Mcniven, Peter Edward (2011) Gaelic Place-Names and the Social History of Gaelic Speakers in Medieval Menteith
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
McNiven, Peter Edward (2011) Gaelic place-names and the social history of Gaelic speakers in Medieval Menteith. PhD thesis http://theses.gla.ac.uk/2685/ Copyright and moral rights for this thesis are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the Author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the Author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given. Glasgow Theses Service http://theses.gla.ac.uk/ [email protected] Gaelic Place-names and the Social History of Gaelic Speakers in Medieval Menteith Peter Edward McNiven Submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Roinn na Ceiltis is Gàidhlig, Oilthigh Ghlaschu Department of Celtic and Gaelic, University of Glasgow © Peter McNiven 2011 1 2 Contents Abstract 6 Abbreviations 7 Acknowledgments 10 Part 1 Chapter 1 Introduction 13 Menteith Physical 15 Topography, geology and soils 15 Water Courses 17 Defining Menteith 18 Conclusion 26 Chapter 2 The Source Materials 28 Maps 27 Documents 32 Websites 41 Chapter 3 Language in Menteith 45 P-Celtic in Mentieth 45 Gaelic in Menteith 52 Scots in Menteith 64 Conclusion 67 Chapter 4 Historical Framework 69 Earls of Mentieth to Dukes of Albany 69 The Graham Earls 80 Chapter 5 Place-names as a historical resource 84 3 Place-names in Menteith 87 Routeways 88 Hunting and deer management 93 Authority and Justice 95 People and Professions 100 Livesock and Animal Husbandry 103 Common Elements 107 Achadh 107 Blàr 110 Dail 114 Earrann 116 Gart 119 Keir 122 Baile and Toun and Language Change 123 Conclusion 129 Chapter 6 Case study: Place-names and the Medieval Church in Menteith 130 Conclusion 164 Part 2 176 Parish place-name surveys Menteith 179 Aberfoyle 181 Callander 214 Kilmadock 271 Kincardine 366 Kippen 411 4 Port-of-Menteith 453 Appendix 516 References 519 Maps 543 5 Abstract This thesis illustrates that place-names are an essential resource for our understanding of Scottish medieval rural society, with a particular emphasis on Menteith. Place-names are an under-utilised resource in historical studies, and yet have much to inform the historian or archaeologist of how people used and viewed the medieval landscape. We know a great deal of the upper echelons of Scottish medieval society, especially the politics, battles, and lives of significant figures, such as various kings and great barons. However, we know next to nothing of the people from whom the nobility derived their power. The thesis is divided into two parts. Part 1 begins by defining the extent and geography of the medieval earldom of Menteith. The source material is analysed, highlighting the advantages and pitfalls of different sources that can be used for place-name studies. The different languages spoken in Menteith in the Middle Ages, ranging from P-Celtic to Scottish Gaelic to Scots, can be seen in the onomastic evidence. A crucial question that is explored, if not fully answered, is ‘what P-Celtic language was spoken in Menteith: British or Pictish?’. This is followed by an exploration of what we know of the Gaelic language in Menteith. Documents and place-names allow us to pinpoint the beginnings of the change from Gaelic to Scots as the naming language in the area to the later 15 th C. A brief survey of the historical background shows the influence the earls of Menteith and other nobles may have had on the languages of the earldom. The final two chapters of Part 1 look at the issue of using place-names as a historical resource; Chapter 5 explores secular activities, such as hunting and agriculture. Chapter 6 is a case study examining how place-names can inform us of the medieval church. Part 2 is a survey of the place-names of the six parishes that consisted of the medieval earldom of Mentieth, including early forms and analysis of the names. 6 Abbreviations used in the text Parish and counties ABO Aberdour ABN Aberdeenshire AFE Aberfoyle ALL Alloa ANG Angus ARG Argyll AVA Alva AYR Ayrshire BQR Balquhidder BUC Buchanan CLA Clackmannanshire CLD Callander CLK Clackmannan DLE Dunblane and Lecropt DNB Dunbartonshire DRY Drymen DXE Dunblane FIF Fife GGK Gargunnock KMA Kilmadock KMD Kilmodan KPN Kippen KRD Kincardine KRX Kilbride 7 KXM Kilmahog LAN Lanarkshire LEX Lecropt LXY Leny LOI Logie PER Perthshire PMH Port-of-Menteith SLN Saline STL Stirlingshire TBX Tullibody WLO West Lothian Other abbreviations BLITON British Language in the Old North Brit. British C Century E ecclesiastical site fem. feminine gen. genitive IrG Irish Gaelic m metres masc. masculine MG Middle Gaelic NAS Naitional Archives of Scotland NLS National Library of Scotland nom. nominative 8 OD Ordnance Datum OI Old Irish OG Old Gaelic OS Ordnance Survey P Parish pl. Plural RCAHMS Royal Commission for Anicent and Historical Monuments Scotland S settlement Sc Scots ScG Scottish Gaelic sg. Singular SNH Scottish Natural Heritage SSE Scots Standard English TNS Robert Sibbald's ‘Topographical Notices of Scotland’ V vegetation W Welsh * Indicates a reconstructed or hypothetical unattested form # Indicates an obsolete name, i.e. the head-name no longer appears on modern maps and is not known locally. Place-names in italics indicates an early form. However, note that a Gaelic reconstruction of an Anglicised place-name will also appear in italics within brackets after the place-name, e.g. Anie CLD ( Àth an Fhèidh ‘ford of the deer’). A place-name depicted in in bold and often followed by a parish abbreviation in Part 1, e.g. Callander CLD or Gartenjore CLD, indicates a cross-reference to early-forms and the associated discussion that can be found in Part 2. 9 Acknowledgements I would like to thank my supervisors, Professor Thomas Clancy and Dr Simon Taylor, in the first instance. Not only have they been patient and considerate in their dealings with a student who must have seemed he had at times reverted to being the coachbuilder he was, their own high standards of research have been an inspiration that I have tried to live up to. I can only hope I have gone some way to succeeding. Dr Taylor has been a great hill-walking companion as well as a teacher. I should like to record my thanks to others in the Celtic and Gaelic Department who assisted in my PhD education: Professor Roibeard Ó Maolalaigh, for his teaching of Old Irish and Gaelic Phonetics; Dr Sheila Kidd and Dr Aonghas MacCoinnich, for Gaelic 1B; Dr Katherine Forsyth, the departmental Post Graduate convener; Ms Carol Smith, the departmental secretary, without whom everything would have surely fallen apart. The other great thanks must go to Professor Dauvit Broun of Scottish History, who smoothed my path through university as an undergraduate by being my Advisor of Studies, and then successfully guided me through my MPhil in Medieval Scottish Studies. It was this course that kindled my interest in place-names, and Professor Broun was kind enough to steer me through my PhD application. It is fitting, therefore, that Professor Broun was the Internal Examiner for my PhD, along with my External Examiner, Dr Mícheál Ó Mainnín of Queens University Belfast; my grateful thanks to both for suggestions to improve the text of this thesis. Other Glasgow University staff include Gilbert Márkus, the research assistant on the AHRC Place-names project, for his help and suggestions, especially with the saints’ cults, and general good humour; Dr Amanda Beam-Frazier, Dr John Reuben Davies, and Dr Matthew Hammond of the PoMS project in the AHRC research ‘cabin’, who have always been ready to help with a request concerning documents relating to 11 th -13 th C Scotland; and of course my fellow PhD students in Celtic and Gaelic and Scottish History, especially Sarah Erskine, Iain 10 MacDonald, Pete Drummond, Guto Rhys, and Janet MacDonald for keeping me sane if nothing else! I would like to gratefully acknowledge funding from the AHRC, without which I could never have attempted this project. I have had the fortune to be able to discuss aspects of this thesis and other topics connected in some way to it with many other scholars from other universities and institutions in the course of this work and I have learned a great deal from them all. In particular Alex Woolf, Alasdair Ross, Michael Newton, Richard Cox, Rachel Butter, Paul Tempan, Mhairi-Claire Semple, Oliver O’Grady, Kimm Curran, Peadar Morgan, Chris Fleet, Dàibhidh Grannd, and many other people who I’ve met at conferences in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Leeds, and Belfast. Jake King of Ainmean Àite na h-Alba gave advice on modern forms of Gaelic place-names. Thanks must also go to John Harrison of Stirling who has been a great help regarding the area around Flanders Moss. The staff at the National Archives of Scotland, National Library of Scotland, Glasgow University Library and Stirling and Bridge of Allan libraries, were all very helpful and attentive to my requests for maps, documents and books. The pronunciations of the place-names were generously given by many farmers and property-owners throughout Menteith. Michael Ansell, a committee-member of the Scottish Place-name Society and native of the Glenkens in Galloway, but during the week resident on the slopes of Dumyat above my home village of Menstrie in the parish of Logie, has been a very useful source of information regarding earrann -names in Galloway and we have often discussed place-names by email and at times in one of Menstrie’s hostelries.