STL Stirlingshire

Bibliography

The Truth about Skinflats
Saints' Names and Saints' Territories.
Cartographic Sources for the Toponymy of Clackmannanshire and Kinrosshire
From Tacitus to Tesco – the place-names of east Stirlingshire
Calatria

THE TRUTH ABOUT SKINFLATS

It may not be the most poetic name in Scotland; neither mellifluous nor romantic, and yes, it has been described as the ugliest name of any town in Scotland but, to those of us who are thirled to toponymics the name Skinflats is an intriguing one. 

Skinflats in 1861

Skinflats in the 1920s

At a personal level, it is one that has become my bête noire: an unhappy circumstance that results from a local tradition which holds that the name was given by Dutchmen who reclaimed the carseland in that area at some indeterminate period. Having done so, we are told, they then looked over the results of their labours and proclaimed, “Schone flats”! Consequently, when involved in any local discussion on place-names someone will ask, 'Do you know what Skinflats means', to which my well rehearsed reply is, 'No, but I think you're about to tell me', and the Dutchmen, as you might expect, make their due appearance. My equally well rehearsed counter-questions follow: (1) when was this done? (2) who paid to have it done? (3) why is there no record of the event and (4) why does the increased value of the land not appear in any valuation? The answers to these are (1) “Dinni ken.” (2) “Dinni ken.” (3) “Dinni ken.” and (4) “Whit?” However, my favourite question is kept for last: “Who paid these Dutchmen to remain here long after they had completed the job? Which they would have to do in order to see the results: the process used to reclaim land from the sea did not produce an instantaneous effect; indeed it could take years and, fiscally speaking, Skinflats is only a very loud hail from Fife. It should also be mentioned that on one solitary occasion I encountered a variation of the story which states that that it wasn't land being reclaimed from the sea that brought the Netherlanders but the draining of an alleged moss.

So let's set the scene and look at the facts. Firstly, Skinflats is a small settlement that originated as miners' rows serving a local colliery. It was built sometime between 1817 and 1861 on a piece of land then known as Skinflat. Presumably, the –s attached through usage as the rows would have come to be known as *the Skinflat's rows to distinguish them from numerous others in the vicinity.

In 1841 the parish minister commented, 'There is no village in the parish, except a small portion of Carron Shore, the greater part of which is in the parish of Larbert'. Skinflats was described in 1861 as, 'Two rows of colliers houses, partly slated and partly tiled. It contains two public houses and one smithy. The parish school is situated near the north end of the village'. The earliest overt record I've recovered for the land on which its stands comes from 1714 when Alexander Johnstoune of Kirkland (of Bothkennar) took heritable possession of 'the parts and portions of the estate of Newtoun called Houkers, the Tiend Yeard, Skimflat and Bamershyre'. In subsequent sections of the charter the name appears as Skamflat. Five years later it reappears as Skameflat and in a sasine that specifies the extent of these pieces of land the notary has entered, 'Skameflat being [blank] acres of land or thereby'. A bit unfortunate on the one hand but, on the other, it is acknowledges that is was measured in acres and, therefore, was arable.

This charter also gives the marches of Skameflat along with the adjoining place known as Tiend Yard which was acquired at the same time. Together, they are said to be 'bounded betwixt the right of way that leads betwixt the ferries of Airth and Carron on the west. The lands belonging to Newton possest be Adam Lidle on the east. The lands possest be John Slanders on the north and the lands of Newton possest be John Rae tenant on the south side'.

Both places are described as having, 'house biggings yards tofts crofts parts [and] pendicles', and so not only was this holding measured in arable units but it had an established steading with the usual arrangement of buildings and associated enclosed areas. This last charter, in dealing with Tiend Yard, has the following clause: 'Excepting from this disposition as it is thereby excepted that piece of ground taken of the said lands for making of ane entry to the school house of Bothkennar'. Although mentioned in earlier records, this is the first document to locate the school and shows that it was situated where the first edition of the Ordnance Survey depicted it in 1861 and, indeed, where the present village school still stands. Both of these places were parts of larger units defined within the charters in oxengates and, therefore, in an area that tradition states to consisted of moss, myre, bog, or saltings we find the land being measured in oxgangs and acres. Now, having ploughed my way (no pun intended) through hundreds of charters and sasines I've yet to see one that specifies the actual extent of any muir or moss let alone one that uses the terminology of arable division for such places.

Certainly, in Bothkennar there was reclamation as the parish minister reports in the 1790's: 'Within these few years, a considerable extent of ground has been gained in this parish and neighbourhood from the Frith (sic), which, though defended at a great expense, will soon become a valuable acquisition to its possessors'. This information was restated some fifty years later by his successor who, in 1841, states: 'The Earl of Zetland has reclaimed from the Frith (sic) of Forth, by embankments about 200 acres which have not as yet been subjected to the payment of any part of the minister's stipend. There are still 800 acres which are left dry by the tides twice every twenty-four hours, and which will certainly, at no distant period, be recovered from the sea'. This ties in with the canalization of the River Carron which took place in the years 1767-70 to allow vessels of large burden to reach Carronshore. The Earl's lands lay on the south side of the river, but as a consequence of the straightening, part of these were transferred to the north bank. All of the old course of the river and the substantial estuary were banked and reclaimed and there can be little doubt that this formed most, if not all, of the 200 acres.

A casual observer might perceive the carselands to be as flat as a bowling green but, in fact, there are undulations. Parts lie at only 3 metres O.D., while much of it attains 4 metres and in other places, including the site of the church, it rises to 5 metres, but sitting on the highest point of the parish is Skinflats which is on the 6 metre high summit. It must also be pointed out that Skinflats is located more than one and a half kilometres inland from the coast. Between Skinflats and the coast are several places which have a considerable history. Among these is Newton (1502), the largest estate in the parish and the one that Skinflats is a division from. Also on the seaward side were the smaller estates of Orchardhead (1526) and Stonehouse (1632), both at the shore. Close by Skinflats are (or were) Mains of Bothkennar (1507), Howkerse (1637) and Grange of Bothkennar (1376). Immediately adjoining is Tiends Yard (1637). Another factor that must be taken into consideration is that the Carse of Bothkennar (1359), far from being a morass, was a highly productive tract of arable land from at least the mediaeval period.

Evidence for this comes from the thirteenth century, when records provide unequivocal evidence that wheat was being grown there. Due to the climate and northerly latitude of Scotland this is a more difficult crop to grow than oats or barley. Certainly, it will not flourish on marginal lands of poor quality. As Bothkennar was Crown Land and returned rents in kind to the king, the records indicate the produce. As each and every square inch of the parish of Bothkennar lay on the carse, there can be no doubt that all revenue derived from Bothkennar was the produce of that tract. In 1290 Norman de Arcy, knight and keeper of the castle of Stirling, issued a receipt to the Abbot and convent of Newbattle for 4 chalders of wheat, and 12 merks sterling instead of 6 chalders of wheat, of the ferm (the rents) of Bothkennar. This was probably part of what was due annually from revenues which Newbattle Abbey derived from Bothkennar: it was common for rents and benefices to be paid on two terms yearly and we find a further receipt for 5 chalders of wheat and 10 merks issued by Sir Norman in the same year. It would seem, therefore, that Newbattle paid 20 chalders of wheat per year to the keeper of the castle with half of this being commuted to cash. Newbattle's revenue from Bothkennar was a consequence of an early gift to the abbey and so only represented that part of the produce grown there; it follows that we are seeing in these transactions only a fraction of the wheat production.

King Robert the Bruce issued directions in 1317 to the sheriff and baillies of Stirling to ensure payment to the abbot and convent of Cambuskenneth from the king's tiends of Bothkennar, 'both in grain and money as they were wont to receive them in the time of King Alexander III' (1249-1286). It is worth noting that these had been exchanged at the time of Alexander for certain tiends of the lordship of Stirling which had originally been granted to the abbey by the kings of Scotland. It would seem that the stability brought to the country by the victory at Bannockburn was reflected in the produce of Bothkennar for, in 1328, the sheriffdom of Stirlingshire and the king's ferms from that county were assessed by the auld extent, with the exception of Bothkennar. There a new assessment was made and, it is of interest to note, only two years before, Robert the Bruce petitioning parliament for a grant of money because the crown lands had diminished by gifts and transferences and by occasione of war.

As late as the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries it is common to find in feu charters of lands in Bothkennar the obligation to pay to Cambuskenneth various quantities of wheat. It is equally noteworthy that rents from the Carse of Bothkennar were being paid partly in money in that early period. This tells us that the tenants had produce well in excess of subsistence and were converting the surplus to cash. The very act of commuting rent in kind for money is the most convincing indicator of the valuable nature of the agriculture of the carse at that time. We are told, in 1841, that the main produce of the parish was wheat and beans. Due to agricultural improvements such as drainage and crop rotation the average of crop of wheat was around six quarters per acre, and the best years as much as nine. The rent of the land even than was still reckoned as a grain rent.

In all likelihood the myth origin of the name is tied into several of these factors and events, particularly the eighteenth century engineering of the River Carron. Nevertheless, this does not explain the ongoing part of the legend that it was carried out by Dutchmen. This probably emanated from ill recalled versions of a passage in Sir Robert Sibbald's account of Linlithgow in 1710 when, speaking of a stretch of shore on the south bank of the firth known as Ladies Scape, he states: 'The Dutch did offer some time ago to make all the Scape good arable ground and Meadow, and to make Harbours and Towns there in convenient places, upon certain conditions which were not accepted'.

In the discussions mentioned above, having explained these circumstances to the proponents, they inevitably strike back with their killer punch, which is, 'Well, whit aboot the Dutch Inn then?' This establishment, opened in the 1960's, is a popular eating place in the village. The suggestion that the Dutchmen were Moss Lairds must also be refuted. The Military Survey clearly shows three mosses along the carselands: at Throsk, Elphinstone (now Dunmore) and Letham. The first has been totally drained although it survived into the eighteenth century, fragments of Elphinstone, which was huge, are visible but fragmentary while Letham is still exploited for moss today. The Military Survey indicated that both Throsk and Elphinstone had colonies of Moss Lairds. All three mosses had associated place-names such as Moss-side and Mossneuk. There is not a solitary example of a name having moss as an element recorded in Bothkennar Parish. Further evidence for the existence of mosses arises because feudal tenants had privileges on them and these rights were usually stated within their charters of sasine. Given that Bothkennar is so well documented, had there ever been a moss there within the historical period it certainly would have been noted.

As far as a derivation for the name is concerned, no sense of skim provides any logical derivation but skam is found as an element in names such as the recurring Scam(m)adale ARG, INV and the variants Scammi Dale SHE and Scamodale INV. As far as the Shetland instance is concerned Stewart gives the derivation of the element as ON skammr, 'short' as does Cameron for Scampton LIN. It is also worth noting Skinnaquoy ORK, a name that has developed from Skanaqoy (1595). It may be inferred that the meaning of Skamflat was 'short flat'. Cf. Shortflatt NTB. It is notable in terms of dating names containing the element flat that of the twenty recorded in West Lothian, not a single instance is located on the carselands, which expanse is comprised of land reclaimed in the seventeenth century. Of the seven places quoted by SND, three are recorded c.1240 and the latest in 1327.

In the Falkirk area, over and above Skinflats, we find several such names, all of which are located on the carse. These are: Almond Flat (1399), Carronflat (1542), (which lay a long way from the River Carron having been stranded from it by a change in the course of the river that occurred sometime before 1450), Scotflatt (1655), Reedyflats (1544), Reddoch Flat, (1635), Middleflat (1655), Smallburn Flat (1399), Smoothflats (1805), Wholeflats (1635), Burnsflat (1621), Gallowflat (1569), Ladyflat (1628), Maryflats (Marieflattis), Millflatts (c.1755), Powflat (1700) and Tillyflats (1731).

John Reid (prompted by a local news report …)

SAINTS NAMES AND SAINTS TERRITORIES

There is a category of names which we might call 'hagio-toponyms', i.e. place-names which contain references to saints. Though many of these are the names of churches or parishes, there are also many cemeteries, rocks, wells, burns, etc. named after saints. Scotland needs a systematic survey of such names, because I suspect they may be very useful for understanding the medieval mental map of Scotland. Let me illustrate by looking at two territories and their hagio-toponyms.

The monastery of Abernethy first appears in the record in what seems to be a ninth-century foundation legend [1] which indicates that Abernethy was dedicated to St Brigid. We happen to know from a late twelfth-century charter the extent of Abernethy's territory at that time. Its ecclesiastical possessions included the churches of Abernethy, Flisk and Coultra (later called Balmerino), the chapels of Dron, Dunbog and Erolyn (almost certainly a scribal error for Abdie), and the lands of Ballo and Pitlour.[2] What we see from these holdings, then, is a kind of paruchia or ecclesiastical territory stretching along almost the whole southern coast of the Firth of Tay. What interests me is the position of two wells, both dedicated to St Brigid, patroness of Abernethy, both located on the boundaries of Abernethy's territory. One of them appears as Sanctbrydiswell or Brydswall in a couple of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century boundary charters on the southern limit of the parish of Abernethy, but is now lost. The other well is Bridieswell at the far eastern limit of Abernethy's territory, first appearing in the 1328 x 1332 and still surviving in a street-name in the Gauldry. 

Another Bridget dedication in Abernethy's territory is a field appearing in the nineteenth century as St Bridget’s Land or St Brides Shode beside Dunbog kirk. It is likely that this Brigid-dedication also dates back to the twelfth century or before, when Dunbog kirk was still only a chapel held by St Brigid of Abernethy. Unlike the two wells of St Brigid, this doesn't mark an actual territorial boundary, but I think that, like the wells, it reflects the stamp of Abernethy's medieval territorial claim. 

This pattern of Brigid-toponyms might be best understood as a mother-church or minster-church with several dependent churches and chapels defining its territory by the application of its patron saint's name to two boundary features and a chapel-site. 

Perhaps a similar pattern can be perceived in the parish of Buchanan on the other side of the country.[3] Toward the southern end of that parish lies a village on the shore of Loch Lomond called Balmaha. Though at first sight this looks like a name in Gaelic baile, the early forms (Balomohaw 1682, Ballamahow 1684, Ballomachau 1686, Ballomachaw 1686 etc.) make it almost certain that the generic element is Gaelic bealach 'a pass'. This fits the situation of Balmaha precisely: it is at the south end of a dramatic pass (the Pass of Balmaha) where the Loch Lomond shore road passes through the western shoulder of Conic Hill, actually crossing the Highland Boundary Fault.

The Pass of Balmaha in the wooded middle ground 

The specific element in Balmaha is the saint's name Mo Cha, which is a hypocorism of Kentigerna – formed in a perfectly regular way by the addition of the prefix mo and a lenited form of the first part of the saint's name. She was the patron saint of the parish of Buchanan, which used to be called Inchcailloch in the middle ages. The church of St Kentigerna or Mo Cha was on the island of Inchcailloch (Innis Cailleach 'island of nuns'), until 1621 when it was moved to the mainland. Now the interesting thing about the Pass of Balmaha from our point of view is that it marks what used to be a parish boundary. To the north of the pass lay St Mo Cha's parish of Inchcailloch/Buchanan. South of the pass lay 'the forty-pound land of Buchanan' which until 1618 was a detached part of the parish of Luss on the far side of the loch. The patron of Luss was St Kessog. So Balmaha, 'the pass of (St) Mo Cha', marked the boundary between her territory and that of St Kessog.

St Maha’s Well

Likewise, high on the hillside to the east of Balmaha there is a well on OS maps called St Maha's Well. It is very close to the north-eastern boundary of the forty-pound land of Buchanan, and can therefore also be seen as an old parish boundary marker, separating St Mo Cha's territory from that of St Kessog.

The map shows the forty-pound land at its minimum eastern extent, but it may have stretched as far east as the modern Buchanan-Drymen parish boundary. It would therefore have included the lands of Ballinjour, which seems to be baile an deòraidh 'farm of the dewar or relic-keeper'. It is likely that the eponymous dewar held the only relic we know to be associated with Buchanan: the bell of St Kessog. So here, at the far eastern limit of St Kessog's territory, close to where it meets St Mo Cha's territory, at a point marked by St Mo Cha's well, are the lands of the keeper of St Kessog's bell. The two saints face each other across the medieval boundary, marking their territories with the names of a farm, a well and a pass. 

If hagio-toponyms reflect some medieval boundaries for which we do have documentary evidence, like Abernethy, Inchcailloch and Luss, is it possible that they can also be used predictively to identify the lands and boundaries of medieval territories for which we don’t have documentary evidence? To answer such a question requires the collection of a great deal of data, toponymic and spatial. Now there's a job for someone. 

[1] Marjorie Anderson, Kings and Kingship in Early Scotland (Edinburgh 1973) 247.
[2] RRS ii no. 339. 
[3] For a fuller discussion of this, see Márkus, 'Saints and Boundaries: the Pass of St Mocha and St Kessog's Bell', Journal of Scottish Name Studies 2 (2008) 69-84. 

See also Durkan, J., 1999, 'The place-name Balmaha', Innes Review 50, 88.

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.
John Reid, J. 2010, Material for a place-name survey of East Stirlingshire download (zipped .doc file 1.7MB. Covers the parishes of Airth AIH, Denny DNY, Dunipace DPC, Falkirk FAL, Grangemouth GRM including Bothkennar BKX, Kilsyth KSY, Larbert LRB, Muiravonside MAS, and Slamannan SLM)