The Laich o’ Menteith: reassessing the origins of the Lake of Menteith
Nick Aitchison
As the only lake1 in a land of lochs, the distinctive name of the Lake of Menteith (PER) is a source of enduring interest. Several attempts to explain why the Lake of Menteith is known as a lake rather than a loch have been made since the 1940s. Less understandable is the absence from this debate of historically- and toponymically-informed analysis. Seventy years ago, one commentator bemoaned that ‘This Place-name is probably one of the most outstanding examples of the neglect of the Place-names of Scotland’ (McDowall 1947, 407). Although the Lake of Menteith is now, belatedly, the subject of serious toponymic study, thanks to Dr Peter McNiven’s note in this journal (McNiven 2014; see also McNiven 2011, 64), many aspects of this name still remain obscure and controversial. Confirming that the name changed from the Loch of Menteith to the Lake of Menteith in the 19th century, McNiven attributes this to the growing influence of the English language within Menteith, specifically as a result of increased tourism after the publication of Sir Walter Scott’s The Lady of the Lake (1810). This is not a new interpretation: ‘The substitution of the English word lake for the more Scottish loch is ... of quite recent origin, and is due ... to literary influences’ (Hutchison 1899, 66). However, this interpretation has not been accepted universally. The attribution of the lake-name to ‘affectation’ and ‘refined anglicised usage’ (McCulloch 1960, 173) did not satisfy the editor of The Scots Magazine, who believed there was more to it than this and posed the (rhetorical) question ‘Why is the Lake of Menteith a lake and not a loch?’ (Scots Magazine 1960, 374). Previous attempts to explain why the Lake of Menteith is known as a lake lay beyond the scope of McNiven’s studies. Although most may be dismissed as, at best, unsupported by the evidence or, at worst, fanciful, these theories merit a brief discussion because they attest awareness of the unique status of the Lake of Menteith and a desire to explain how, why and when it became a lake. Moreover, they reflect the extent to which popular imagination has filled the void left by the absence of more convincing interpretations based on established principles of toponymy. These interpretations are an integral component of the culture and history of the Lake of Menteith, even if we cannot agree with either the methods employed or the conclusions reached. As such, these traditions deserve to be 1 Strictly speaking, the only natural body of inland water in Scotland known as a lake, because several man-made bodies of water also have lake-names.
The Journal of Scottish Name Studies 10, 2016, 1–24 2 Nick Aitchison collected and studied in their own right. They comprise a richly imaginative and varied vein of what, from its poor representation in print, must have been a predominantly oral tradition that is probably unparalleled in Scottish toponymy. Reassessing earlier interpretations of the Lake of Menteith can also contribute to our understanding of this and, potentially, other place-names. Indeed, only by comparing and assessing these can we begin to distinguish between more and less plausible hypotheses. In addition, the critical assessment of these theories should help to discourage further baseless speculation concerning the lake-name, encourage the adoption of better-informed interpretations based on sound toponymic methodology and help to focus future debate on more productive areas of analysis. This paper reviews previous interpretations of how the Lake of Menteith became a lake with these objectives in mind, arriving at a very different conclusion from that reached by McNiven (2014) in the process. Previous interpretations of the Lake of Menteith comprise two main groups. While some claim that the lake-name was adopted deliberately, others attempt to explain it as an accidental anglicisation, based on a corruption of an earlier Gaelic or Scots name. Both categories are examined in turn. The popular opinion that the lake gained its name through a misinterpretation of Scots laich, laigh is then reconsidered in the light of additional evidence.
Deliberate adoption One tradition maintains that the Lake of Menteith is known as a lake because of its alleged association with Sir John de Menteith (c. 1275–c. 1323), sheriff of Dumbarton and keeper of Dumbarton Castle. Sir John played a key role in handing over Sir William Wallace to the English in 1305, an event which led to Wallace’s trial and execution in London the same year. According to tradition, Sir John was reviled by Scots as ‘the fause [false] Menteith’ for his treachery and the Loch of Menteith became a lake because no loch could be named after such a traitor (Ross 1999, 116; MacDonald-Lewis 2009, 29). The implication is that, because Sir John allegedly betrayed Wallace to the English, then the body of water with which he was closely associated should be known by the English word lake. This claim is not only still referred to but is even repeated as fact: ‘Because of “Fause Menteith’s” treachery, Loch Menteith is known to this day as Lake Menteith [sic], the only lake in Scotland’ (Durie 2012, 21; see also Fraser 1997, 50). Another commentator claims that Lake Menteith (sic) is also known as Traitor’s lake and is named after Sir John (Lindsay 1981, 29), but cites no supporting evidence. Possibly in a confused reference to the same events, it is also alleged that the Lake of Menteith reflects the ‘English leanings’ of an unspecified earl of Menteith (Hannavy 2006). The ‘fause Menteith’ interpretation is not only contrived but is also
The Journal of Scottish Name Studies 10, 2016, 1–24 The Laich o’ Menteith: reassessing the origins of the Lake of Menteith 3 contradicted by historical and toponymic evidence. Firstly, Sir John did not take his name from the Lake of Menteith, because both lake and earldom derive their name from an early territorial name which appears to be Brythonic in origin. The earliest of many variant forms recorded from the 1160s are Meneteth, Meneted (Watson 1926, 113; McNiven 2011, 51, 179–80). Secondly, Sir John did not even hold lands at the Lake of Menteith, which presumably belonged to his father, Earl Walter. According to local tradition, Sir John’s lands were at Ruskie, where his seat was a castle on an island in Loch Rusky, 4km north-east of the Lake of Menteith (MacGregor Stirling 1845, 1096; Dun 1866, 24–25; Fraser, W. 1880 I, 506; Hutchison 1899, 18–19). If a loch was to be known as a lake on account of Sir John’s actions, then the Lake of Menteith would appear to be a victim of mistaken identity. Thirdly, the Lake of Menteith is not recorded as a lake until the 19th century (McNiven 2014), 600 years after the events concerned. The earliest recorded references to the Lake of Menteith reveal that the attribution of its status as a lake to the ‘fause Menteith’ must also date to the 19th century or later. A possible historical context for this may be identified in the combined influences of Victorian historical romanticism and rising Scottish national consciousness associated with the movement to construct the National Wallace Monument, which began in 1856. The Monument, on the Abbey Craig at Stirling, opened in 1869 and stimulated a wave of national sentiment that continued until the commemoration of the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Stirling Bridge in 1897 (see Morton 1998; 2014, infra; Coleman 2007). But, despite numerous references to the ‘fause Menteith’ throughout the 19th century (e.g. Holford 1809, 224; Porter 1810 II, 362; Baillie 1851, 728), none attribute the name of the lake to its alleged association with Sir John. Significantly, references to the ‘fause Menteith’ hypothesis are also absent from 19th-century accounts of Menteith and the Lake of Menteith (e.g. MacGregor Stirling 1845; Dun 1866; Cunninghame Graham 1895; Hutchison 1899). This indicates that the ‘fause Menteith’ interpretation either existed only in oral tradition or is of more recent origin. That most published references to this theory date from as recently as the late 1990s is consistent with its resurgence during another wave of Scottish national awareness, associated with the release of the film Braveheart (1995), the return of the Stone of Destiny (1996), the 700th anniversary of the battle (1997) and the creation of the Scottish Parliament (1997–99). More recently, the ‘fause Menteith’ hypothesis has been dismissed on the grounds that it has no historical basis (Ayto and Crofton 2005, 636; Hannavy 2006; Crofton 2012, 285). The landscape setting of the Lake of Menteith features in several attempts to explain its name. Seton Gordon pondered whether ‘its placidity and its immediate surroundings, which are Lowland rather than Highland, have caused the word “lake” to be substituted for the earlier term “loch”?’ (Gordon 1948, 1).
The Journal of Scottish Name Studies 10, 2016, 1–24 4 Nick Aitchison This seems unlikely, given that no other Lowland loch has become a lake. Other interpretations are based on what are claimed to be the lake’s English appearance or properties. The Lake of Menteith is said to be known as a lake from its ‘rather English parkland setting’ (Keay and Keay 2000, 724) and because it ‘looks English’ (Hannavy 2006). However, only the eastern shores of the lake are currently classed as ‘policies and parkland’, its other sides comprising a mixture of ‘improvement period fields’, rough pasture, managed woodland and commercial forestry (Boyle and Macinnes 2000, 28, Map 11). Given the diversity of English landscapes, and therefore of English lakes, it is unclear what makes a lake distinctively ‘English’ in appearance, and this is not explained. This theory did not even convince its author, who observed that the ‘steep mountains which partly surround’ the Lake of Menteith make it ‘unmistakably Scottish’ in appearance (Hannavy 2006). Stretching credulity even further, its status as a lake has been attributed to the abundance of coarse fish in the Lake of Menteith (Keay and Keay 2000, 724). More specifically, the lake holds rich stocks of the allegedly English coarse fish, pike and perch, which are said to occur only rarely elsewhere in Scotland (Hannavy 2006). This seems an unlikely basis for naming any body of water and the widespread distribution of pike and perch in Scotland (Maitland, P.S. 2007, 185–86, 304) disproves this theory. Moving away from the lake’s perceived ‘Englishness’, the Lake of Menteith is also claimed to be ‘the invention of some ... local entrepreneur as a marketing device’ (Aneurin 2006), presumably to promote the lake as a tourist attraction. Quite how this is supposed to have worked is left unexplained and the details are, predictably, ‘now forgotten’.
Accidental anglicisation and corruption A widely-held tradition maintains that the Lake of Menteith is not, in origin, a lake at all but owes its name to phonological adaptation, the process whereby a word in one language is substituted for a similar-sounding word in another language, presumably as a result of accidental corruption or confusion. The earliest recorded reference to this theory is in 1947: ‘The first part of the Place- name does not represent the English word “lake” in the meaning of “a large body of water within land”’, which is said to result in the Lake of Menteith ‘conveying an entirely erroneous impression as to [its] meaning’ (McDowall 1947, 407). According to this interpretation, the Lake of Menteith is a corruption of Gaelic Leac a Manaich Teagh ‘the dwelling place by the tomb of the Druid’ (McDowall 1947, 407, 409). Supposedly pronounced Lvek a man-aech tye-gh, this is claimed to have been corrupted as the Lake of Monteith, although its ‘true’ name is said to be The Loch of the Lake of Menteith (McDowall 1947, 407, 409). This explanation
The Journal of Scottish Name Studies 10, 2016, 1–24 The Laich o’ Menteith: reassessing the origins of the Lake of Menteith 5 may be rejected on the grounds that it is incompatible with the derivation of Menteith from the early territorial name Meneted (above). Other interpretations involving the phonological adaptation of Gaelic leac have also been proposed for the Lake of Menteith. Gaelic leac has several meanings: ‘1 Flag, slab, flat stone. 2 Tombstone. 3 Plate, as of metal. 4 Slate to write on. 5 Declivity. 6 Cheek. 7 (poetically) Hill, declivity, summit of a hill. 8 House. 9 Ledge of rock jutting out from the foot of a cliff on the foreshore and covered by the sea at flood tides’ (Dwelly, s.v. leac). Consistent with Gaelic leac ‘declivity’, leac place-names usually refer to hill-slopes, including The Lecht (Gaelic An Leac) ski centre (ABD). Similarly, the lake element is said to have been derived from Gaelic leachd ‘sloping ground’ (Mackay 2000, 65; Ross 2001, 155). This attests a common confusion between Gaelic leachd, formerly lecht ‘a bed, a grave’, and Gaelic leac (see Cameron 1894 II, 588). Moreover, these interpretations are inconsistent with the topography of the Lake of Menteith, the low-lying land around which cannot realistically be described as a ‘declivity, a downward slope or piece of sloping ground’. The Gaelic name for the Lake of Menteith is said to be Leachd Teàdhaich, scotticised as the Laigh of Monteith (Ross 2001, 155). However, no source for either of these names is cited and they appear to be inferred rather than recorded. Although Menteith is known in Gaelic as Tèadhaich ‘region of [the River] Teith’ (Watson 1926, 113), Gaelic leachd does not fit the topographic context (above). Instead of a historically-attested place-name, Leachd Teàdhaich appears to be a reverse formation, comprising a back-translation into Gaelic of the phonological adaptation claimed to exist in the Lake of Menteith. Another interpretation of the Lake of Menteith appears in reference works. According to the New Shell Guides, the lake element is said to be a corruption of laicht ‘low-lying land’ (Macnie and McLaren 1977, 239; Boumphrey 1985, 366). Brewer’s identifies laicht as a Gaelic word and cites this etymology in preference to the ‘fause Menteith’ tradition (Ayto and Crofton 2005, 636; see also Crofton 2012, 285). Supposedly supporting the ‘low-lying land’ hypothesis, ‘early maps’ are claimed to mark the Laicht of Monteith (Mackay 2000, 65; Ross 2001, 155). There is some support for this interpretation within Menteith. According to the Forestry Commission rangers at the David Marshall Lodge, Aberfoyle, the Lake of Menteith is thought to have been derived from Laicht of Menteith, meaning ‘Lowland of Menteith’ (Rangers 2004, 10). However, the laicht interpretation does not withstand examination. The cartographic sources allegedly recording this name are not cited and none can be identified. Fundamentally, Gaelic laicht does not mean ‘low-lying land’ but is a variant of Gaelic leachd, lecht and may be compared with Old Irish lecht ‘grave, tomb, sepulchral monument, resting place’ (eDIL, s.v. lecht). Moreover, laicht
The Journal of Scottish Name Studies 10, 2016, 1–24 6 Nick Aitchison appears to possess a regional distribution, as it occurs in some place-names in south-west Scotland: Laicht or Laight (AYR) (OSNB OS1/3/21/2, 33–34) and Laicht, Laight, Leight (WIG) (Maxwell 1930, 238; OSNB E69/25/1/30). No laicht place-names are recorded in Menteith, further undermining the argument that the lake element in the Lake of Menteith is derived from Gaelic laicht. These various attempts to derive the lake component in the Lake of Menteith from Gaelic laicht, leac or leachd are unconvincing, both toponymically and topographically. The supposed derivation of lake from Gaelic laicht or leachd also fails to explain the loss of the terminal consonant. Given these objections, and in the absence of any supporting evidence, claims that lake represents a phonological adaptation of Gaelic laicht, leac or leachd may be rejected. The lake in the Lake of Menteith has also been interpreted as a ‘misappropria tion’ of Gaelic lairg, supposedly referring to the ‘plain’ of Menteith (Keay and Keay 2000, 724). By contrast, Lairg is the anglicised spelling of the Gaelic place-name an Luirg (SUT), meaning ‘the shank, shin’ (Watson 1926, 485, 522). Alternatively, the word intended may be Gaelic làirig ‘a pass [between hills or mountains]’, which could be anglicised as lairg, as in the Lairgs of Tain (ROS) (see Watson 1926, 484). However, this makes no sense, either topographically or toponymically, in the context of the Lake of Menteith. According to oral tradition circulating in Stirlingshire by the mid-1970s, the Lake of Menteith owes its name to a Gaelic word meaning ‘low-lying land’, referring to the environs of the lake. More plausibly, the lake in the Lake of Menteith may reflect a confusion with Scots laich (Summers 1999, 27; Terrell 2016, 165) or laigh (Roberts 1987, 17–18; Dorward 1995, 91), ‘low-lying area/ land’. According to this theory, the Lake of Menteith is a corrupt anglicisation of the Scots Laich or Laigh o’ Menteith, meaning ‘low-lying place/area of land in Menteith’, but referring to what was previously known as the Loch of Menteith. This interpretation, or variants of it, appears in a wide range of popular publications, including a place-name dictionary (Abernethy 2009, 127), travel guides (Andrews et al. 1996, 792–93; Humphreys and Reid 2011, 144; Griffin et al. 2014, 296), topographic studies (Summers 1999, 27; Urquhart 2005, 31, n. 5; Happer and Steward 2015, 12) and factual compendia about Scotland (Moore 2008, 2; Long 2014, 31). More authoritatively, it was also maintained by the distinguished Scots language scholar the late David Purves (Purves 1997) and is also cited by the University of Glasgow’s Scottish Corpus of Texts and Speech (SCTS, s.v. Menteith). Strong official and local support for this interpretation is evident from its inclusion on Historic Environment Scotland’s information board at the Lake of Menteith and on the website of the Lake of Menteith Hotel (Lake n.d.). Several guidebooks repeat vague and simplistic claims about how the Lake
The Journal of Scottish Name Studies 10, 2016, 1–24 The Laich o’ Menteith: reassessing the origins of the Lake of Menteith 7 of Menteith became a lake. Lake is said to be ‘a mistranslation’ from Gaelic (Else et al. 2007, 843; Wilson 2012, 49) or ‘from Gaelic into Scots’ (Summers 1999, 27) and attributed to ‘an early map-maker’s error’ (Summers 1999, 27), ‘a mapmaker ... centuries ago’ (MacDonald-Lewis 2009, 29), ‘a foreign map maker [who] mistakenly used the word “lake” instead of “loch”’ (Bolger and Stoller 1996, 183) or ‘an English cartographer’ who ‘simply did not know any better’ (Hendrie 2004, 118). More specifically, lake is claimed to originate in ‘a Dutch cartographer’s mistranslation’ (Roberts 1987, 17), ‘the spelling error of Dutch cartographers in the 16th century which still stands uncorrected’ (Whitehorne 1999, 19) or ‘an innocent error in the distant past by a Belgian map-maker’ (Rangers 2004, 10). The Lake of Menteith is also said to be ‘marked on old maps as Laich of Menteith’ (Urquhart 2005, 31, n. 5). Several on-line resources (e.g. Wikipedia, s.v. Lake of Menteith), combine these hypotheses, attributing the lake name to the corruption of Scots Laich o’ Menteith by 16th-century Dutch cartographers. A recurring theme in these various claims attributes the Lake of Menteith to the confusion of outsiders, usually cartographers. Another example of this traces the lake-name to a community of Italian monks who allegedly arrived at the Lake of Menteith when the Augustinian Priory on Inchmahome, an island in the lake, was founded in 1238. The loch is claimed to have become the Lake of Menteith ‘simply because these monks could not pronounce “Loch”’ (Scott 1961). What English-speaking Italian monks were doing in Menteith in the 13th century was conveniently left unexplained. Alternatively, lake is said to be a translation of Latin lacus, used in an official document or ecclesiastical charter (Gordon 1948, 1). However, this does not explain why lacus was translated into English or how it came to supersede a pre-existing loch-name in the 19th century. None of these interpretations stand up to critical analysis. In every case, no explanation is given as to why a mistranslation or cartographer’s error should have been so widely adopted. Fundamentally, assertions concerning the origin of the Lake of Menteith are directly contradicted by earlier recorded name forms, including the persistence of references to the Loch of Menteith throughout the 19th century. Moreover, claims of a Gaelic origin for lake fail to take into account the Gaelic name for the Lake of Menteith, Loch Innis Mo Cholmaig, variants of which are recorded from the 15th century (see McNiven 2014, 155). Despite several references to maps and map-makers, supporting evidence is consistently omitted. Fundamentally, the Laicht, Laigh or Leachd of Menteith is not recorded on any surviving maps and no Dutch cartographers are known to have produced a map of this area during the 16th century. These claims are presumably confused references to the Amsterdam cartographer Joan Blaeu (1596–1673), whose atlas of Scotland was published in 1654. The Lake of Menteith is depicted on Blaeu’s map of Lennox where its name is marked, not
The Journal of Scottish Name Studies 10, 2016, 1–24 8 Nick Aitchison as a lake, but as Loch Inche mahumo (Blaeu 1654 [2006, map 27]). This is clearly derived from its Gaelic name, Loch Innis Mo Cholmaig. Claims about the lake- name originating in the mistranslations of cartographers, Dutch or otherwise, are therefore directly contradicted by the evidence.
The Laich o’ Menteith The interpretation that the Lake of Menteith owes its status as a lake to the accidental corruption of a similar-sounding Gaelic or Scots word clearly holds widespread appeal. But this theory appears to be self-perpetuating, simply repeated from one publication to another without any obvious factual basis. Could there be any substance to it? Despite the historical and toponymic confusion displayed by these various claims and the absence of supporting evidence, the basic premise is nevertheless attractive. In particular, the laigh hypothesis offers a plausible explanation of how the Loch of Menteith became a lake. Scots laich or laigh ‘a low-lying tract of ground of any size, a plain, a vale, a hollow’ (DSL, s.v. laigh, III, n. 2) occurs in Scottish toponymy: ‘laigh, from laich, “stretch of low-lying ground”’ (Ordnance Survey 2004, 13). Although the best- known example, the Laich o’ Moray, is a coastal plain, other laich/ laigh place- names are recorded in valley floors in Lowland Scotland (below). According to one authority (Anderson 1777 I, 148–49): many large tracts of ground ... consist of low level grounds lying in a bottom surrounded with higher ground, from which the descent is so inconsiderable as not to allow the water to flow away ... during ... violent rains; which subjects them to ... being frequently overflowed at improper seasons ... which grounds are commonly known in the north of Britain by the name of Meadows or Laighs. And, less dramatically, ‘The laigh-lands are a kind of low lying moist meadow ground, sometimes with a mixture of moss’ (Anderson 1794, 57). These definitions are consistent with the landscape setting of the Lake of Menteith. At only 17m above sea level, the Lake of Menteith sits in a natural basin forming the north-western part of the Carse of Forth, the location of one of the most extensive areas of raised peat bog (or ‘moss’) in Britain. In addition, phonological adaptation provides a very plausible explanation for the process by which the Laich o’ Menteith could have become the Lake of Menteith. Phonological adaptation is the most common toponymic phenomenon resulting from contact between different languages, frequently resulting in the mistaken substitution of a similar-sounding English word for, in this case, a Scots place-name element and corrupting the meaning in the process. Significantly, ‘the final consonant of Scots laigh “low” is pronounced the same as the final
The Journal of Scottish Name Studies 10, 2016, 1–24 The Laich o’ Menteith: reassessing the origins of the Lake of Menteith 9 consonant in Scots loch’ (Taylor 2004, 3). The Scots voiceless velar fricative /x/ is often merged by non-Scots- (or non-Scottish Standard English-) speakers with the velar stop /k/, causing them to (mis)pronounce laigh as [leɪk], in the same way that loch is frequently (mis)pronounced as [lɒk]. Phonologically, this makes the Laich o’ Menteith a more likely origin of the Lake of Menteith than the Loch of Menteith. Despite its apparent plausibility, this interpretation was rejected by McNiven on the grounds that ‘there is no evidence that the flat, often boggy area around the lake has ever been called a laich’ (McNiven 2014, 153; see also McNiven 2011, 497). However, McNiven’s assertion is directly contradicted by two sources: ‘in its time many a “creagh” must have been driven from the “Laich” to the hills of Appin’ (Cunninghame Graham 1895, 62) and ‘from the dawn of history in Menteith marauding clansmen, coming with a creagh from the laigh, had been rowed over to the castle in the isle’ (Cunninghame Graham 1906, 202). These appear to be the only recorded references to Scots laich, laigh associated with the Lake of Menteith. As this reassessment rests on these quotations, they will now be examined in detail. A colourful character best known as a prolific author, radical politician and adventurous traveller, Robert Bontine Cunninghame Graham2 (1852–1936) also has impeccable Menteith credentials. Belonging to the Graham family, owners of the Gartmore estate in Menteith and descendants of the Graham Earls of Menteith, Cunninghame Graham lived in Gartmore House, only 4.5km from the Lake of Menteith, and was buried in the ruins of Inchmahome Priory. Cunninghame Graham knew Menteith ‘from earliest childhood’, travelling throughout it by pony while ‘listening all the time to local lore’ and becoming familiar with ‘All the old legends of the district and ... lore of times gone by’ (Cunninghame Graham 1906, 202, 206, 208). Cunninghame Graham’s Notes on the District of Menteith for Tourists and Others (1895) is not a guidebook but a series of literary sketches on Menteith, its landscape, people and culture. ‘The “Laich”’ is mentioned incidentally in a passage concerning Highland raids on Menteith. The reference to ‘the laigh’ appears in the essay Ha til mi tuliadh (‘I will return no more’) (Cunninghame Graham 1906, 201–12; repr. 1982, 175–79), an elegy not only to the elderly sisters who lived in a cottage on the shore of the Lake of Menteith, where Cunninghame Graham was a regular visitor, but also to a lost Menteith, the character – people, landscape, language and values – of which had changed for ever. Anecdotal in nature, both publications concern Cunninghame Graham’s personal experiences in, and impressions of, Menteith. They portray Menteith 2 For the most recent of several published biographies see Cunninghame Graham, J. 2004; Taylor 2005. See also the bibliography in Cunninghame Graham, R.B. 1982, 203–04.
The Journal of Scottish Name Studies 10, 2016, 1–24 10 Nick Aitchison at the close of the 19th century, towards the end of a period of fundamental change, and convey an acutely-observed and powerful sense of a landscape and people Cunninghame Graham knew intimately. This combination of great authenticity, authority and proximity makes Cunninghame Graham a uniquely valuable source of local knowledge concerning 19th-century Menteith. No further information about the Laich or laigh referred to is provided by Cunninghame Graham. What may be deduced from these terse passages? Although the location of the Laich / laigh referred to is not named or stated explicitly in either of these sources, it is evident from the contexts in which it appears. The first quotation concerns the vulnerability of the Vale of Menteith to marauding clansmen from the Highlands immediately to the north. In particular, it states that the reivers travelled ‘past the decayed old house of Glenny’ (Cunninghame Graham 1895, 62). The route referred to is through the Pass of Glenny, ‘a deep and thickly-wooded defile’ (Hutchison 1899, 19) through the Menteith Hills, which emerges at the north-west corner of the Lake of Menteith. The Burn of Glenny (the lower part of which is known as the Portend Burn), the principal feeder of the Lake of Menteith, flows through the Pass of Glenny. The Laich therefore refers to the area immediately to the south of the Menteith Hills, which Cunninghame Graham contrasts with ‘the hills of Appin’. Although its extent is unclear, the Laich must have included the low-lying lands around the Lake of Menteith, which is directly overlooked by Craig of Port, the southernmost ridge of the Menteith Hills. This is supported by another account of these raids: ‘Down the pass of Glenny has swept many a Highland foray. By this track the predatory tribes of the wild mountain region beyond Loch Vennacher came down to harry the fertile region of Menteith and the Vale of Forth’ (Hutchison 1899, 26). The ‘fertile region of Menteith’ or ‘Vale of Forth’, or at least part of them, may be the same area referred to by Cunninghame Graham as the Laich. In the second quotation, Cunninghame Graham’s ‘castle in the isle’ refers to the fortified seat of the Earls of Menteith on Inch Talla, an island in the Lake of Menteith (on which see MacGibbon and Ross 1891 IV, 285; Hutchison 1899, 92–96). As the reivers had to cross the laigh before they could reach the lake and launch their coracles to attack the castle, the laigh must refer to the land surrounding the Lake of Menteith. The reference to this area as the Laich or laigh is entirely consistent with the topography, where ‘a wet, unkindly till ... covers a large extent of land on both sides of Menteith-loch’ (Fullarton 1853 II, 532). Cunninghame Graham himself characterises this low-lying terrain as ‘the flat district of Menteith’ (Cunninghame Graham 1895, 8), ‘the Low Country, as we style the realm of bogs and marshy fields’ and ‘the low country in Menteith’ (Cunninghame Graham 1906, 204, 238). He also refers to the ‘huge flat mosses
The Journal of Scottish Name Studies 10, 2016, 1–24 The Laich o’ Menteith: reassessing the origins of the Lake of Menteith 11 to the south’ of the Lake of Menteith (Cunninghame Graham 1895, 10) and ‘the rushy “parks” and ... the moss ... that ran down to the distant lake’ (Cunninghame Graham 1906, 208). These accounts describe a Laich / laigh perfectly. The currency of laigh as a topographical term in Menteith is confirmed by a plan of the Cardross and Easter Garden Estate, dated 1761 (NRS RHP 30799). This marks two small areas as laigh lands. ‘Laigh wet land’ is marked alongside the Goodie Water (at NGR NS 599998), near Milton of Cardross, and ‘Mossy Laigh Lands’, described as ‘grass’, is shown near Arnvicar (NGR NS 587980). Both locations are close to the south-east corner of the Lake of Menteith, the former only 0.8km east of the lake, the latter 1.5km south of the lake. In both cases, laigh is used to describe land quality or conditions, not as a place-name element. Laich / laigh is not recorded, either in place-names or as a descriptive term, on other maps or plans of Menteith. Cunninghame Graham records two variant forms, ‘the “Laich”’ and ‘the laigh’. Are these differences in orthography, capitalisation and the use of quotation marks significant? Laich and laigh are simply variant forms of the same word (above). Their use by the same author implies either a lack of familiarity or an informality, which may be consistent with a word or name which otherwise occurs only in oral tradition, the orthography of which has not been standardised as a result of being recorded in writing. Quotation marks may be used in various circumstances and it is unclear which apply in this case. As only Laich appears in quotation marks, they do not appear to be performing their most common function of denoting a quotation from another source or direct speech. Instead, the quotation marks may convey the unusual or even dubious status of Laich, that this was not the normal or preferred word or name, although this then raises the question why Cunninghame Graham used it. A more likely explanation for his use of quotation marks is that Laich was a place (formerly?) referred to in colloquial speech in Menteith, but which Cunninghame Graham may have perceived to be less familiar, or perhaps even less acceptable, in more refined English usage and among his intended readership. This is supported by the fact that Scots creagh ‘a Highland foray, a plundering raid, gen[erally] for the purpose of driving off cattle’ (DSL, s.v. creagh), also appears in quotation marks in the same sentence. Whatever the reason, it does not appear to have applied a decade later because neither the laigh nor creagh retained their quotation marks in Ha til mi tuliadh. This may imply a greater acceptance of, or familiarity with, these words, perhaps simply because Cunninghame Graham had used them previously. The other difference between Laich and laigh is the initial capitalisation of the former. This is of particular interest because it reveals the status of Laich as a proper noun, a place-name. This is not undermined by the later reference
The Journal of Scottish Name Studies 10, 2016, 1–24 12 Nick Aitchison to laigh. Although the absence of initial capitalisation in laigh appears to be consistent with its use as a descriptive term, rather than as a proper noun, this may have been derived from, or associated with, a corresponding place-name. The use of Laich / laigh in this context may reflect a deliberate archaism, in keeping with the historical nature of the subject matter. This impression is perhaps reinforced by the pairing of Laich / laigh with Scots creagh in both quotations. This coupling also implies that Laich / laigh rhymed with creagh, indicating the local pronunciation of Laich / laigh with the velar fricative /x/. That the -gh of creagh was pronounced /x/ is supported by the status of creagh as a loan-word from Gaelic creach ‘plunder, booty, pillage’ (Dwelly, s.v. creach). The possibly archaic status of Laich / laigh is supported by Cunninghame Graham’s preference for using local and older place-name forms. This is demonstrated by his reference to the Loch o’ the Port (Cunninghame Graham 1933, 9), in preference to the Lake of Menteith. The local currency of this name is confirmed by an earlier report that the ‘country people of the surrounding district were in the habit of speaking of it [the Lake of Menteith] as the Loch o’ Port, and by that name it is still known to the older among them’ (Hutchison 1899, 68). Older name forms can survive in oral tradition for a considerable time after they have been replaced by more ‘official’ forms in written records. This may reflect the retention of a name heard, perhaps from elderly relatives or members of the community, during childhood and believed to be the ‘correct’ name form, which is then retained into old age. Such orally-transmitted place-names are, by definition, difficult to study because they tend not to be recorded in textual or cartographic sources. These references to the Laich / laigh associated with the Lake of Menteith are unique. By committing Laich / laigh to writing, Cunninghame Graham ensured their transmission from oral tradition to written record and, as a result, their survival, at least in text. Nevertheless, both references are late and limited, lacking early or detailed documentation. Recorded by the same author, they also occur in similar phrases and contexts, and therefore do not provide independent corroboration of each other. But they exist undeniably and refer unambiguously to the area surrounding the Lake of Menteith. Moreover, they come from a reliable source with a detailed knowledge of the area and are supported, although not confirmed, by the use of laigh as a descriptive term on the Cardross estate plan. As a result, they are not easily dismissed. Fundamentally, there is no indication that Cunninghame Graham’s use of Laich / laigh represents a learned rationalisation of the anomalous lake-name. He does not use Laich / laigh to shed light on the origins of the Lake of Menteith, but independently of it and only in a purely topographic sense to refer to the area around the lake. The combination of Cunninghame Graham’s preference for using archaic names in
The Journal of Scottish Name Studies 10, 2016, 1–24 The Laich o’ Menteith: reassessing the origins of the Lake of Menteith 13 currency among local people and his intimate knowledge of Menteith supports the veracity of these references to the Laich / laigh and its association with the Lake of Menteith. These sources provide clear evidence of the association with the Lake of Menteith of not just a Laich / laigh but an area known as ‘the “Laich”’ and ‘the laigh’. The use of the definite article in both quotations reveals that the Lake of Menteith was located within an area that was known as the Laich / laigh without it having to be distinguished more precisely. This implies both a familiarity and uniqueness, that there was only one Laich / laigh in the vicinity. As the major landscape features of this area carry the district name Menteith – the Loch/ Lake of Menteith, the Vale of Menteith, the Menteith Hills – these sources imply that the Laich / laigh referred to was also associated with the same geographical determiner. Although the place-name is not attested in its entirety, the Laich [o’ Menteith] or the *Laigh o’ Menteith may be inferred from Cunninghame Graham’s ‘the “Laich”’ and ‘the laigh’. As the Laich o’ Menteith is recorded, albeit without its geographical determiner, there is no need to treat this as a hypothetical name. By contrast, *Laigh o’ Menteith may be postulated from the reference to ‘the laigh’ and its hypothetical status is denoted with an asterisk, in accordance with standard linguistic and toponymic convention. Taken together, the context of Cunninghame Graham’s references, the laighs marked on the Cardross estate plan and the meaning of Scots laich, laigh reveal that the Laich o’ Menteith refers to the low-lying land around the Lake of Menteith. The extent of the Laich o’ Menteith is unclear, but two factors indicate that it refers to a wider area than just the margins of the lake itself. Firstly, the Lake of Menteith lies at the edge of an extensive low-lying terrain comprising the valley floor of the upper reaches of the River Forth. Secondly, the inferred determiner Menteith implies that the Laich o’ Menteith possessed a scale and/ or status that transcended the local but made it a significant feature within the wider landscape of Menteith as a whole, comparable to that held by the Lake of Menteith and the Menteith Hills. This is consistent with the Laich o’ Menteith denoting the low-lying land occupying the upper Forth valley. No other records of laigh in its topographic sense have been identified relating to the Lake of Menteith. For clarity, two other associations may be acknowledged before being rejected as not relevant to this study. Although the name of the Laich O Menteith Boat Club appears to attest the Laich o’ Menteith, this is a modern name, presumably, if puzzlingly, based on an awareness of the toponymic traditions concerning the origins of the Lake of Menteith. The club, comprising graduate members of Strathclyde University Boat Club, is not based on the Lake of Menteith but in Linlithgow (Almanac 2006, 193). Separately, an inventory of the castle on Inch Talla, compiled in 1692, refers to the ground floor
The Journal of Scottish Name Studies 10, 2016, 1–24 14 Nick Aitchison of the tower behind the great hall as the ‘laigh back-roum’ (MacGregor Stirling 1815, 73). This represents a different meaning of Scots laigh, ‘Of buildings ... laigh room, a room somewhat below the level of the rest of the house, used as a store, cellar, shop ...’ (DSL, s.v. laich, 2(b)).
The lost Laich o’ Menteith If the area around the Lake of Menteith was formerly known as the Laich o’ Menteith, then why are there no recorded references to this place-name? This primarily reflects a bias in the evidence, specifically the poor survival of local records in Gaelic and Scots. This, in turn, may be attributed to the rapid processes of language change in Menteith. Gaelic was the dominant language in Port of Menteith parish in 1725 (Withers 1982; 1984, 59‒61) and was spoken throughout Menteith until the Jacobite Rising of 1745 (Newton 1999, 283). However, the parish then underwent a rapid process of language change ‘from Gaelic to almost completely English’ (Withers 1984, 97). The use of Gaelic declined to such an extent that Port of Menteith was considered ‘lowland’ in 1774 and was no longer classed as Gaelic-speaking, that is, a parish in which Gaelic was the language of worship, by 1806 (Withers 1984, 80, 130). Cunninghame Graham (1895, 12) lamented that ‘Gaelic is gone, or only just remembered by the elder generation’. The use of Scots also came under pressure in Menteith during the 19th century, under the combined weight of the influences of civil administration, education, literature, tourism, commerce and worship, all of which were conducted overwhelmingly in English. This process was accelerated by an influx of English speakers into Port of Menteith parish during the 1840s (Withers 1984, 80). The Ordnance Survey mapped Menteith in 1862, some decades after the impact of the English language began to be felt on the toponymy of Menteith. The replacement of the Loch of Menteith by the Lake of Menteith attests the strength of anglicising influences on place-names in this area between the late 18th and mid-19th centuries. This is mirrored in the anglicised forms of many place-names of both Gaelic and Scots origin across the Vale of Menteith. These anglicising influences may have rendered the Laich o’ Menteith obsolete. The absence of Laich / laigh place-names, for example, from 18th-century estate plans, indicates that this was never a common place-name element in Menteith. This may have been because the low-lying land around the Lake of Menteith was perceived as a single, generic laich, the Laich o’ Menteith. Alternatively, the lack of recorded Laich / laigh place-names may reflect linguistic and social changes associated with the landscape of Menteith. Agricultural improvement in the Carse of Forth from the mid-18th century resulted in the increased clearance of raised bogs and draining of land, opening up new areas to cultivation and greater productivity (but see Harrison 2003;
The Journal of Scottish Name Studies 10, 2016, 1–24 The Laich o’ Menteith: reassessing the origins of the Lake of Menteith 15 Harrison and Tipping 2007). As a result, any Laich / laigh place-names may have lost their relevance because they no longer related to poor quality and poorly- drained land. Once they had become obsolete, Laich / laigh place-names are likely to have fallen into disuse. Socio-economic factors may also have played a role here. Some Laich / laigh place-names may have been abandoned because of their perceived negative associations. For example, Sir Walter Scott defined laigh crofts as ‘low-lying fields of inferior quality’ (Scott 1829, 464). These factors may explain why, despite its extensive low-lying topography, Laich / laigh place- names are poorly represented in the Carse of Forth as a whole, with only three separate examples recorded: Laigh, a field-name at Ballingrew, near Thornhill (PER) (Cook 1904, 243); Laigh Haugh, at Taylorton, Stirling (STL) (Gibbon 1810, 90), while Laigh Loan, Gargunnock (STL), preserves the name Laigh Place, a farm which formerly stood on low-lying ground near the River Forth (Turner 1966, 143; OSNB 1/32/14/3).3 The absence of recorded references to the Laich o’ Menteith may also reflect the toponymic phenomenon whereby district names, particularly in rural areas, tend to be more poorly attested than the names of settlements and natural features. This may be attributed to several characteristics. Many districts and their names tend to feature more prominently in local consciousness and are not always readily intelligible to outsiders, in terms of the form or meaning of the name or the identity and extent of the area it refers to. As a result, districts may be informal, subjective or poorly defined in nature, unless they are coterminous with an administrative or judicial unit such as a parish, shire or sheriffdom. Without such formalisation, some district names may exist only in oral tradition. These names are more likely to have fallen into disuse or been susceptible to alteration, particularly in areas that underwent rapid linguistic change, as Port of Menteith parish did. As a result, district names, particularly rural ones, are often more poorly recorded than other toponyms. The combined effects of these various factors may explain the absence of recorded references to the Laich o’ Menteith. Cunninghame Graham’s references to the Laich / laigh provide a unique glimpse into an otherwise lost oral toponymic tradition. The Laich o’ Menteith is not unique in this respect but is paralleled by other poorly-attested Laich / laigh place-names in Lowland Scotland. These include isolated references to the Laigh Teviotdale (in the Border ballad Archie of Ca’field; ed. Scott 1807 II, 119), ‘the laigh (lower part) of Strathearn’ (ed. Morton 1855 II, 493), and ‘the “Laich of Dunfermline”’ (MacDonald 1876, 11, 23). That these appear to be the only recorded instances of these names indicates that Laich / laigh district names had become obsolete in Lowland Scotland by the 3 A caveat should be attached here. Laigh place-names and the place-names of the Forth valley are both under-studied and further research may identify more examples.
The Journal of Scottish Name Studies 10, 2016, 1–24 16 Nick Aitchison 19th century. This may be attributed to similar factors to the disappearance of the Laich o’ Menteith. For example, the impact of agricultural improvement on the Laich of Dunfermline was such that, despite its ‘strong clayey soil, somewhat stiff to cultivate’, it could still be described as ‘very fertile’ and ‘a highly fertile valley’ (MacDonald 1876, 11, 23). References to the Laich / laigh associated with the Lake of Menteith and the wider decline and disappearance of Laich / laigh district names in Lowland Scotland have implications for the origins of the Lake of Menteith. McNiven attributes the shift from loch to lake to the anglicising influences of literature and tourism during the early 19th century. Although clearly factors, these were only two in a much more extensive range of linguistic influences operating in Menteith. Moreover, the shift from loch to lake cannot be explained satisfactorily with reference to anglicising influences alone because, despite the impact of the English language across Lowland Scotland, no other loch became a lake. This is a truly remarkable distinction, given that there are estimated to be at least 31,460 freshwater lochs and lochans in Scotland (Lassiere n. d.; see also Smith and Lyle 1979, 9). The unique status of the Lake of Menteith is further emphasised when one considers that literature and tourism were more strongly associated with other locations in Menteith, notably in the Trossachs. Despite this, even Loch Katrine, the ‘lake’ referred to in The Lady of the Lake and the principal attraction for tourists in Menteith after the poem’s publication in 1810, did not become Lake Katrine. McNiven (2014, 155) claims that Loch Katrine was sometimes referred to as Lake of Loch Katrine but notes that this formation is never used of the Lake of Menteith because of the evident absurdity (presumably including the unwieldiness) of the Lake of the Loch of Menteith. According to McNiven, it is the presence of the preposition in the name the Lake of Menteith, which is absent from Loch Katrine and other loch names, that resulted in the change from Loch of Menteith to Lake of Menteith. However, the epexegetical form ‘the lake of the Loch’ is unusual and is used descriptively, as an explanatory element to clarify to non-Scots speakers the feature referred to in the place-name, rather than as part of the place-name itself. This is apparent from the absence of initial capitalisation in published examples, for example, the lake of Loch-Leven (Bucke 1816, 157). Its uniqueness reveals that the lake name must be attributable to another influence, something that distinguished the Loch of Menteith (as it then was) from other lochs and which resulted in its transformation into the Lake of Menteith. The Laich o’ Menteith provides the missing factor. The most plausible reason why the Loch of Menteith became the Lake of Menteith is as a result of either the influence of, or confusion with, a similar-sounding toponym denoting
The Journal of Scottish Name Studies 10, 2016, 1–24 The Laich o’ Menteith: reassessing the origins of the Lake of Menteith 17 the low-lying land around the loch, an area known as the Laich o’ Menteith. The powerful anglicising influences within Menteith that led to the adoption of the Lake of Menteith provide another clue about the fate of the Laich o’ Menteith. The Vale of Menteith comprises the upper reaches of the River Forth, an area which includes the Lake of Menteith. It refers to Lowland Menteith, distinguishing it from Highland Menteith, north of the Highland Boundary Fault, the line of which is marked by the Menteith Hills. Reinforcing the point about district names (above), the Vale of Menteith does not appear to be marked on any maps. Moreover, vale is an (originally Middle) English place-name element and must therefore have been introduced at a relatively recent date. The Vale of Menteith is first recorded as ‘the beautiful vale of Monteath’ in 1797 (McNayr 1797, 31), but the earliest reference to it as a place-name, the Vale of Monteith, dates to 1802 (Campbell 1802 I, 76‒77). This coincides, to the very year, with the earliest published reference to the ‘lake of Menteith’ (Pinkerton 1802 I, 176, 180),4 although it is not recorded as a place-name, the Lake of Monteith, until 1805 (Duncan 1805 [1808, 52]). The appearance of the earliest references to the Lake of Menteith and the Vale of Menteith at the same time is unlikely to be coincidental but attests the increasing influence of the English language on place-names within Menteith. In which case, could the Vale of Menteith be the English equivalent of the Scots Laich o’ Menteith? This is complicated by the existence of another district name, the Strath of Monteith, first recorded in 1757 (Maitland, W. 1757 I, ii). Scots strath, a loan- word from Gaelic srath, refers to ‘a river valley, esp[ecially] at its broader parts with meadows and arable land’ (DSL, s.v. strath). The Scots Strath of Menteith and the English Vale of Menteith therefore appear to denote the same district: ‘the Vale at present known by the name of the Strath of Monteith’ (Maitland, W. 1757 I, ii). However, Gaelic srath can also refer to: ‘2 Low-lying or flat part of a valley, district or farm. 3 Any low-lying country along a river. 4 Meadow. 5 The low, inhabited part of a country, in contradistinction to its hilly ground. 6 Dell. 7 (rarely) Marshy ground. 8 Plain beside a river’ (Dwelly, s.v. srath). Those meanings are very similar to those of Scots laich, laigh. The Strath of Menteith and Vale of Menteith both refer to the upper valley of the River Forth and are probably equivalent place-names rather than translations. By contrast, the Laich o’ Menteith may have held a more specific meaning, denoting the low-lying valley floor. The co-existence of both the Strath of Menteith /Vale of Menteith and the Loch of Menteith /Lake of Menteith during the 19th century attests the competing influences of the English and Scots languages on place-names within Menteith, with English eventually predominating. The names of the major landscape features in Menteith appear to have 4 And neither 1803 nor 1804, as McNiven (2014, 154, 156) states.
The Journal of Scottish Name Studies 10, 2016, 1–24 18 Nick Aitchison been anglicised to a greater extent than settlement names. This may reflect the attention they attracted from tourists and writers, who were predominantly English-speaking and referred to these places by anglicised name forms, some of which were then adopted more widely. The Menteith Hills also falls into this category. No Gaelic name is recorded for this range of hills, while the Ordnance Survey records no variant names and places ‘Monteith Hills’ in quotation marks (OSNB OS1/25/69/18). By contrast, the names of settlements and smaller topographical features may have remained more stable, retaining their Gaelic or Scots names, even if only in anglicised form, because of the more conservative influences of local tradition and landholding. Where the Laich o’ Menteith fits into this process of anglicisation is difficult to determine because of the paucity and lateness of recorded references. Nevertheless, the currency of the Laich o’ Menteith before the 19th century may be inferred from its apparent phonological adaptation as the Lake of Menteith. This seems more likely to have occurred after the Laich o’ Menteith fell into disuse, or was no longer understood, if only to avoid the confusion which would have resulted had both names been in use at the same time. The Laich o’ Menteith presumably became redundant as a result of being replaced by firstly the Strath of Menteith and then the Vale of Menteith. However, the Laich o’ Menteith did not disappear entirely but was accommodated within the toponymy of Menteith through a combination of not only phonological adaptation but also transposition from the low-lying land around what was formerly known as the Loch of Menteith to the loch itself. With the low-lying land in Menteith known as the Strath of Menteith and/or the Vale of Menteith, English speakers appear to have transformed the Laich o’ Menteith into the Lake of Menteith. The Lake of Menteith attests the complexity of those processes by which Scots, and presumably also Gaelic, place-names were assimilated into an anglicised toponymy within Menteith. Given the existence of reliable recorded references to the Laich / laigh, McNiven is unjustified in dismissing the interpretation that the Lake of Menteith owes its status as a lake to an anglicisation of Scots laigh. Although recorded name forms give the impression of a straightforward transition from the Loch of Menteith to the Lake of Menteith, Cunninghame Graham’s references to the Laich / laigh imply the influence of an oral toponymic tradition in Menteith which is now otherwise lost. The toponymist’s reliance on written records makes names that exist only in oral tradition largely inaccessible, but no less important in any sense (Nicolaisen 2001, 66‒67). Although the surviving evidence is both limited and late, it indicates that the Loch of Menteith became known as a lake as a result of its close association with the surrounding Laich o’ Menteith and as part of a more extensive process of anglicisation within Menteith. The Lake
The Journal of Scottish Name Studies 10, 2016, 1–24 The Laich o’ Menteith: reassessing the origins of the Lake of Menteith 19 of Menteith is not an isolated example but part of wider and more complex processes of linguistic contact, anglicising influences and associated place- name change within Menteith and should be studied as such. As well as being of intrinsic interest, the Lake of Menteith provides a salutary reminder of the complexity of even comparatively recent toponymic changes in Scotland, the challenges associated with the study of orally-transmitted and/or poorly- documented place-names and the potential pitfalls associated with relying only on well-established or well-recorded toponyms.
Acknowledgements I am indebted to my parents, Norma and Dr James Aitchison, for introducing me to the Lake of Menteith, several subsequent visits over the years and for sparking my interest in its name. I am also very grateful to Dr Simon Taylor and Dr Peter McNiven for their helpful comments at the peer review and editorial stages and to Dr McNiven for drawing my attention to the Cardross and Easter Garden estate plan.
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The Journal of Scottish Name Studies 10, 2016, 1–24 22 Nick Aitchison Natural Heritage Information and Advisory Note No. 4; available at
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