Cartographic Sources for the Toponymy of Clackmannanshire and Kinrosshire
From Tacitus to Tesco – the place-names of east Stirlingshire
Calatria
Dr David Munro: Cartographic Sources for the Toponymy of Clackmannanshire and Kinrosshire
Although they were the smallest of the former counties of Scotland, Clackmannanshire and Kinross-shire are rich in cartographic source material that sheds light on changing patterns of land use and settlement and provides the toponymist with a wealth of place names.
At the macro level, well documented surveys of Scotland by Blaeu, Roy and the Ordnance Survey offer varying levels of comparative place name detail from the 17th to the 19th century. While Clackmannan is one of the gaps in Blaeu’s Atlas
Novus (1654), only a small portion of the county appearing on plate 26 (‘Sterlin-Shyr’), the county of Kinross is covered on plate 27, ‘The Sherifdome of Fyfe’ and plate 28, ‘The West Part of Fife’. In addition to this, there exists a draft survey of ‘Keanrosse-shyre’ by James Gordon (1642). The place names on each of these maps are inconsistent. For example, the village of Kinnesswood, which does not appear on plate 28 of the Blaeu Atlas, is rendered as Kineskwood on plate 27 and Keaneskwood on the Gordon map.
The gap in Blaeu’s Atlas Novus is filled in the 17th century by ‘A map of Clakmanan Shire’ produced c.1681 by John Adair at a scale of 2 inches to the mile. This is the first of a series of more detailed county maps completed by land
surveyors between the late 17th century and the mid 19th century. Volume 2 of the Early Maps of Scotland (Moir 1983) lists over 20 county maps for Clackmannanshire including James Stobie’s ‘The Counties of Perth and Clackmannan’
(1783), W. Murphy’s ‘Clackmannan Shire’ (1832) and S.N. Morison’s ‘Map of the County of Clackmannan’ (1848). Most of the county maps covering Kinross-shire are included with maps of Fife, one of the most notable being John
Ainslie’s ‘The Counties of Fife and Kinross’ (1775). A rare map of the Kinross-shire on its own not listed in Moir (1983) is the Edinburgh surveyor John Bell’s ‘County of Kinross’ (1796).
The microtoponymy of Clackmannan and Kinross is revealed in manuscript plans and associated documents, particularly those which serve to formally record landscape change such as division of runrig and division of commonty, as processes either in the Sheriff Court or the Court of Session. John Hope’s 1788 ‘Plan of Excambion and Division of the Lands of
Dalquich [Dalqueich]’ (National Archives RHP 35) documents the creation of four farms from the complex system of runrig previously delineated in James Morison’s 1785 ‘Plan of the Runridge and Rundale of Dalquigh’ (National
Archives RHP 44). Ebenezer Birrell’s 1830 ‘Plan of the Whole Commonty of Portmoak Moss’ (Kinross-shire Historical Society 46) records names linked to peat cutting in the Bishopshire to the east of Loch Leven.
Farm and estate plans also recording landscape change are a rich source of field names. Three consecutive plans of Blairhill Estate on the border between Clackmannan and Kinross were compiled in 1809, 1822 and 1850 to record the
creation of an orchard, the building of a mansion house and farm buildings, the amalgamation of fields and the expansion of the estate. The last of these plans details over 50 farm, croft and field names including curiosities such as Egypt, Capernaum and the North and South Bella Blunt.
Plans associated with the building of roads and railways, estate sales, the supply of water, fishing rights and the lowering of Loch Loch Leven in the 1820s all add to the stock of historic names in Clackmannan and Kinross. Examples of town
plans include Bernard Lens’s 1710 ‘Plan of Alloa’ for the last Earl of Mar and plans of Alloa (1825) and Kinross (1823) in John Wood’s Town Atlas.
It is important to appreciate the context of the local maps and plans produced during the ‘golden age’ of land surveying in Scotland between 1720 and 1850. In searching out map sources, it is also important to be aware of the county boundary changes that have taken place in both Clackmannshire and Kinross-shire as well as the extent to which some land surveyors and publishers copied the work of earlier surveyors.
In addition to the two volumes of the Early Maps of Scotland edited by Douglas Moir and published by the Royal Scottish Geographical Society in 1973 and 1983, a useful source for local maps and plans in the National Archives of
Scotland is the Descriptive List of Plans in the Scottish Record Office edited by Ian H. Adams and published by HMSO in the 1960s. A list of the maps and plans held by the Kinross-shire Historical Society can be obtained from David Munro (e-mail: david.munro@strath.ac.uk).
David Munro (based on his talk at the Dollar conference)
John Reid: From Tacitus to Tesco – the place-names of east Stirlingshire
Professor Nicolaisen, in his preface to Scottish Place-Names, begins, ‘This book has been for over 20 years in the making.’ The ongoing study of the place-name of East Stirlingshire has a similar span; certainly one in excess of 25 years.
Unlike Scottish Place-Names, it must be emphasised that this work has been undertaken by one with no formal discipline in the field of onomastics. On the plus side, a sound knowledge of the locale, both in terms of the topography
and history, compensates to some degree.
The study area is an interesting one, not least in the variety of its topography. It stretches from the water-shed in the Campsie Fells on the west down to the seaboard of the Firth of Forth on the east; from the Slamannan Plateau on the south down to the carselands of Airth on the north. It contains, therefore, hill country with altitudes up to 459 metres, moorland tracts, undulating glacial deposits and rich alluvial plain. There are too several water features: the estuary, two significant rivers and a few small lochs. Historically, it was a linguistic meeting place where Cumbric, Gaelic and English seem to have existed alongside each other at one time and where each has been spoken for significant periods. There is too a rich archaeology with the kitchen middens of the hunter-gatherers along the raised beach, Roman remains, feudal fortifications along with the remnants of the Industrial Revolution. Equally notable are early settlements recognisable in the Celtic place-names, the apparent progress of Christianity, land organisation including a thanage, significant monastic, temple and crown-lands. There was too activity associated with the Wars of Independence as well as a mediaeval royal dockyard. As the title of the presentation sought to demonstrate, the natural process of naming places in the study area has continued unabated from the early years of the second century A.D. through to the present day.
It was the name Wetshot, in the form Weitschot (1610), a strange name that defeated all of the resources of Falkirk Library, that led to a DIY solution which found not only the solution to that particular enigma but eventually to the confrontation with so many more. The original research, held in a ring binder, has developed to a current collection of around 4000 place-names. A prior work, The Place-Names of Stirlingshire, by James B. Johnston was published in 1903 in which the author remarked, ‘I have not deliberately shirked any names that I have come across, and I have drawn up a list of about 350. It makes no pretence to be exhaustive; but I have omitted very few known names, unless they are either commonplace and obvious English names, or else simple Gaelic ones, readily explainable.’ Unlike that work, the current study is limited to the eastern side of the county: the pre-Regionalisation administrative division known as East Stirlingshire and comprises the parishes of Airth, Bothkennar, Denny, Dunipace, Falkirk, Kilsyth, Larbert, Muiravonside, Polmont and Slamannan. It is much less selective than Johnston’s: all place-names have a value and each name encapsulates something of the land or its experiences and therefore, helps us to understand how our society has developed. Even the most ‘humble’ has an intrinsic ‘poetry’ which often captivates.
Agricola’s campaigns in the area and the fact that the Antonine Wall runs through it resulted in a few places from the period of the Roman occupation being mentioned by classical writers such as Tacitus, Ptolemy and the compiler of the
Ravenna Cosmography. The Firth of Forth, in its ancient form of Bodotria/Boderiae/Bdora, is an example. A tentative derivation is that the name contains a root recognisable in Welsh boddi, ‘to drown’ with a terminal verb-noun suffix found as –oeri in Modern Welsh, apt for a river that created the huge alluvial plain known as the carse. The only substantiated location from the list of places across the Forth-Clyde isthmus given in the Cosmography is Velunia/Veluniate, now known to be Carriden in neighbouring West Lothian. We know that the list runs east to west
and, given the extent of the list relative to the length of the wall, we might assume that several of the subsequent places lie in the study area.
Following Nicolaisen, the presence of elements from each of the linguistic strands found in Scotland that appear in ‘indicator’ names has been sought. Distribution maps showing those that have been detected have been constructed.
Those of pre-Gaelic origin recognised are: cair, pert, pit, pren, and tref. No examples of aber, cardden, lanerc or pevr have emerged. However, other examples of this period do exist, such as: Airth, Denovan, Egglesbrech/th (Falkirk), Morgunssete (Muiravonside), Myot and Polmont. Nicolaisen’s ‘indicators’ for Gaelic are achadh, of which 9 examples exist, baile, also 9, and cill, of which no instances exist in the study area. Of interest in this strand are 3 place-names: Slamannan, Slafarquhar and Slachristock. Each has as its first element sliabh, uncommon on the east side of Scotland and these appear to be the most south-easterly instances of place-names containing it. There is a significant body of Gaelic names in the study area; in some instances forming large groups such as dal, used of the large flat meadows on the carselands. As far as the Scandinavian strand is concerned, Nicolaisen used the following elements as ‘indicators: -staðir, -setr, -bolstaðr and -dalr, as well as byr and fell. No examples of any these are found although there is a very late Northby (1833). As it lay in lands owned at the time of its appearance by the Earl of Zetland the assumption is that it was introduced by one of his followers. For early English names he used two groups: -ingtun, -ingham, botl, boðl-tun and wic, -ham, -worð. As we might expect, none of these emerged in the study. The earliest recovered record of a placename in English in Stirlingshire is Stenhouse (Stanhus 1185x89) recognisable in the extant name Stenhousemuir. The only other twelfth century names found were Savelmesforde (sic), South Moss (Suth Mossam), Black Hill (nigrum montem), St Alexander’s Chapel (ecclesiam Sancti Alexandri) and St Alexander’s Hill (collis Sancti Alexandri). Between 1200 and 1400 only a further 15 place-names in English have been recovered. Of these all but 2 are recorded in monastic cartularies.
In the study, the processes that alter the names of places are an ongoing fascination. An example of assimilation is Palacetree (Polwartrie 1648), the name of a parcel of land in Muiravonside Parish. An example of what seems to be change engineered for social reasons is found in Fankerton (the Fokkertown 1539x62) in Denny Parish.
The last vestiges of run-rig are recognisable in names recovered of groups of rigs in records of the same period as the birth of Carron Company and the Industrial Revolution in Scotland. It was the founding of the iron foundry on the banks of the river that made Carron both a household and an international name. This enterprise also coincided with changes in agricultural practice which led to the clearance of people from the land. Many flocked to the local area to find work in the new industries and they had to be housed. To make this provision the cheapest land available was acquired, hence new settlements such as that on Stenhousemuir. Ancillary industries, such as nail-making, were instrumental in new place-names being coined, as did the intensification of coal-mining. Transport was a huge problem and the facility of the Forth
& Clyde and the Union Canals brought great advantage as well as yet more place-names.
Now, in the post-Industrial Revolution age, no iron is cast in East Stirlingshire, coal isn’t mined nor are bricks made. Services have largely replaced industry; chain stores and multi-national concerns strive to create new power bases. Where once legionaries built forts across the land to enforce Pax Romana now the new empires build stores where we go to pay our tribute. And just as our ancestors gave names to such places, so too do we.
John Reid (based on his talk to the Dollar conference, Nov. 2005)
(from SPNS Newsletter 6, Spring 1999)
John Reid, a member from Stenhousemuir, on a local history journal which he helped to found in 1981.
Calatria is a periodical published by Falkirk Local History Society. Its purpose is to disseminate sound research in fields such as history, archaeology, genealogy and place-names. The Editorial Committee is always happy to receive articles for consideration for publication. These must be based on original research with supporting references, and should be sent to the Editor, Ian Scott, 11 Neilson Street, Falkirk. Obviously the journal is largely confined to matters of interest to the greater Falkirk area, but material of a more general nature may be considered. All of the editorial work is voluntary and, as the Society is non-profit making, it will be appreciated that no payment is made for contribution. Subscription details can be obtained from the Editor at the above address.
[This is an excellent journal, with much of interest for the toponymist: many early forms of place-names, and the reconstruction of medieval parishes and other administrative units in the Falkirk area - Ed.]
Bibliography (to see the full bibliography, click here)
Durkan, J., 1999, 'The place-name Balmaha', Innes Review 50, 88.