who has information
about Fife coastal names.
Deanna Groom, Archives Officer.
(from Newsletter 1, Summer 1996)
PLACE-NAMES IN THE NEWS DUNSHELT or DUNSHALT
There has been some press coverage recently regarding the
small Fife
village which is divided over how to spell its name: Dunsheit or
Dunshalt. The Daily Express devoted a whole page to the issue on 1lth
July 1996, under the headline Thou shalt have your
proper title,
taking up a mention of the controversy in the Times Educational
Supplement of 7th June in a piece about the Scottish Place-Name
Society. The Daily Express piece was followed by the Courier
of 12th July, with the headline Villagers' spell of
uncertainty!
Both 'Dunshelt' and 'Dunshalt' are found on sign-posts in and around
the village, and the Telephone Directory carries an entry for Dunshelt
Post Office, giving its address as Dunshalt. But along with one of the
spellings goes a whole 'creation legend': those who subscribe to the
'Dunshalt' theory say that it came from the fact that the Danes halted
here on their pillaging way up the River Eden many centuries ago. Or
alternatively they say that it means "Dane's Hold", referring to the
prehistoric fort beside the village. A glance at the early spellings of
this word is enough to convince that the e-spelling
is historically correct, and that the name is originally of Gaelic
origin, and so can have nothing to do with Danes, whether they were
halting or holding. However, the name is an unusually complicated one,
and I would like to give some background details that were not
appropriate in the general press, and also (for the first time) to
suggest an alternative etymology which keeps those overworked Danes
firmly out of the picture.
Dunshelt lies in the parish of Auchtermuchty, about 1
kilometre
south of the burgh, on the road between Auchtermuchty and Falkland.
Let me start, as one always must when analysing a place-name, with its
early forms.
Early Forms
(the 'buttis in') Inschelt 1558 RMS
iv no. 1288 [a butt is a Scots word meaning
'ridge or strip of ploughed land']
Dunsherly 1590s Pont/EF
(the 'outsett' called) Dwnscheill 1611 RMS
vii no.488 [an outset is defined by the Concise
Scots Dictionary
as 1. a smaller piece of land outlying or detached from, but dependent
on, a main estate or holding; or 2. a patch of reclaimed and newly
cultivated, or newly inhabited, land, often taken in from moorland etc.]
(that 'outset' called) Dunschelt 1628 Retours
i Fife no.397
(the 'outsett' called) Dunscheill 1634 RMS
ix no.45
(the 'Feild lands de Bondhalf de Auchtermuchtie'
called) Inshalks 1661 Retours
i Fife no.905
('pretty populous village called') Dunshelt 1722
Geog. Coll. i 296
Dunsheat 1750s Roy's Military Map [misplaced in
the hills north-east of Auchtermuchty.
Dunshill 1775 Ainslie's Map of the Counties of
Fife & Kinross
Dunshelt 1828 Sharpe, Greenwood & Fowler's
Map of the Counties of Fife & Kinross
Dunshelt 1890s O.S. 1" lst. edition
Dunshalt 1895 A.H. Miller, Fife:
Pictorial & Historical vol. i p.254 [Dane's Hold]
The earliest mention of the name has as its first or generic element the Gaelic innis, with the meaning 'low-lying haugh-land beside a river'. This is a perfect description of the site of Dunshelt, which lies on the haugh-land of the River Eden. The second element of this name is therefore not 'shelt' but 'elt'. This is no doubt the Gaelic ealt, 'drove, herd, flock (of birds or beasts)', from the Old Irish elta 'flock (of birds or animals)', and its related adjective eltach 'bird-haunted, abounding in flocks'. Given the ideal summer pasturing conditions of this area, with many names in both Scots and Gaelic reflecting its importance as a summer grazing resource (Sheils, Bowhouse, Nochnary), the meaning 'herd' (most likely of cattle) is most appropriate. So its meaning would be 'haugh-land of cattle-herd(s)'.
The name must have been coined in the Gaelic-speaking period, that is sometime between about 900 and 1250 AD, many centuries before it first appears in the written record (1558).
There are various ways in which the variant 'Dunshelt' could have come about. One possibility is that in the Gaelic-speaking period part of *Inchelt was also known as *Dunelt, Gaelic dun + ealt 'fortification of cattle-herd(s)'. The dun in question would be the multivallate earthworks south of the Eden beside the village, which the National Monuments Records of Scotland describe as 'probably a rath, and therefore post-Roman'. When Gaelic ceased to be understood in this part of Fife, the two forms of the name became confused, and the ch or sh of Inch-/Insch- got incorporated into the form with Dun-.
So, as you can see, even without those Danes, the name has a fascinating history, and speaks of the vital pastoral use of the low-lying, and in winter often flooded, meadows beside the Eden. It is also a good example of just how complicated toponymy can be, and how unsuited they are to media 'sound-bites' (or 'sight-bites', for that matter)!.
The local pronunciation of the name is 'Dun'shelt' (or 'Dun'sholt'!), with the stress on the second element, e = e in 'egg', and o = o in 'golf'.
Simon Taylor.
Bibliography (for the full bibliography, click here)
Breeze, A., 1997, 'Etymological Notes on Kirkcaldy,
jockteleg 'knife', kiaugh
'trouble', striffen 'membrane' and cow
'hobgoblin'', Scottish Language 16, 97-110
[Kirkcaldy 97-9]
Hough, Carole, 2002, 'Onomastic Evidence for an Anglo-Saxon Animal
Name: OE *pur 'male lamb', English Studies
83 (no.5, November 2002) 337-90 [includes discussion of Pusk, Leuchars,
FIF].
Márkus, Gilbert, 2007, ‘Gaelic under Pressure: a
13th-century charter from East Fife’, Journal of
Scottish Name Studies 1, 77-98.
Taylor, S., 1994 'Some Early Scottish Place-Names
and Queen Margaret', Scottish Language 13, 1-17.
Taylor, S., 1994 'Babbet and Bridin Pudding or
Polyglot Fife in the Middle Ages', Nomina 17,
99-118.
Taylor, S., and Henderson, J. Michael, 1998, 'The medieval marches of
Wester Kinnear, Kilmany Parish, Fife', Tayside and Fife
Archaeological Journal 4, 232-47.
Taylor, S., 2000 'Place-Names of Fife', in The Fife Book
ed. D. Omand (Edinburgh), 205-20.
Taylor, S., (with Gilbert Markus) 2006, Place-Names of Fife Vol.1
(West Fife between Leven and Forth) (Donnington 2006) [volume
1 of a 4-volume series].
Taylor, Simon, with Gilbert Márkus, 2008, Place-Names of Fife Vol.
2 (Central Fife between Leven and Eden) (Donington) [volume 2 of a 5
volume series].
Whittington, G., 1991, 'Place-Names in Northern
Fife', Nomina 13, 13-23.
Unpublished:
Taylor, S., 1995, 'Settlement-Names in Fife': deals
with west
Fife and the medieval parish of St Andrews & St Leonards.
Unpublished PhD., University of Edinburgh, 1995 (copy also at St
Andrews University).