Placename notes from the Newsletters
Autumn 2005
Spring 2005
Autumn 2004
Spring 2004
Water Pollution?
Digitising the Ordnance
Survey
Object Name Books for Fife and Kinross.
The Hill Names They Are
A-Changing....
What does the place-name Aith
signify?
Place-name evidence for portages.
Spelling variations.
The 19 March 2005 edition of The Scotsman,
in association
with Tiso [retailers of outdoor equipment], published a map of
Scotland’s lochs and rivers. Unfortunately, the space-saving
device used occasionally in English of dropping the generic in citing
river-names on maps fell foul of Gaelic rules of grammar. This resulted
in river-names such as Bhuirgh, Dhail, Bharabhais, Ghearadha and
Ghriais, all of which are genitive forms and should be preceded by
Gaelic abhainn ‘river’.
All this comes from misconstruing new (Gaelic) data that has found its
way into place-name data banks, especially as a result of the efforts
of SPNS’s
Place-names Committee. Collins Bartholomew Ltd claims copyright of the
published map, but accepts no responsibility for, among other things,
errors.
Richard Cox
Digitising the Ordnance Survey Object Name Books for Fife and Kinross.
Fife Council’s Archaeological Unit and Archive
Centre have
teamed up to provide local copies of the object name books for Fife and
Kinross. They are available at the Archive Centre and will soon be
available at Cupar, Dunfermline and Kirkcaldy libraries. Local
historical societies will be able to get a copy of the object name
books for their area.
The object name books are an important historical resource, providing a
description of every town, village, building, archaeological site and
natural feature in the landscape in Fife in c.1850. They were
originally used by cartographers between c.1845 and 1855 during the
compilation of the OS First Edition maps of Fife and include notes and
observations on all features on the original maps published in 1856.
Information contained within the object name books include the origins
of these names and variant spellings. The National Archives of Scotland
hold the originals. Users can see them on microfilm at West Register
House.
Adrian Grant, a local researcher, asked Fife Council to get a copy.
Douglas Speirs, the Council Archaeologist could see the benefit for
other users. Initially the plan was simply to get microfilms for use at
the Archive Centre. But we found them difficult to use. There are 135
object name books for Fife and Kinross on 11 reels of microfilm. Each
parish is split between several books, often on different reels.
We decided to digitize the films. The work was done for us by McPherson
Solutions Ltd. It cost £2,200. The object name books can be
consulted as PDF files using Adobe Acrobat. This makes them much easier
to use and to print relevant entries. There are 10 CDs. Image quality
for some entries is variable due to faint areas on the microfilm. But
most of the information is readable.
Local historians, archaeologists and academics were invited to a launch
event on 9May. This gave us helpful feedback about what to do next.
Work has started on a basic index. We are grateful to Ordnance Survey
and the National Archives of Scotland for permission to provide copies.
Andrew Dowsey
The Hill Names They Are A-Changing....
Place-names do change. When I was at school (and most of you, too), our geography lessons took in Rhodesia, Leningrad and Burma: we are now quite comfortable with Zimbabwe, StPetersburg and Myanmar, all politically-inspired changes. But in Scotland, we’re not used to this degree of political instability, and for almost all place-names the most that has happened over the last 500 years has been gradual change by anglicisation, particularly of Gaelic and Norse names.
Ben Nevis (1344m), seen north-westwards across Glen Nevis from Binnein Mòr
Hill-names after however different – quite a
few
have changed.
Unlike settlements, whose people use the local place-names daily, or
farmers possessing the field and stream names, mountains have no such
voice: no-one lives on them permanently, and they are rarely mentioned
in old documents, because they don’t pay rent or owe
allegiance.
In most cases they were first mentioned in maps, starting with Pont 400
years ago. The growth of hill-walking over the last century, bringing
in onomastic outsiders with no cultural link to the mountain areas, has
also affected them.
Let’s look at a few examples. English, the language, is often
blamed for the gradual change (or corruption) of Gaelic names, like Ben
Nevis (from beinn nimheis),
but there are few wholesale changes to charge it with. Sgurr Alasdair,
the highest peak in the Cuillin, was named after Sheriff Alexander
Nicholson who was first to climb it in 1873: local guide John MacKenzie
averred that it was locally known as Sgurr Biorach (pointed), to no
avail. Similarly, An Stac became the celebrated Inaccessible Pinnacle.
Who remembers the old names now? To be fair, the Cuillin are of little
use to anyone but climbers, so who could begrudge them this little
rocky corner. More regrettable has been a change in the hills above
Arrochar, where the striking rocky peak is known almost exclusively now
as The Cobbler. This name refers only to the central peak (of three),
and is probably a translation from the Gaelic an greasaiche
crom.
Timothy Pont, late 16th century, mapped it accurately as
“craggie
hill, Suy Arthire”, and although Gaelic usage changed suidhe
to beinn,
it is correctly mapped as Ben Arthur, after an historical figure.
It’s a pity that guidebooks like the Scottish Mountaineering
Club’s The Corbetts often now
don’t mention the ‘Sunday name’ of this
fine mountain.
Few other English substitute-names have stuck. In the 17th and 18th
centuries, Suilven in the north and Beinn Tàlaidh in Mull
were
both widely known to travellers and sailors as Sugarloaf Mountain, from
their shape, but the original Norse and Gaelic names have won through,
perhaps aided by the fact that most people today buy their sugar in
cuboids instead. The good Scots word pap is probably foreign to the
young today, but has been around long enough to have secured Maiden Pap
hills, singular and plural, in the Helmsdale and Hawick areas; but
Schiehallion was also widely-known by this name in the 18th century,
and is mapped as such by Roy’s military survey
(“Shihalin
or Maiden Pap”) and so-named in the Old Statistical Account.
Not
any more.
English speakers could probably be blamed for Ben Chichnes or beinn
nan cìochan
(mountain of breasts, from its nipple-like tors) becoming Lochnagar
(especially with royalty moving in below it). And they were certainly
culpable for the rocky peak above the Lairig Ghru, locally Bod an
Deamhain (penis of the devil), becoming Victorianified to The
Devil’s Point. However, the mountain that dominates Glen Coe
had
probably an identical name, for Pont (who spelt in line with local
pronunciation) mapped it as Pittindeaun or Boddindeaun; it is now known
as Bidean nam Bian (peak of hides), possibly a corruption of the old
name indeed, but a Gaelic rather than English one. Possibly it rather
suited Canon MacInnes who claimed it was originally bidean
nam beann, peak of the mountains.
Finally, there are many Gaelic hill-names that have simply changed,
from Gaelic to Gaelic, perhaps simply because the people the OS
surveyors got the names from were not the descendants of the ones who
advised Pont or Roy. Thus Byn Yrchory (beinn reidh-choire, level
corrie) for Pont is now Beinn Alligin; Pont’s Bin Kerkill is
now
Meallan Buidhe (though the slope is still An Cearcail);
Pont’s
Ben Leckderg (red stone hill) is now the bizarre Fuar Tholl (cold
hollow); while the Munro now called Seana Bhràigh (old
height)
was Beinn Eag (notch mountain) in the early 20th century, and possibly
the summit in 17th century texts called Scornivar (sgurr?). Perhaps, if
a mountain was large enough to have several names, it was a matter of
chance which one ended up with the approval of the OS: what is now
known to hill-walkers as Creag Meagaidh, was recorded by an early
surveyor as Bui-Annoc (presumably Buidhe Aonach, yellow ridge), and
locally called Corryarder (from coire ardair) in
the 19th century.
Pete Drummond (who is currently revising Scottish
Hill and Mountain Names for a second edition, due 2006)
What does the place-name Aith signify? Place-name evidence for portages.
I have recently been considering Aith names (from Old
Norse eið an isthmus or neck of land) in
both Orkney and Shetland and
wrote an article about my research thus far for The New
Shetlander: Simmer Issue 2005.
In it, I used the definition of eið given
by Oluf Rygh in the introduction to his study of Norwegian farm-names Norske
Gaardnavne (1898). He says, and I translate: ‘It
[i.e. eið]
is now used, as is well known, of a small piece of land linking two
broader strips, and of a deep indentation in a hill, which affords an
easier route between two rural districts or settlements. It gives rise
to many place-names. In addition, in many other instances, the word
seems also to have had another related meaning in former times: a
stretch of land, whether short or long, where it was necessary for
people to divert to a path overland, instead of across water or ice,
which otherwise, because of the defective nature of the roads, had to
be used as much as possible.’
The English word ‘portage’ is, of course, borrowed
from
French, and it implies some form of carrying of boats, supplies etc.
between navigable waterways. Emphasis has tended to be placed on this
aspect of activity associated with eið-names. I am not denying
that
boats were sometimes carried across isthmuses but I think the
place-name element eið has much to tell us
about wider aspects of communication and transportation in former times
as well.
I would be very interested to hear any stories you may have heard about
places which are called Aith. Were such places recognised as meeting
places? Were boats carried across and do you have tales about specific
instances of such activity in recent or more distant years? Were there
well-established paths between rural districts which began or ended at
an eið? Did eiðs
occur in places where it was desirable to avoid particularly rough
stretches of coastal water? And so on …
Doreen Waugh
You can send me an e-mail (doreen.waugh@ed.ac.uk)
or write to me (Scottish Place-Name Survey, 27 George Square, Edinburgh
EH8 9LD).
Bay at Hillswick, Shetland: the book of the 2003 SPNS/SNSBI/NORNA conference is imminent!
The mention of the OS Name Books for Fife prompts
thought
about how
much the First Edition OS maps must have done to fix the spellings of
place-names in the forms now generally used – though the
variation in minor names, between recent maps, can be surprising.
A small-scale map of Scotland on a wall at the Lochgair Hotel near
Lochgilphead, Argyll, is an odd-man-out among the illustrations of the
magnificent fish that guests may hope to catch while based there. It
was published “under the superintendence” of the
magnificently Victorian “Society for the Diffusion of Useful
Knowledge”. No date is given but it must have been after
publication of the 1851 Census, because the population of Scotland,
including islands, is given as 2,870,784 in 1851, and presumably before
publication of its 1861 sequel: hence at about the last moment before
the wide availability of OS maps would have tended to standardize
spellings.
No place of publication is stated but it seems unlikely that compilers
and proofreaders were particularly familiar with southern Scotland,
otherwise errors such as Blainsbie for Blainslie near Galashiels, or a
spurious Berwick on the Kirkcudbrightshire coast – probably
for
Rerrick – would have been less likely to pass through.
However,
there are more than a few other differences from the spellings that we
are now familiar with; on a hurried look through they seem to be
predominantly in southern parts.
A check of early forms would indicate whether
‘Abingdon’
for Abington in Clydesdale shows the influence of a Thames-side town
perhaps more familiar to the compilers. Most of the differences from
modern spellings are much less likely to be accidental, however.
There are numerous very minor variations, such as in Galloway
‘Sorby’ for Sorbie, ‘Dalbeaty’
for Dalbeattie,
‘Tongueland’ for Tongland and
‘Wigton’ for
Wigtown; ‘Tantallan’ for Tantallon and
‘Preston
Pans’ for Prestonpans in East Lothian;
‘Penecuick’
for Penicuik in Midlothian; ‘Aberfoil’ for
Aberfoyle in
Perthshire (as was); ‘Moneekie’ for Monikie in
Angus;
‘Fordon’ for Fordoun in the Mearns; or in the north
‘Doughfour’ for Dochfour by Inverness and
‘Beauley’ for Beauly. None of these implies a
significant
difference of pronunciation.
The same may be true with ‘Broxbourn’ for Broxburn
by
Dunbar, East Lothian, ‘Eymouth’ for Eyemouth,
Berwickshire;
and even ‘Kilmalcolm’ for Kilmacolm, Renfrewshire.
‘Frith of Forth’, as late as the mid 19th century,
may be
more surprising; likewise adjacent ‘Musselburg’ (in
Midlothian as was) without the final h. Were the compilers using a far
from up-to-date map as their source? ‘Canobie’ for
Canonbie
just over the Border from Cumberland and once within England, may
reflect local pronunciation. Also within Dumfriesshire,
‘Ecclesfechan’ for Ecclefechan,
‘Haddam’ for
Hoddom, ‘Dornoch’ for Dornock and
‘Locherby’
for Lockerbie are less easy to regard as definitely homophones of the
modern forms. ‘Lacmaben’ for Lochmaben in the same
county
is quite strange.
Whether ‘Inverleithen’ for Innerleithen in
Peeblesshire is
a late occurrence of an early form or is influenced by better known
places with ‘Inver-’ spellings can only be guessed.
Accidental spelling error is unlikely to be behind
‘Tippermair’ for Tibbermore west of Perth. It can
be ruled
out in the case of ‘Goolan’ for Gullane in East
Lothian,
which local novelist the late Nigel Tranter recorded as being the
pronunciation of indigenes, and is consistent with ProfWilliam
Watson’s topographically apt suggestion of Gaelic gualainn,
‘at shoulder’. (How the hyper-genteel
‘Gillen’
pronunciation arose would be an interesting study in itself.)
As a further hint of how different things were when
Scotland’s
population was little more than half of the 5 million now crammed in to
its limited habitable areas, the urban and industrial sprawl of
Motherwell (Lanarkshire) is not even named on the map, its place still
taken by the ancient parish name of Dalziel.
William Patterson
The mystery of the
Kings
(and other top people)
Identity Problems
David
Dorward’s The Sidlaw Hills
THE MYSTERY OF THE KINGS (AND OTHER TOP PEOPLE)
David Dorward in his ‘Scotland’s
place-names’
wrote that “ . . there are few Scottish place-names that
embody
the English word ‘king’”, in contrast to
England
(e.g. King’s Lynn), although he goes on to except Scottish
city
street-names from this rule. The Scots are not particularly royalist,
or sycophantic, and Dorward’s remarks are certainly true for
settlement names. But I noticed recently, working on Lowlands
hill-range names, that there appear to be a lot of hill-names which
break this rule. There are, on O.S. maps, at least 42 hills, variously
called King’s . . . Seat (20 instances), Chair, Hill (or
Hillock), Knowe, Law, or Side. By and large they are not big hills,
although one in the Ochils is 648m., one in the Pentlands is 463 metres
and there are several in the 300 - 400m. range: significantly the
second highest at 531m. is on the border with England, near The
Cheviot. They are all summits in the sense that if you walk in any
direction from them, you drop downhill, bar one or two in the upper
Angus Glens which appear to be belvederes part way up a shoulder.
What is intriguing is that none of them, to my knowledge, has a link to
any king. Very few are mentioned in the place-names literature: the
Ochils’ 648m. example was known alternatively as Innercairn
in
the 18th century, according to Angus Watson’s book on the
area.
David Dorward’s book on the Angus Glens says of
King’s Seat
(a rocky slope) that Charles the Second was the only monarch known to
have been in the glen “but a possible reference to him is not
substantiated”; while in his book on the Sidlaws, its
King’s Seat is quoted as being ‘the most shapely of
the
Sidlaws’ [there’s not much competition!] and
Dorward says
vaguely about the etymology that ‘the hill is said to have
been
frequented by some monarch of ancient times’.
Edinburgh’s
Kingsknowe area (also a golf course and station name) is said by Stuart
Harris in his book to be from a 17th century tenant farmer named
William King: this might be a possibility for some of the other names,
but King is not a very common Scottish surname. None of the other
instances can I find in general place-name works, neither in magna
opera like W. J. Watson’s or Bill
Nicolaisen’s, nor in local books on hills like W.
Grant’s on the Pentlands.
If I was into historical speculation, I might point out that the
Sidlaws King’s Seat overlooks Dunsinane, made famous by
Shakespeare as the hill to which Birnam Wood was to march on Macbeth;
whilst Birnam Wood itself is overlooked by two hills both called
King’s Seat, the higher being 404m., the lower sporting an
ancient hill-fort. Only one other of the King hills appears to have an
ancient hill-fort (a feature more usually signified by dun,
reive or keir).
The distribution of the King names is mainly in the eastern Lowlands: a
scatter in the north-east, clusters on either side of Strathmore, the
Ochils and the hilly fringes of the Lothians. I also mapped the 19
hill-names carrying the cognate title Laird (Laird’s Hill,
Seat,
Knowe and Side), and found they barely overlapped with King names, and
are found especially in the hilly parts of Renfrewshire, Ayrshire and
the southern Borders. The King and Laird names’ distribution
are
thus concentrically related, and curiously another cognate, Earl names,
form a swathe mainly between the two: the dozen (most commonly
Earl’s Seat) are mainly in the Campsies (including that
range’s highest at 578m.), the Kilpatricks, and the hills of
East
Ayrshire near New Cumnock. Again, with the sole exception of The
Laird’s Tablecloth, a lingering snowfield on Beinn
a’Bhuird
in the Cairngorms – Adam Watson’s book has the
story behind
it – these Laird and Earl names have no more link than the
Kings
to particular people. Do any members know different?
Pete Drummond
IDENTITY
PROBLEMS
According to local tradition, the site of St Gordian’s kirk
lies
in a side valley off the Manor Water south-west of Peebles.
By the reputed site of St Gordian's kirk, in Manor
parish,
Peebleshire.
There is an obvious platform where the kirk once stood.
The
place is
confidently marked by a modern Celtic cross and an ancient cross-base.
But: the cross-base was imported in the 19th century, probably from
close to the at least twice rebuilt parish kirk of Manor near the foot
of the Manor valley; there is no obvious well or burn just at hand, as
would be expected from an ancient church site; and the visible remains
are more consistent with late mediaeval settlement. Yet: close uphill
was found an inscribed stone stylistically dated to the late 6th
century - +CONINIE and below that [--]RTIRIE. A fragment of the second
missing letter shows that it virtually has to be E. This appears to
rule out the ‘obvious’ reconstruction as MARTIRIE,
hence
‘[Memorial or place] of the martyrdom of Coninia’.
But:
according to Prof John Koch MERTIRIE is, in terms of language history,
a plausible late 6th century British spelling of what would in
classical Latin have been MARTYRIAE.
So perhaps the place-name Kirk Hope is not without some foundation,
though on modern maps it strictly refers to a tributary valley upstream
of that site. Newholm Hope appears to contain a lost Neuway,
derived from ancient Celtic nemeton and
indicating a ritual grove or enclosure in pre-Christian times; such
sacred places were often converted to early Christian use. There is a
series of strange cairns at Newholm Cairns Hill, at the head of the
hope, by the old track called Thief’s Road. But: these cairns
are
recent, not among the hundreds of prehistoric heaps of stones in the
Border hills.
As for StGordian, this would be the only such dedication in Britain. It
is the name on the bell dated 1483 at Manor kirk which has apparently
survived two rebuildings and so indicates that the dedication was well
established there; but mediaeval records refer rather to St Gorgon and
the name also appears later as Gorgham. Was Gordian, perhaps better
known from relics at Canterbury, a distant bell-founder’s
mistake? Gordian was a boy martyr at Rome in 362; Gorgon, a soldier,
was martyred in 303, his body was much later brought to Lorraine, and
he has some dedications in France; and as if that were not enough a
Gorgonia (ob. 375) was a role model of early Christian matronhood. Any
of these might be an appropriate association for a female martyr,
member of a local ruling family.
Hypotheses: (1) the name Kirk Hope does not recall a former kirk of the
martyr St Gordian or Gorgon, because that dedication always belonged to
the predecessor of the present parish kirk, but is a rationalisation of
a vague yet justified traditional association of the side valley with a
martyr; (2) less likely, there was a small chapel, but further west,
perhaps at Old Kirkhope.
WP, with help from RCAHMS’s indispensable CANMORE website.
This inviting track in delectable hill-walking country, off the west side of the Manor valley in Peeblesshire, leads past the reputed site of St Gordian’s kirk (behind and to right of camera) to the buildings of Old Kirkhope (left of centre), with Kirk Hope hidden to right and Newholm Hope to left. In the Border hills place-names such as Kirkstead, Kirkhope or Chapelhope may be a clue to long lost church buildings.
BOOK REVIEW
David Dorward’s The Sidlaw Hills
published (posthumously) by Pinkfoot Press, 2004, £7.95. ISBN
– 1-874012-46-6. 162 pages.
This is a beautifully produced book. Like its predecessor The
Glens of Angus,
it is charmingly illustrated by Colin Gibson’s pen and ink
drawings, and well put together in a very reasonably-priced paperback,
for which Pinkfoot Press are to be congratulated. Sadly, David, a
leading SPNS member, did not live to see it published, passing away
late 2003 (obituary in newsletter no. 16): his standing in the world of
Scottish place-names was already assured by the Angus Glens book, and
books on Dundee names, on Scottish surnames, and the widely known Scotland’s
Place-Names,
a popular account of the commoner elements composing place-names,
published 25 years ago. This latter book gives the clue to the
tradition he stood in, for although scholarly he was not strictly a
scholar working in the academic field of onomastics. Dr. Simon Taylor
(who is!), in his fine introduction to the new book, writes kindly of
this distinction, and shrewdly notes that “ . . David wanted
to
be a bridge between the scholarly and the popular, and if he had become
too scholarly he would never have achieved what he did.”
In consequence, The Sidlaw Hills is written with a
light touch.
Those working on the (very honourable) academic veins of our
place-names interest might frown at some aspects of his explanations,
unsecured by references or footnotes – for instance, under
King’s Seat he quotes from anon . . ‘the hill is
said to
have been frequented by some monarch of ancient times’
–
but it certainly makes for an accessible read. What is not in doubt is
that the thousand or so names have been thoroughly researched, and
there are assuredly no howlers of the kind you find in tartanalia
booklets. But this is not just a book on place-names: indeed the
gazetteer listing names and explaining meanings occupies about one
third of the book. The remainder explores the landscape and the
history, and suggests some walks – clearly David knew and
loved
this country.
The Sidlaws are not big hills. There are no Munros, Corbetts, or
Grahams, and the highest (Craigowl – creag gobhal,
forked hill, probably from the bifurcation of the old tracks over it)
at 1492 feet, suffers the modern indignity for titchy hills of having
communications masts speared on its top. As David himself notes, most
of the other Sidlaw hills are named after settlements at their feet
– so the cousins, the Pentlands and Ochils, could look down
their
hill-shoulders at them. But that does not detract from the charm of the
area, or from the fascination of the place-names of this corner of
Scotland. A book that is excellent value for money – I
recommend
it.
Pete Drummond
On the Cusp
Carloway, Lewis
The Blaeu Map of
Stirlingshire
Recent Research
Crumbystruder
A piece of ground called
'Anna'
A great tract of alluvial land skirts the southern banks of the upper Firth of Forth. It stretches upwards from the River Avon to just above the confluence of the rivers Forth and Teith. Anciently this was called “the Carse of Stirling” with discreet areas being distinguished such as “Carse of Callendar” and “Carse of Bothkennar”. The inner edge of the carse is marked by a raised beach, roughly lying between the 10 and 20 meter contour lines of the Ordnance Survey. This feature is recognised in a number of place-names. Many of these have been coined in English but a few are recognisably Celtic in origin; some quite obvious in this context with others being less transparent. Obviously, the feature comprises three components: the overlying plateau (anciently known as the ‘dryfield’), the level land at the foot consisting of carseland and the incline between these. Only the line from the River Avon [NS9581] to Kersie Pow [NS8690] has been studied in depth and so the present article is confined to that sector.
Starting with the plateau, we find the naming elements
along
the
top tend to be those used of hills. Indeed, at the southern extremity,
lying in the angle made by the River Avon and the Small Burn is Polmont
Hill, possibly the monaidh of Polmont. Beancross
[NS9279 - 1640 Beincroce; 1661 Beinecorse]
is at a place where the escarpment protrudes out into the carse. It is
possible that the first element is Gael. beann,
‘top, hill’ and, if so, the name may represent a
corrupt *beann n’ carse:
comparable with the name Kerse Hill. Between Falkirk and the River
Carron the raised beach is very evident and is marked by KERSE HILL,
[NS8980 – c1760 Kersehill] while close to
there was THORNBERRY [NS9080 - 1760 sic]. This was
part of the lands of Thorn and the name contains a generic deriving
from OE beorg, ME berz
‘hill’. Another hill element, Gael. àrd
is found in the name KINNAIRD [NS8884 – 1164 x 1214 Kinard],
an estate overlooking the Carse of Bothkennar. The name translates to
‘hillhead’ or ‘hillend’. Either
would fit here
but it is worth remarking that there is no hill at that place other
than the relevant feature. Following the raised beach northwards round
from Kinnaird are HILL OF KINNAIRD [NS8785 - 1736 Hill of
Kinnaird] and DRUM OF KINNAIRD [NS8785 – 1817 Drum]
from Gael druim,
‘ridge’. Less than a kilometre away is DRUM OF
SKAITHMUIR
[NS8884 – 1668 Drume of Skaithmure]. Each of these sits on
the
plateau with the only eminence in sight being the raised beach.
Among the group of names that acknowledge the top of the escarpment is
WINDYEDGE. Two instances of this name are recorded. One was a holding
on Polmont Hill where the feature runs above and parallel to the Avon
[NS9479 – c1590 Windyedge]. The other was
to the north, in Larbert parish, where it lay above the Carse of
Bothkennar [NS8884 - 1655 Windie Edge].
Standing at Windyedge on a bracing day soon brings the realisation that
the meaning is literal. Both names are now lost although they survived
into the nineteenth century. One of the principal highways from Falkirk
led to the estate of West Kerse. Now called Kerse Lane, it was known
formerly as RANDYGATE [NS891800 - 1620 Randiegaitt].
On reaching the carse it runs down the raised beach to cross the
Ladysmill Burn by the RANDYFORD [NS900804 - 1508 Randifurd].
The defining root in each of these comes from OE rand,
‘edge, border, a brink, a shore’. An inland example
of
Randyford is found in the parish of St Ninians where the present-day
bridge crossing the Endrick is approached down a steep slope. The Roman
fort of Mumrills [NS9179 - 1544 Momerillis; 1552 Munmerallis],
the largest on the Wall, lies on the promontory above Beancross.
Sitting as it does on the escarpment it is possible that this
problematic name also belongs to the edge group. It might reconstruct
(albeit in a primitive form) to something like *Min-mawr-ell,
on the basis of Welsh min, ‘brink, edge,
lip’ and mawr, ‘big, great, high’ with
the suffix ell, giving a meaning of ‘high
edge place’. Just as din can become don
[*din-aven > Donavane
1527] so too might min evolve to mon
with –n- suffering elision. The terminal –s
is due to the existence of two divisions: Acres of Mumrills lying on
the carse and Braes of Mumrills on the raised part.
The slope of the escarpment is a conspicuous feature of the landscape
that it traverses. As we should expect, therefore, many of the local
names allude to it. Not surprisingly, the banks and braes are present.
Close to the Avon at Polmont Hill is found CLERKSTON BANK [NS9579 -
1671 Clarkstoun Banks] lying on the lands formerly
known as Clerkston but now Avondale. In that same area was KERSIEBANK
[NS9379 – 1551 Carsiebank]
(known today as Inchyra Grange). This name implies an entity called
Kersie at this place. We may compare it with Kersie in Airth parish
which was (c1150) Carsach, ‘carse
place’. Carsiebank is identical in meaning with the Celtic
KERSEBROCK [NS867852 1547 Corsbruk] which place
sits on the ledge immediately above the carselands north of Larbert.
The second element is Gael. bruich (gen., bruaich),
‘bank’. Just outside the study area, a little to
the north in a similar situation, is CARBROOK [NS8385 - 1477 Carbrok]
which appears to have the same root as its terminal. On the lands of
Dalderse lay SLEDBANK [NS8982 – 1638 sic].
The origins of Sled- are recognisable in Norw.
Dial. slade,
‘a slope’, ON slade, ‘a slight
incline’ and the
cognate OE slæd, a valley. Further north, in the parish of
Airth
is found another unusual name (at least in the context of the study
area): LINKFIELD [NS8886 1817 sic]. This is from
dial. English link, from OE hlinc,
‘a ridge, a bank’. Examples of brae have been
identified. BURN BRAE [NS9579 - 1574 Burne Bray]
may incorporate a personal name as the resident local family there had
the surname Burn. A little way to the north is CADGERS BRAE [NS9379 -
1879]. There are many “Cadgers Loans” in Scotland;
one
school of thought associates them with the carriage of grain to
corn-mills. This would be appropriate in the local context as the road
in question leads from the carselands of Abbotskerse to Polmont Mill,
the baronial mill of that holding. ICEHOUSE BRAE [NS9178] is a modern
creation, named from an ice manufactory operating there in the early
twentieth century. One of the divisions of Mumrills was BRAES OF
MUMRILLS [NS9179 - 1806 Braes of Mumeralls]. Part
of the escarpment runs through the parish of Airth where it gave rise
to the name LETHAM [NS896868 - 1392 Latham]. A
commonly recurring place-name in eastern Scotland, it derives from
Gaelic leathan 'broad slope’. A common
place-name element in Scotland is bent which is
usually held to derive from ME bent,
‘long course grass, especially on moorland and near the
sea’. Names having this element in Scotland are widespread.
In
the study area the one thing they have in common is a location on a
bank or slope and it is not surprising, therefore, to find that
Jamieson defines the word as “bent, the
slope or ridge of a hill, a hillside”; it would seem to be a
form of band,
where the latter means ‘the ridge of a hill’.
Stratman’s Middle English Dictionary defines it both as
‘field’ and ‘hillside’.
Certainly, it was used
in this sense by Chaucer when he has one of his characters falling down
the “bent” of a stream. [Robinson, F.N. (Ed),
‘The
Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer’, p934] Along the
escarpment
places having this element are: BENT OF BOTHKENNER [NS8982 1671 Bent
of Bothkenner]; BENTS [NS886840 - 1817 sic];
BENTS [NS889843 - 1753 sic]; BENSFIELD [NS886840
– 1855 Bentsfield]; BENT WOOD [NS8385 -
1796 the Bent Wood].
At the foot of the raised beach was the carse. Here, between the Avon
on the south and the Carron on the north, lay the great expanse of
CARSE OF CALLENDAR [NS9379 - 1230 Carso de Kalentyr].
In the thirteenth century the thanedom of Callendar was divided and the
estates of East Kerse and West Kerse emerged. A dependant holding of
Holyrood Abbey. East Kerse came to be known as the barony of
Abbotskerse. North of the Carron lay the CARSE OF BOTHKENNAR [NS8993
– 1359 Cars de Buthkener]. Surprisingly,
apart from these
major place-names, only one lesser division lying at the immediate foot
of the escarpment incorporates carse into the name: Little Kerse. It is
situated in a piece of carseland lying between the promontory of
Polmont Hill and the Small Burn. Elsewhere other terms reflect the foot
of the escarpment. At the place where the line crosses the East Burn of
Falkirk a tract of arable land lying between the burn and the
escarpment was known as BOTTOM [NS8980 – 1621 Boddom].
While ME boðom
is usually associated with valley bottoms here it is applied to a very
much one sided feature. Immediately to the north the lands of Mungall
extend west to east and on the far side another stretch of carseland is
named BOTTOMS [1755 - Bottoms]. In that same area
were CUTBOTTOM [NS8982 - 1717 Cuttbottom] and
LONGBOTTOM [1684 Langbottome] which may have been
the component parts of Bottoms. Adjacent to this was FLOORS [NS8982 -
1760 Floors]. One of the most common naming
elements in the carseland is flat. In Yorkshire, ON flat ‘a
piece of flat level ground’ came to be used of a division of
the
common field. On the carselands there seems to have been a similar
usage insofar as the places so named often emerged as discreet arable
holdings. Close to Bottom was BURNSFLAT [NS8980 - 1621 Burnsflett]
located beside Ladysmill Burn. Without doubt having some association
with the mill was LADYFLAT [NS8980 – Ladyflat],
for it is given as an alias for the lands of Randyford which ford, it
may be recalled, crossed the same stream. GALLOW FLAT [NS9179
–
1569 Gallowflat] is not as sinister as it sounds.
It was
associated with the Gallow Syke which flowed from the Gallow Hill,
which last is most likely to be, ultimately, from OE galla,
‘a sore’, used in England in the names of wet spots
in
fields. The feudal situation in the immediate area would exclude this
as a site of execution. In the corner between the Avon and the incline
was HOWATFLAT [NS9481 - 1606 CRE Howatflat] which
name has an
adjectival form of how, ‘depression, low-lying piece of
ground’. It may be compared with the farm in Bothkennar
parish
called Howkerse and is an indication of the perceptions of those who
lived and worked these lands. MILLFLATTS [NS8882 - 1755 Millflat]
lies beside the River Carron. These were part of the mill-lands of
Mungall Mill, the baronial mill of the lands of West Kerse, and so the
name is self-explanatory. Next to Millflatts, between the mill lade and
the West Burn which feeds it, is a piece of land known as
“the
MULLOCH [NS8882 - 1847 Mulloch]. James B Johnston
in his
‘Place-Names of Stirlingshire” states that the name
of this
piece of meadowland was from Gael. mullach,
‘top’
(despite being less than half a kilometre from Bottoms and at the same
altitude). An estate plan of 1765 names this piece of land
“Haugh”. Perhaps if Mr Johnston had spoken the
local patois
he would have recognised that Mulloch actually represents
‘mill-haugh’.
John Reid
REVIEW: THE PLACE-NAMES OF CARLOWAY, LEWIS
Richard Cox’s doctoral thesis, a substantial tome of over 480 pages, has been published by the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies in 2002. As the author states in his preface, the volume deals with some 3000 Gaelic place-names recorded mainly in the area of West Lewis known officially as the Carloway Registry for Births, Deaths and Marriages. The area covers about 150km2, and involves a total of 13 crofting townships, containing some 440 crofts.
The challenge posed by collection, collating, and
interpreting
this
corpus of place-names can only be imagined. The process of collection
itself is protracted, fraught with pitfalls, and can be highly
frustrating. After all, Richard Cox was dealing with a population which
knows its ground extremely well, backed up as it was by generations of
crofters, who had been steeped in an active and lively oral tradition,
and who were among the most fluent Gaelic speakers in the Western
Isles. Some 70 informants, a few of whom were born in the 1890s,
provided the oral information. The documentary material ranged from
Dean Monro (1549) to the Seaforth Muniments (1753-95) and early OS maps.
The book is divided into 13 sections, which cover: an introduction; an
assessment of the origin, function and future survival of the
place-name; syntax; onomastic structure; stress; morphology;
prepositions; phonetic phenomena; Norse loan-names; the onomasticon;
loan-words; and chronology. This is followed by appendices with
documentary sources and bibliography, and then the Gazetteer, 245 pages
long, completed by a Register of Elements, indexes of Lewis and
Scottish Gaelic place-names, plus an index of words and other names.
The Gazetteer has a short introduction (pp143-4) which describes the
layout. The grid references for each name are usually four digits,
phonetic transcriptions are clearly laid out and defined, while
translations, brief descriptions and derivations are appended, with any
relevant documentation. With such a mass of data, it was clearly
necessary to compress items into as compact a format as possible, but
this reader found no difficulty in using the entries, since the overall
layout is practical and methodical. Despite the need for compactness,
those traditional explanations by informants have not been ignored. The
delightful Creagan na h-Ulaidh (p257, item no.1717)
where an unsuccessful ‘dig’ for buried treasure
took place, and Leabaidh na h-Aon Ìghn
(p308, no.2513) where a jilted young woman fell to her death, are two
good examples. Such entries add a very human touch to what might
otherwise have been a technical account of the onomastic record.
But the entire work very much reflects the nature of a language (with
its associated cultural tradition) which is on the verge of dying out.
All languages develop, change and modify their structures, but minority
languages are most vulnerable to being overwhelmed. The task which
Richard Cox undertook over 20 years ago may well now be virtually
impossible to emulate, since his informants then were aged over 70 on
average, and the loss on tradition from one generation to the next is a
recognised phenomenon, whether it is language, song or narrative.
This writer can say no further, but express a great debt of gratitude
for a unique piece of research, lovingly carried out, and skilfully
presented. The final word, however, could be with one of
Richard’s informants, Anne MacLeod, of South Dell, born in
1900.
She said of An Tom Dubh, a knoll not far from her
house:
’S ann thall an sin a chleachd e bhith!
‘It used to be over there!’
Review by Ian Fraser
The Gaelic Place-Names of Carloway: Their Structure and
Significance.
Richard A V Cox, School of Celtic Studies, Dublin Institute for
Advanced Studies, 2002. Dublin, ISBN 1 85500 192 6, 484pp. No price
stated.
THE BLEAU MAP OF STIRLINGSHIRE: THE PLACE-NAMES
In an article divided between issues
18
and 19 of ‘Calatria’, John Reid (see
first article in this section)
has listed all the place-names on Johan Blaew’s 1654 map of
Stirlingshire, for which the main source was the end-of-16th-century
survey by Timothy Pont. The names on the map include some outwith the
county itself: in all 373 names, of which 323 are in Stirlingshire, 31
in West Lothian and 14 in east Dunbartonshire, with a few in Fife,
north Lanarkshire and Clackmannan.
After a brief explanatory introduction each name is listed by county,
with a modern identification in all but a few intractable instances, a
note of Pont’s manuscript version where Blaeu made a wrong
transcription, OS grid reference, and useful references for the first
known record of the name. No doubt this part of the work would have
been the most intensive in research effort and time, as no less than 43
sources are stated, besides ‘Calatria’ itself.
Further
value for place-name and historical research is added by notes of any
appearances in the monuments inventory of the Royal Commission on the
Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS) or
Fleming’s Castles and Mansions,
and of the latest recorded date where a name is extinct. In a very
concise form the article thus provides all the most essential
information. Just to look at a Blaeu map of another area, and to
contemplate how demanding a similar exercise would be, is good enough
reason to applaud this contribution to our field of interest. WP
‘Calatria’ is published biannually by Falkirk Local
History
Society. It mainly covers aspects of history and archaeology pertinent
to Falkirk District but occasional articles of a more general kind are
also included. Subscriptions and back-issues (except Nos. 1 and 8) can
be had from the editor: Ian Scott, 11 Neilson Street, Falkirk,
Stirlingshire.
Over the past five years several doctoral
theses
relating to
Scottish place-name studies have been completed. While some have been
mentioned in SPN News, others have not. Here is as comprehensive a list
as I have been able to compile, including work in progress. Please let
me know if I have omitted anything. - Simon Taylor: st4@st-and.ac.uk
Peder Gammeltoft 2001, The
place-name
element bólstaðr in the North
Atlantic area, published Ph.D., University of Copenhagen,
Denmark.
Alison Grant, 2004, ‘Scandinavian
Place-Names in Northern
Britain as Evidence for Linguistic Contact and Interaction’,
unpublished Ph.D., University of Glasgow.
Davyth Hicks, 2004, ‘Language,
History and
Onomastics in
Medieval Cumbria: An Analysis of the Generative Usage of the Cumbric
Habitative Generics Cair and Tref’, unpublished Ph.D.,
University
of Edinburgh.
Berit Sandnes, 2003, Fra Starafjall
til
Starling Hill: Dannelse og utvikling av norrøne stednavn
på Orknøyene,
published Ph.D., NTNU Trondheim, Norway [‘From Starafjall to
Starling Hill: formation and development of Norse place-names in
Orkney’, an in-depth study of the Norse place-names of the
parishes of Evie, Rendall and Firth on the west mainland of Orkney]
Maggie Scott, 2004, ‘The Germanic
Toponymicon of Southern
Scotland: place-name elements and their contribution to the lexicon and
onomasticon’, unpublished Ph.D., University of Glasgow
[focuses
in detail on place-name elements which are unrepresented in England and
unrepresented in the literary corpus - also includes an extensive
appendix of the 500+ Germanic (i.e. Old English, Old Norse and Scots)
elements so far identified in southern Scotland]
Anke Beate Stahl, 1999, ‘Place-Names
of
Barra in the Outer
Hebrides’, unpublished Ph.D., University of Edinburgh [covers
place-names in the whole Barra island group, including Vatersay and
Mingulay]
Angus Watson, 2002, ‘Place-Names,
Land and
Lordship in the
Medieval Earldom of Strathearn’, unpublished Ph.D.,
University of
St Andrews.
Ph.D.s in Progress:
Rachel Butter, on the early church in Argyll,
including extensive use of toponymic evidence, Department of Celtic,
University of Glasgow.
Jacob King, on hydronyms in Scotland,
Department of
Celtic and Scottish Studies, University of Edinburgh.
Alan MacNiven, on Norse settlement on Islay,
including extensive
use of toponymic evidence, Scandinavian Studies Institute, University
of Edinburgh.
Peadar Morgan, on ethnonyms in Scottish
place-names,
Department of Scottish History, University of St Andrews (part-time).
Is the scrub-covered, curving hollow, at NG reference NT5668, the lost ‘Crumbystrudir Myr’? Wide-angle view from north-east: Lammer Law is on far left horizon. The viewpoint is beside the sharp corner of the road, at the top of the 1855 map extract.Carfrae farm buildings are, as would be consistent with Cumbric *cair + bre, on the higher ground to the north-east.
An article in the Transactions of the East
Lothian
Antiquarian and Field Naturalists’ Society (vol. 5, 1952)
discusses a splendid series of documents in the large collection known
as the Yester Writs. It concentrates on a boundary perambulation made
in 1526 by arbiters in a dispute, which had been going on for more than
two centuries, between Giffard and later Hay lords of Yester and the
Prioresses of the Nunnery of Haddington. While presenting a solution to
the sequence of places in the northern Lammermuir Hills named in the
perambulation, it gives up on the ‘Crumbystrudir
Myr’/
‘Crumstruthermyr’/ ‘myre of
Crummer-struthir’
as variously spelled in separate documents of that year, where there
had been a related dispute about rights to dig peat. It was evident
that the mire must be somewhere to the west of
‘Carfra’/‘Carfray’ (now
Carfrae) and east of
the Hays’ home estate of Yester with Duncanlaw. It obviously
also
had to contain peat resources worth arguing about between the Lord and
the Prioress, not to mention a peripheral involvement of the Abbot of
Newbattle who also apparently had a claim to part of the mire. Beyond
noting the existence of the modern Myreside farm (NS537696)
1½km
north of Gifford (Duncanlaw is just east of the present village, itself
a later relocation of the old settlement of Bothans which was farther
south, nearer Yester Castle) and that any peat bog in that general
vicinity must have been drained and improved into the fine farmland
that it is now, no attempt was made to locate the splendidly
archetypical Middle Scots ‘Crumbystrudir Myr’.
This was an opportunity missed, because the name itself could hardly
give more precise directions to its location.
‘Crumby-’ is
reminiscent of Celtic formations such as Abercrombie in Fife,
‘mouth of stream characterised by bend(s)’
(Abbercrumby
1270): Old Irish cromb¸ Gaelic crom,
Welsh crwm, ‘bent’. But there
is also a likely Old English source with the same meaning, and very
similar form, crump/crumb (German cognate krumm)
for Scots words such as crumby/crummie,
‘cow with crooked horns’. Whilst the exact
linguistic
provenance of this part of the name may be uncertain, there can be
little doubt that we are looking for a feature with at least one
distinctive bend.
As for the ‘strudir’ or
‘struther’, here too the kinship of OE and Celtic
words is unusually visible. Strother is a northern
variant of strod, for which a typical sense is
‘marshy land overgrown with brushwood' 1.
In parallel, Gaelic has sruth,
‘stream’, with expanded form srutha(i)r 2.
Both pairs, like the rare Cornish element streyth
(without cognates in Welsh or Breton)3
are part of a large Indo-European family with the basic connotation of
‘flow’, and it is in Germanic that the sense of
this branch
of the family has shifted towards connotations of marshy ground.
Nevertheless ‘-struther’ place-names are associated
with
relatively low ground – which is also where streams would be
found, often flanked by marshy strips with brushwood tolerant of damp
conditions – and it is unlikely that the term ever extended
to
upland blanket bog. The addition of ‘mire’ to the
name in
question suggests that ‘struther’ by the early 16th
century
was already out of general lexical use in this area, and Crumbystrudir
was fossilised as an appellative.
So: is there, between Carfrae and Yester lands and accessible to those
living on both, a candidate for a substantial area of low-lying peat
mire with brushwood vegetation, and of bent shape? The size and shape
criteria are instantly satisfied by reference to any accurate and
reasonably detailed map since the first OS survey in 1855, of which a
small extract is shown below; most of it is in modern National Grid 1km
square NT5668. The tight bend is part of a sharply incised but largely
level-bottomed valley which runs between the Gifford Water, to the
south-west, and the Papana Water, to the northeast. At the bend,
roughly marking the watershed, the valley is at its broadest and its
bottom is flat and at present quite heavily covered with damp-ground
scrub, such as sallow bushes, though with open patches containing
plants such as meadowsweet which also thrive in very moist soil. It
would be a reasonable presumption that this extensive hollow is filled
with deep peat.
Certainly the southward continuation of this area held peat, because
John Martine wrote in 1885 that the 8th Marquis of Tweeddale 4,
owner of the Yester estate, “accomplished a great work in
deepening and cleaning out Danskine Loch thirty to forty years ago. A
very large quantity of peat moss was taken out of it, and hauled up the
steep banks in trucks by steam engines …5”
This is now within the 31.5ha ‘Danskine Loch Site of Special
Scientific Interest’ (SSSI). From this the outflow to the
south
joins the Danskine Burn, flowing down north-westward from the
Lammermuir escarpment to join the Gifford Water. Danskine Lodge is on
the downstream side of the Gifford-Duns road which passes the southern
tip of the loch, and Danskine Farm is on higher ground to the
south-east. The great William Watson 6
treated the name
as ‘Dunskine’, without explaining his preference
for that
over the usual form, and speculated on a probable origin as Gaelic Dun-sgine,
‘knife-fort’. However, it is on record that there
was a
‘Danskine Inn’, long gone by Martine’s
time but once
busy with travellers between Gifford and Duns, and a more plausible
explanation that has been suggested is that the inn, and then the other
features, were named from an inn-keeper with the still extant surname
Danskin(e), originally someone from Danzig (German)/ Gdansk (Polish).
Thus this name is probably relatively recent, and may have displaced
older place-names. Moreover, with the massive expansion of estate
woodland planting and the readier availability of coal after the 16th
century, there would have been less reason to exploit a moss for its
fuel, and thus to frequent it and keep its name in use.
The roads which are obvious on the 1855 map extract are still much the
same, apart from a skin of tarmac and slight easing of bends. The more
easterly is part of the route that links the former Nunnery’s
granges at Carfrae, Newlands to the south
(‘Nunland’ in
1327), and Garvald to the north. It crosses the mire at a narrow point
in the hollow, perhaps the ‘slaik 7
brig’ mentioned in one of the 1526 documents – if
so,
presumably more like a gangway over the low-lying soft ground than an
elaborate raised structure. It may also be here, according to Martine,
although his account relying on local tradition is not clear, that
Cromwell on his march to Dunbar by way of Garvald in 1650 had to take
slabs of stone from nearby quarries to extricate guns and carriages
that had become mired in the bog; the 1855 map extract shows an
‘Old Quarry’ in its south-east corner.
Martine is not always accurate in matters of detail, and his reference
to “a good extent of flat, boggy meadow-land” at
“the
south-east end of Danskin [sic]
Loch” is a topographical impossibility; he must have meant
the
north-east end. Given the extent of scrub cover now and the partial
cover shown on the 1855 map, in which the loch is described as
‘drained’, it may be that in Martine’s
time better
drainage had temporarily enabled the improvement of the main body of
the moss to reasonable pasture. However, the overall impression must be
that its natural vegetation, like its other characteristics, would fit
the description of a ‘crumby strudir’.
Moreover, the southern end of Danskine Loch would have been little over
1km by cart from Yester Castle. (It is clear from both the 1327 and
16th century documents that carts and wains were in local use.) Thus
the importance to the Lords of Yester of access to the mire’s
fuel resource is evident, given the corollary, interesting itself from
the point of view of land use history, that timber was not then
abundant in a landscape that is now magnificently wooded and has
contained the tallest beech tree in Britain.
The series of documents contains much else of place-names interest,
including some support for the idea that Yester may originally be a
river name and not a settlement name, and the addition of another inbhir
to the small tally of such Gaelic names in south-east Scotland, in the
form of ‘Innerkent’ or
‘Innerkempe’; either
version of the specific being a plausible ancient hydronym. But there
is nothing that quite rivals ‘Crumbystrudir Myr’
for its
eloquent declaration of its own character. (WP)
1 Margaret Gelling and
Ann Cole The Landscape of Place-Names, Stamford 2000
2DSL on-line, under struther
3 O J Padel, Cornish
Place-Name Elements, Nottingham 1985
4 After the Reformation
the
Hays of Yester came into possession of former Melrose Abbey lands in
Peeblesshire.
5 John Martine, Reminiscences
and Notices of the Parishes of the County of Haddington,
1890, republished Haddington 1999 (but quotation stated to be from a
lecture given in 1885)
6 W J Watson, The
Celtic Place-Names of Scotland, 1926; reprint Edinburgh 1993
7 Any of several of the
definitions of slack
in the Scots Dialect Dictionary might be apt: ‘an opening
between
hills’; ‘a pass’; ‘a
hollow’; a hollow,
boggy place’; ‘a morass’.
Extract from 1855 OS map: reproduced by permission of the Ordnance
Survey
A PIECE OF GROUND CALLED 'ANNA'
A royal charter of 1620 (in RMS) confirms grants of land to the Earls of Lothian, including the former monastic lands at Newbattle by Dalkeith. The abbey precinct came “cum pecia terre vocata Anna” immediately to the south. Just a pretty name, or a hint of an andóit, an even older church foundation?
(This newsletter contained extensive reports on the November 2003 conference: to view these click here)
Roy Wentworth
David Dorward
Place-Names of Jura: a new
source
...to save that which was
Lost?
Place Names of the
Highlands
and Islands of Scotland
It was with immense sadness that I heard of Roy's death on the nineteenth of October. Roy seemed to have fully recovered from his second heart-attack before the summer and he had returned to work both at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig and on his own projects. He died while out on the hill, walking with his son, not far from his home in Èarradal a Deas (South Erradale).
Roy will have been known to many members for the talk that he gave at the AGM in 1997 and the two volumes that he produced entitled 'Gaelic Place-names of Beinn Eighe National Nature Reserve' and 'Place-names of Loch Maree Islands National Nature Reserve'. He was a recognised authority on Gaelic and had, over the forty years since he came to the area, compiled a dictionary of the Gairloch dialect in excess of 1000 pages as well as contributing to many other works.
I had known Roy since I came to Gairloch in 1980 at which time he was the archivist in the local heritage museum. He was always helpful and supportive of my enquiries and encouraging of my interest in place-names. More recently, in addition to helping to improve my Gaelic greatly, and my knowledge of the local Gaelic dialect in particular, he guided me in my early attempts to collect and interpret place-names in a part of the parish where he had not had time to devote much time. He taught me the rudiments of phonetics that has enabled me to access his dictionary more fully and to record more reliably the place-names encountered. In April of this year, I had sent to Roy a provisional edition of a booklet that I had compiled of place-names. This came back peppered with points of clarification, phonetic variations and additional queries, all in Gaelic of course, drawn from his vast knowledge and without which my efforts would have been woefully deficient. Since his death a fortnight ago, I have been at a loss as to whom I can turn to for help with the many questions I still have about place-names, the local Gaelic dialect and the history and archaeology of the area.
Ross and Cromarty has been very fortunate in having had two great scholars who have furthered the study of place-names. The works of one, Professor W. J. Watson, are widely known. Roy's works are largely unpublished but amount to a vast resource centred around Gairloch parish.
The loss has been great to many in the world of Gaelic who appreciate the value of the work that Roy, always in the most charming and gentlemanly manner, directed to the cause of recording the words, the place-names, the poetry and the songs of Gairloch. The greatest loss of all is to his wife, Magaidh, son, Iain, and daughter, Diorbhail, to whom sincerest condolences are extended. As Sabhal Mòr Ostaig posted on its website "Roy Wentworth 1946-2003 Chaill sinne 's Geàrrloch sàr Ghaidheal."
- Nevis Hulme
Roy's dictionaries, along with other work, can be downloaded from www.smo.uhi.ac.uk/gaidhlig/wentworth
Simon Taylor writes:
Roy Wentworth died suddenly aged 57. Over many years Roy had worked
tirelessly on the place-names and language of Wester Ross, and he was
one of the speakers at the Society's first AGM Conference in May 1997
in St Andrews. He was about to submit a PhD in Gaelic on the phonology
of the Gaelic Dialect of Gairloch, Ross-shire, entitled
‘Fòn-eòlas Dualchainnt
Ghàidhlig
Gheàrrloch, Siorrachd Rois’, and it is hoped that
this
degree will be awarded posthumously.
He also worked on the team which produced the 2001 Faclair na
Pàrlamaid, the Dictionary of Terms for
the Scottish Parliament. His death was marked in the
Parliament on 31 October by John Farquhar Munro MSP as follows:
“That the Parliament notes with regret the sad death of Roy
Wentworth, Gaelic scholar, teacher and language activist; expresses
condolences to his family and recognises his extensive contribution to
the recording of Gaelic place names and vocabulary and the development
of the Gaelic Parliamentary Dictionary and his unflagging use of Gaelic
as an integral part of his daily life, work and culture, to ensure that
both the language and culture of the Gael survives and
develops.”
His use of Gaelic as an integral part of his life and work sometimes
caused him much difficulty. For example he had done the bulk of his PhD
at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, part of the University of the
Highlands
Project, and where he was working as a Gaelic-medium lecturer at the
time of his death. He was nearly ready to submit the thesis when he was
told it could not be accepted because it was not in English. This was a
rule imposed on the UHI by the Open University, which UHI have to use
to validate its degrees, since UHI is not yet a fully fledged
University. Rather than compromise his principles and at the same time
collude in this absurd situation, he applied to the University of
Aberdeen, who accepted him on the basis that he register as a student
for a year before submitting. This he did in December 2002: his thesis
was submitted to Aberdeen in December 2003 to undergo the examination
process.
Roy was a meticulous and careful scholar, as well as a conscientious
one, with not only a deep knowledge of his subject, but also a deep
love of and commitment to it. These qualities combine to make all the
work he did of truly great and lasting value.
The following list contains only Roy Wentworth’s
place-name-related works:
1984 ‘Ainmean-àite air àrainn mapa
1:10,000 an
t-Suirbhidh Òrdanais NG77SW: Eàrradal a
Deas’.
Tuairisgeul a rinneadh don t-Suirbhidh air Ainmean-Àite ann
an
Sgoil Eòlais na h-Alba.
Place-Names on OS 1:10,000 map NG77SW. Unpublished report for the
Place-Name Survey, School of Scottish Studies, University of Edinburgh.
1985 ‘Ainmean-àite air àrainn mapa
1:10,000 an t-Suirbhidh Òrdanais NG76NW: An Rubha
Dearg’.
Place-Names on OS 1:10,000 map NG76NW. Unpublished report, for the
Place-Name Survey, School of Scottish Studies, University of Edinburgh.
1986 ‘Ainmean-àite air àrainn mapa
1:10,000 an
t-Suirbhidh Òrdanais NG77SE: Portaigil agus Bad a’
Chrò’.
Place-Names on OS 1:10,000 map NG77SE. Unpublished report, for the
Place-Name Survey, School of Scottish Studies, University of Edinburgh.
1987 ‘Ainmean-àite air àrainn mapa
1:10,000 an
t-Suirbhidh Òrdanais NG76NE: A’ Chreag chun an
Rubha
Dheirg’.
Place-Names on OS 1:10,000 map NG76NE. Unpublished report, for the
Place-Name Survey, School of Scottish Studies, University of Edinburgh.
1988 ‘Ainmean-àite air àrainn mapa
1:10,000 an
t-Suirbhidh Òrdanais NG87SW: Sildeag chun a’
Bhaile
Mhòir’.
Place-Names on OS 1:10,000 map NG87SW. Unpublished report, for the
Place-Name Survey, School of Scottish Studies, University of Edinburgh.
1989 ‘Ainmean-àite air àrainn mapa
1:10,000 an
t-Suirbhidh Òrdanais NG87NW: Am Baile Mòr gu Achd
a’ Chàirn’.
Place-Names on OS 1:10,000 map NG87NW. Unpublished report, for the
Place-Name Survey, School of Scottish Studies, University of Edinburgh.
1992 ‘Ainmean-àite air àrainn mapa
1:10,000 an
t-Suirbhidh Òrdanais NG76SE: Diabaig chun na
Creige’.
Place-Names on OS 1:10,000 map NG76SE. Unpublished report, for the
Place-Name Survey, School of Scottish Studies, University of Edinburgh.
1996, Gaelic Words and Phrases from Wester Ross/Faclan is
Abairtean à Ros an Iar (Gairloch; several up-dated
versions; Microsoft Word document April 2000).
1997, ‘Mar Shneachd Ùr ri Aiteamh Trom/Like Snow
Off a Dyke’, Cothrom 13, 16-20 [text of a
paper given at the first AGM Conference of the Scottish Place-Name
Society, May 1997; summarised in Scottish Place-Name News
3 (1997), 5.]
1999, Ainmean-àite Gàidhlig air
Tèarmann
Nàdair Nàiseanta Eileanan Loch
Ma-Ruibhe/Place-Names of
Loch Maree Islands National Nature Reserve (Scottish Natural
Heritage, Battleby).
1999, Ainmean-àite Gàidhlig air
Tèarmann
Nàdair Nàiseanta Beinn Eighe/Gaelic Place-Names
of Beinn
Eighe National Nature Reserve (Scottish Natural Heritage,
Battleby).
2001, (with Simon Taylor) ‘Pont and Place-Names’,
in The Nation Survey’d, ed. I. Cunningham
(East Linton, 2001), 55-76.
Drawing on his extensive place-name reports done on a voluntary basis
for the Scottish Place-Name Survey, School of Scottish Studies, Roy
produced two very detailed maps of the Gairloch area with place-names
in Gaelic, and English translations. Geàrrloch (1)
covers National Grid squares NG7977, 8077 and 8076 (Gairloch village);
while Geàrrloch (2) covers the squares
immediately to the south, NG8075, 8175, 8174 and 8074.
David Dorward
David Dorward died unexpectedly on Christmas Eve 2003. David was well
known to society members for his work on place-names in Dundee and
those of the Angus Glens. Shortly before his death he had finished work
on the place-names of the Sidlaw Hills, which will be published shortly
by the Pinkfoot Press.
David was born and brought up in Dundee, and educated at Dundee High
School. He graduated MA(Hons) LLB from St. Andrews and went on to spend
his National Service at Nato headquarters in Fountainbleau, where he
served with the Allied Land Forces Central Europe. On his return from
National Service he spent a short time as a solicitor in Perth before
joining the administrative staff of the University of St. Andrews in
1959. He retired as Secretary of the University in 1991. He was
appointed an honorary sheriff at Cupar Sheriff Court in 1994.
A memorial service was held for David on 31 December at Hope Park
Church in St. Andrews. There was a full attendance of family, friends,
university colleagues and golfing companions. The service was conducted
by the Revd. Strickland of Strathkinness and Dairsie, with
contributions from his family. The readings and music reflected
David’s interests and the strength of his family. There were
references during the service to his researches since retiring which
had resulted in his popular books on Angus and Dundee. He also wrote
books on Scottish Surnames and Scotland’s Place-Names as part
of
a series on Scotland.
David was a regular attendee of all SPNS conferences with many
searching questions for speakers. His keen interest in the wider
development of place-names studies will be sorely missed.
Morag Redford
David Dorward’s books specifically on place-names: Dundee:
Names, People and Places (Edinburgh, 1998); The
Glens of Angus: Names, Places, People (with illustrations by
Colin Gibson) (Balgavies, 2001).
Place-Names of Jura: a new source
Simon Taylor writes:
A new publication entitled People of the Parish of Jura,
Scotland 1506-1811,
by Scott Buie (privately published, Burleson, Texas USA, 2003) makes
available a hitherto difficult to access source of early forms of
place-names of the island. It contains a comprehensive list of people
who have lived on Jura within the stated dates, taken from a variety of
records including the Old Parish Register (from 1704), Civil
Registrations, and lists of emigrants. There are place-names in almost
every entry. The book also contains a map of Jura with place-names
mentioned in the records, both extant and no longer in use.
Although it is not entirely clear from the Introduction how early forms
of place-names have been handled, the author informs me that the
place-names appearing in italics are in the form in which they appear
in the record. There is then a cross reference in the appendix from the
record name to a standardised name as it appears on the map.
Details of cost, and how to obtain a copy, can be got by e-mailing the
author on JSBuie@aol.com.
The image above (with thanks to the NLS for providing
this and
many
other historic maps on its website)shows the southern part of Jura from
Blaeu's Atlas published 1654, based on a late 16th-century survey by
Timothy Pont. The names are not always easy to identify, either because
of transcription errors made in Amsterdam of unfamiliar material, or
because the names themselves have disappeared. For example Nardeind
is Ardfin; Knockuolaman is Knoknafelaman
(from a charter of 1558); while the very Dutch-looking Na
Schroonen must represent the place which appears in several
16th- and 17th-century charters as Stronowne, Stronnane.
Naynten may be so garbled as to be no longer identifiable.
Some translation from Gaelic into Scots or Scottish Standard English
has taken place: The Bay of Meil is the coastal
Loch na Mile (but the English-named Corran River which flows into Loch
na Mile is called on the Blaeu map Auon Meill); and
Traill Point is modern Rubha na
Tràille.
Simon Taylor.
...to save that which was Lost?
There has been much recent publicity for the problems of a tiny hamlet in Strathdon, Aberdeenshire, at map reference NJ349133. Rejoicing in the name Lost, it has long been signposted from the main A97 road only a few hundred metres away – except that all too often it has not been signposted at all, because some folk’s interest in place-names is so intense that they cannot resist stealing the sign. (Obviously their obsession is not yet sublimated into more benign activities such as attending SPNS conferences.) Having become fed up with the repeated expense of reinstating the sign, Aberdeenshire Council decided to try replacing both the sign and the name (possibly with ‘Lost Farm’). Latest reports are that the name may be kept after all, but with 21st century high-tech security measures such as placing the next sign on a longer pole.
Place Names of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland
Actually a collection of papers and reviews by Alexander MacBain originally published in 1922 (with an introduction by W.J.Watson), 'Place Names of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland' has now been reprinted by The Grimsay Press of Glasgow. It is only available by special order either through bookshops or the usual on-line sellers at £29.95.