Reports:
Ian Fraser – Wings over the Gare Loch – place-names of the Gare Loch illustrated with aerial photos
Stella Pratt – What's in a name? - analysing Anglo-Saxon place-names through landscape features
Bob Guthrie – Place-names in the land o' Burns
Monuments, Gardens, Squares and Cairns throughout Scotland carry the name of Robert Burns. But what of the names of the places where Rabbie and his family lived? This Burns Trail visits Alloway, Mount Oliphant, Lochlea, Tarbolton, Mossgiel, Mauchline and New Cumnock, seeking out local traditions and place-names derivations old and new. All these places are found in that part of Ayrshire known as Kyle.
KYLE
'Twas in that place o' Scotland's isle, That bears the name o'auld 'King Coil,'.These lines from 'The Twa Dogs' shows that Burns was well aware of the local tradition which claimed that Kyle was named after King Coilus, an 8th century king of Britons (1). The cluster of names Coilsfield (Quyltisfield 1342 (2) , Koelsfield 1654 ), Coilsholm (Kolyam, 1654) and Coilsholm Wood (Kolyam Wood, 1654) in the parish of Tarbolton are all said to honour this king. He apparently lies buried in a great tumulus known as King Coil's Grave adjacent to Coilsfield, with his defeated army buried in the adjacent field Dead Men's Holm. In fact the tumulus dates to the Bronze Age and Coilsholm appears to be G. cuingleum 'defile, gorge' with Coilsholm Wood now forming part of Ayr Gorge Woodlands. Coilsfield is perhaps 'the field at the place by the (Coilsholm) wood', from G. coille + suffix location '-us'. Another tradition suggests Coilus is buried at Coylton (Quiltoun, Cuiltoun, Coiltoune, Coyltoune) in the parish of Coylton (3). Again G. coille 'wood' or W. coll 'hazel' have been considered as alternatives, although Coylton 'the settlement on the Water of Coyle', cannot be discounted.
Others consider Coel Hen (c. A.D. 400) as the name-giver of Kyle, Cul, 1153, Cil, 1164 (4). Urien (c. A.D. 650), one of his descendants was the celebrated king of Rheged (Recet), a kingdom formed by the coalition of the Novantae and the Brigantae. The Novantae tribe is named from the River Nith novius 'new, fresh', which has its source in the parish of New Cumnock. On the banks of the Nith sits the farm of Dalricket Mill 'dale of Rheged' (5). cf. Dunragit [Wigtonshire] often quoted as a western outpost of kingdom of Rheged.
ALLOWAY [AYR] (1759-1766)
'And near the thorn, aboon the well, Where Mungo's mither hang'd hersel'. It is perhaps no coincidence that these words from Tam O'Shanter return us to Coel Hen's dynasty. The well is now St. Mungo's Well in honour of the patron-saint of Alloway (6). He was the son of Owen ap Urien (the son of Urien of Rheged) and St. Enoch. Burns' juxtaposition of the pagan (thorn), and Christian (well) elements is a common phenomenon in place-names, ably illustrated by Gowkthorn Well [NEW CUMNOCK] which also contains Scots gowk 'cuckoo', a bird revered in Celtic mythology. Alloway, Auleway 1324, Alwa K, 1654, is similar in form to Alloa, Alva, from G. allmaigh 'rocky plain'. (4).
MOUNT OLIPHANT [AYR] (1766-1777).
Genealogical records show the Oliphant family living at Mount Oliphant in 1741. Burns's father leased this property from William Ferguson, Provost of Ayr who lived nearby in the grander Mount Ferguson, whilst Charles Dalrymple built Mountcharles close to Alloway Kirk. Clearly pre-fixing the family name with the grand sounding mount was in vogue in this corner of Kyle. All are outdone by the biblical Mount Pisgah [CRAIGIE] - Pisgah from where Moses was shown the promised land!
LOCHLEA [TARBOLTON] (1777- 1784)
Lochly,1654, Lochlie,1781. The loch was drained in the 19th century revealing the remarkable Lochlea Crannogs, and thereby the antiquity of the loch. Local pronunciation varies from Loch-lee to Loch-lie suggesting G. liath 'grey' or G. li 'gloss of oil on water', whilst G. lion 'flax' may be discounted, although Burns and his brother were prize winning flax growers at Lochlie in 1781. (6). A possible early form of the name is found in the 14th century '17th June 1307 : Thomas le Convers his horse died at the abbey of Valle. Adam de Swynburn his horse died at Lagolau' (7). Valle is Fail Monastery, to the west of Lochlea, suggesting a skirmish in this area, five weeks after Bruce defeated the Earl of Pembroke at Loudon Hill. Lagolau compares well with the numerous Loch o' the Lowes, Lowes Loch etc. found across Scotland with lowes = loch ?
TARBOLTON [TARBOLTON]
Tarbolton 'the settlement on the hill where Baal ( a pagan god of fertility)was worshipped' . A fanciful derivation offered by a local minister based on the goings-on at the Torbolton June Fair, when' a huge bonfire is kindled, and many of the inhabitants assemble on the hill, apparently chiefly occupied with observing a feat performed by the youths, who are to be seen leaping with indefatigable zeal upon the altar or turf wall enclosing the ashes of former fires, and supporting the present one.' (3). This may well be a case where the place-name has influenced local behaviour! The hill in question is the Tarbolton motte, now known as Hood's Hill, after a local dominie who rented the hill in the 1700 (6). No doubt he was a relative of William 'Souter' Hood, a local kirk elder and a contemporary of Burns.
Tarbolton Torboultoun,1177, Torboltona, 1335. These early forms suggests G. torr 'hill' + OE bopl-tun, 'settlement of the lord's hall'. Further evidence of Anglian settlement is found in a charter of 1335 when, 'John de Graham granted the patronage of the church of Torbolton, with the lands of Unzank, on which the church is built, to Robert de Graham.' (2) Unzank is OE unthanc, 'land held without consent', a common place-name element in Northumberland (cf. Onthank [KILMARNOCK]). Other Anglian names in Kyle include Previck 'pear-tree farm' [TARBOLTON] (8) , Prestwick 'priest's farm' [PRESTWICK] and Corsencon ( Corswintoun 1488) [NEW CUMNOCK] 'rounded-hill of the pig-farm' (see below). All these names in Kyle are likely to be associated with the annexation of 'the plain of Kyle' in 752 A.D by Eadbhert of Northumbria
MOSSGIEL [MAUCHLINE] (1784-1788)
Mosgavill 1588. W. maes 'open field, plain' W.gaefel G. gabhail 'holding'.(4) The farms of East and West Mossgiel lie in the fork of the roads from Mauchline to Tarbolton and to Kilmarnock, suggesting G. gobhal 'fork' as an alternative. Cf. Dargavel [Renfrewshire] and Dungavel [Lanarkshire]. Rabbie on the other hand may prefer Scots gavall ' to revel, live riotously'
MAUCHLINE [MAUCHLINE] (1788)
Machlind i Cuil , c.1130 Machline, a. 1177 Mauchelin, c. 1200 Mauchlyn
The Reverend William Auld (Burns' Daddy Auld in 'The Kirk's Alarm') offers G. magh lion 'field of the flax', (recall flax was grown at Lochlea) (3) whilst another offers G. magh 'field ' + linn,linne 'pool' (3). More recently, Thorbjorn Campbell (9), suggests Macha llyn where Macha was one of a trinity of war-goddesses. As 'Macha the Red', she displayed the heads (called Macha's Acorn Crop) of her defeated enemies on poles. Were these heads washed in Macha's pool before display? Macha was spurned by Cuchulainn, the great war hero and son of Lugh, 'God of Light''. His father is honoured in the local place-name, Loudon O. Celt Lugudunon 'fort of Lugh'(4) . The Lugar Water W.llug 'bright', (4) flows into the River Ayr in the parish of Mauchline, but sadly there is no Macha's pool to be found at the confluence!
NEW CUMNOCK [NEW CUMNOCK] (Passing through 1788)
Comenagh 1296, Comenoc 1307, Cumno 1440, Cumnoch. These early forms show the development of Gaelic -ach > Scots -ock. Cumnock Castle, suggesting G. comunn achadh 'place of the confluence' (10). The seat of the barons of Cumnock stood at the confluence of the River Nith and Afton Water, in what is now the village of New Cumnock in the parish of New Cumnock. [N.B. the original parish of Cumnock was sub-divided into the two new parishes of Old Cumnock and New Cumnock in 1650].
Recently, Andrew Breeze considers Middle Welsh cymynog ' hewing, cutting' and proposes that 'Cumnock as a settlement has been named after a river, as was certainly the case at Irvine, Ayr and Girvan'. A desk-top study of maps of Old Cumnock leads him to offer the rather innocuous burn Carsgailoch Runner, as his afon cymynog (11). There is only one afon in 'the Cumnocks', Old and New, and indeed in Ayrshire, i.e. the Afton Water. Cumnock Castle stood at the mouth of the Afton as Ayr, Girvan and Irvine sit at the mouths of the rivers of the same names.
AFTON WATER [NEW CUMNOCK]
The Reverend Johnston offers G. abh donn 'brown stream' (12) . Rabbie, not a great one for ministers at the best of times, would certainly have found some choice words to rebut this minister's offering. Immortalised the world over by Burns in his enchanting 'Sweet Afton', the bard had originally called his work 'Clear Afton' - brown stream indeed! Comparison may be drawn with Avon Water in the neighbouring county of Lanarkshire 'represents an early British abona ''river, water", now represented by Welsh afon 'river' and not Gaelic abhainn' (4). Interestingly their respective valleys have developed different names Afton Water > Glen Afton; Avon Water > Avondale, Avendale, Strathaven.
CORSENCON HILL [NEW CUMNOCK]
'On Corsincon I'll glow'r and spell, And write how dear I love thee', lines from 'O were I on Parnassus Hill', undoubtedly one of Burns most beautiful and heart-felt works, where he yearns for Mount Parnassus and Mount Helicon, the home of the Muses of Ancient Greece.
Corsencon (Krosnecone, 1205) G. cros na con 'crossing of the hounds' W.J.Watson offers crossing, since he finds no evidence of a cross (4). The ancient route through Nithsdale did indeed pass by a toll and customs point established at Corsencon in 1205. Blind Harry records how the road was destroyed 'At Corssencon the gait was spilt that tide’, at the time of Wallace.
Corsencon Corswintoun {cor-swintoun} 1488 (13), Corsintoune 1512 (14). A 9th century Anglian cross was found in the adjacent lands of Mansfield (15) (formerly Garif) indicative of Anglian settlement, suggesting the element OE swin-tun 'pig-farm'. Adjacent to Corsencon farm is Glenmuckloch (Glenmucklam,1654) G. gleann muclac 'glen of the pig-farm' indicating that later Gaelic speaking settlers continued to farm pigs on the slopes of Corsencon hill. The same Gaelic farmers that would pre-fix the element G. cor 'rounded, tapered hill' to name this magnificent landmark (10), in the same way they had pre-fixed G. dail 'dale' to OE. swin-tun, giving Dalswinton, (16) on the River Nith, 20 miles downstream.
NEW WORLD
Robert Burns has used the rich vein of Scottish place-names to great effect in many of his works Flow Gently Sweet Afton, The Bonnie Lass o' Ballochmlye. Ye Banks and Braes o Bonnie Doon. Such is the impact of his work, he has also influenced place-names as testified by the transfer of the place-name Afton from New Cumnock to the New World, i.e. Afton, Wyoming, Afton Oklahoma, Afton Minnesota, Afton, Iowa, Afton New York and Afton Canyon, California
Sources:
(1) A.M. Boyle 'Ayrshire Heritage'
(2) James Paterson 'History of the Counties of Ayr and Wigton Volume 1, Kyle'
(3) Statistical Accounts of Scotland, Ayrshire 1791-1799 and 1845
(4) W.J. Watson 'The Celtic Placenames of Scotland'
(5) H. Lorimer 'A Corner of Old Strathclyde'
(6) A.M. Boyle 'The Ayrshire Book of Burns-Lore'
(7) Calendar of Documents relating to Scotland, Vol. V (Eds. C.G. Simpson and J.D.Galbraith)
(8) M. Scott 'Privick and Lickprivick' SPNS Conference 2000
(9) T. Campbell 'Ayrshire - A Historical Guide'
(10) R. Guthrie 'History of the parish of New Cumnock'.
(11) A. Breeze ' Brittonic Place-Names from South-West Scotland, Part 2' Trans DGNHAS
(12) J.B. Johnston ' Place-Names of Scotland'
(13) W. McDowall 'History of Dumfries'
(14) J. Strawhorn 'A New History of Cumnock'
(15) J. Stuart 'Sculptured Stones of Scotland, 2'
(16) W.F. H. Nicolaisen ' Scottish Place-Names'
Johan Blaeu ‘Coila Provincia, Atlus Novus 1654’ – source of all names dated 1654 in text
C.J. Rollie 'New Cumnock & Robert Burns'
'Poems and Songs of Robert Burns' (Ed. James Barke)
Maggie Scott – Place-names and the Scots language – toponyms and lexis in southern Scotland
(summary of the paper)
The majority of known evidence for Scottish place-names does not pre-date the twelfth century, and many names are not found in the written record before the Middle Scots period. Consequently, the onomastic record of Scotland contains a wealth of information relating to the Scots language, and studies which compare onomastic and lexical evidence can yield great rewards for the onomastician and historical linguist alike. I have sought to demonstrate this in my recently completed PhD thesis at the University of Glasgow, from which the following examples are derived.
The West Lothian name Dyland was explained by Angus Macdonald in 1941 as ‘dairy land’, and further lexical and onomastic evidence adds support to his interpretation. As noted by Carole Hough, Middle English *dey ‘a dairy’ is ‘securely evidenced’ in English place-names. Middle Scots dey is also recorded by DOST in the compound deywyff ‘a dairywoman’, attested once in a text of 1598. The addition of -wyff ‘woman’ demonstrates that in Middle Scots, dey could also mean ‘a dairy’. However, the compound dey-land ‘dairy land’ is not attested in Scottish or English literary sources, and so the Scottish place-name evidence, together with the support of onomastic evidence from England, allows the identification of a previously unknown Middle Scots compound appellative *day-land.
Motherwell in Lanarkshire is first recorded in the late fourteenth century (Modyrwaile 1363, Modervale 1373). This name has proven problematic, but it may be usefully compared with the modern name Mother Water in Wigtownshire and the lost Cheshire name Modrelake. The Cheshire name has been interpreted as containing an unattested Old English word *modor ‘mud, bog’, cognate with words of similar form and meaning attested in Middle Low German and Middle Dutch. However, there may be a simpler explanation. The word moder is recorded in Middle Scots denoting the ‘source or fountainhead (of a river, stream or the like)’ from the early fourteenth century onwards. This usage is unknown in England. DOST cites a lost Scots place-name Modirlech (1325), and other quotations show similar compounds including the modermyre (15th cent.), and the auld moder burne (16th cent.). From these examples it is evident that Middle Scots moder could be prefixed to other words denoting water or watery places, as lech ‘latch, small stream’, myre ‘mire’ and burne ‘burn, small stream’. I therefore suggest that similar collocations with the elements well, water and lake are found in the place-names Motherwell in Lanarkshire, Mother Water in Wigtownshire and in the lost Cheshire place-name Modrelake.
The material presented by the place-names of Scotland provides an invaluable resource for any investigation into the historical lexis of the British Isles. Scottish place-names are also an important resource for onomasticians, and as their study evolves, it is likely to have a significant impact on the understanding of the Germanic onomasticon of England. The place-names of Scotland therefore deserve greater recognition as a valued national resource for onomastics and historical lexicography.
Maggie Scott