CELTIC PLACE-NAMES

IN ABERDEENSHIRE

JOHN MILNE, M.A., LL.D.

Gc

941.2501 M63c 1740468

REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION

ALLEN COUNTY PJJBU C LIBRARY

3 1833 00855 4864

GENEALOGY

941.2501

M63C

CELTIC PLACE-NAMES

CELTIC PLACE-NAMES

IN ABERDEENSHIRE

WITH A VOCABULARY OF GAELIC WORDS NOT IN DICTIONARIES

THE MEANING AND ETYMOLOGY OF THE

GAELIC NAMES OF PLACES

IN ABERDEENSHIRE

WRITTEN FOR THE COMMITTEE OF THE CARNEGIE TRUST

BY

JOHN MILNE, M.A., LL.D.

Author of " Aberdeen" and " Plaee-Names of the Lothians "

ABERDEEN ABERDEEN DAILY JOURNAL*' OFFICE

1912

1740468

INTRODUCTION.

The Aim of the Book.

This book is intended to give the meaning and the ety- mology, so far as they can be discovered, of all the Gaelic names of the places on the six-inch Ordnance Survey maps of Aberdeenshire. Some names have been added from old books and maps. It was necessary to examine all the names on the Ordnance Survey maps, because many names which appear to be Scotch or English prove to be Gaelic in disguise. Here are a few disguised names with their original forms and true meanings: — Gateside, Gaothach Suidhe, windy place; The Ladder, An Leitir, the hillside; Ladysford, Ath Leathan, broad ford; Dicken's Well, Tobar Deochan, well of drinks; Bull Well, Buaile Bhaile, town at a cattle- fold; Tom Anthon, Tom an Chona, hill of the cotton grass; Oily Pig, Uileann Pic, turning at a pointed rock in the sea; Skirl Naked, Sgeir Naigheachd, rock at which news was signalled.

Spelling.

The spelling given on the Ordnance Survey maps has been followed because it is in general use and because many of the Highland names are not found anywhere but on these maps, having been first conferred by the officers of the survey. The spelling is, however, often inaccurate. There are such errors as Derr for Derry, Fiatach for Fiaclach, Shenral for Shenval, Beinn a Bhuird for Beinn a' Bhuird, Ladie's for Lady's, Stonny Burn for Stony Burn. The word ivitter, meaning a surveyor's mark, has been made The Witter in a way indicating that it was thought to be the name of a place. The word Sqreuchaig, on Sheet 98, is not Gaelic, for the letter q is not in the Gaelic alphabet, and it is not English otherwise q would have been followed by u.

vi Introduction.

There is a want of uniformity in the spelling of names for the same objects. On Sheet 105 there are three ways of spelling a name meaning " hill of kids." It is made Craig Veann, Creag Mheann, and Craig Meann. In West Aber- deenshire the names are Gaelic, and they would be under- stood by Gaelic-speaking people if spelled in the Gaelic way, and this would make it easy to discover the etymology and meaning of a name. The names might be spelled phon- etically, and this would facilitate their pronunciation by those who do not understand Gaelic. Either way has its advantage, but some definite plan should be adopted and adhered to. In the second edition of the maps changes of spelling have been introduced, some of which are not improvements. Bunnsach has been made Bunzeach, which is equally meaningless and introduces z, a letter not in the Gaelic alphabet. The name means " bottom of a howe," and it should have been made either Buniochd as a Gaelic name, or Buneoch as a Scotch name. Several names are not appropriate to the objects near which they are placed. Ca means an unmade hill road for droves of cattle. By some person ignorant of Gaelic it has been placed on the top of hills instead of near roads along the side. Ben Uarn was the phonetic way of spelling Ben Bhearn, meaning " moun- tain of the gap," and it was appropriate for a mountain with two tops and a great gap between them. It has been made Ben Iutharn, mountain of hell, to the perplexity of those who have a personal knowledge of the mountain. In East Aberdeenshire the names had been corrupted almost beyond recognition of their original form, hundreds of years before the Ordnance Survey was begun, and the officers of the survey are not responsible for mistakes in Gaelic names in that part of the country. They must, how- ever, get the credit of placing on the top of Dunnideer Hill a residence for the spurious Pictish king Grig, alias Gregory the Great, alias St Cyrus. They seem not to be aware that His Majesty the King has a Historiographer who would keep them right in matters of this sort if consulted. If Grig really was a king he had been in his grave two hundred years before the castle of Dunnideer was built. Sheet 19 S.W. shows " The Bloody Butts of Lendrum," in Turriff, as the

Introduction. vii

site of a conflict between Donald of the Isles and the Thane of Buchan in the 11th century. In Aberdeen we know some- thing of Donald, for he was the death of a provost of Aber- deen at Harlaw in 1411 ; but the Thane of Buchan we never heard of.

Language.

There are many stone circles round graves in Aberdeen- shire without traces of metal tools, and there is none on the great sepulchral circles at Stonehenge. Hence wTe may infer that these circles were set up before 2000 B.C., when the use of metal tools began in Britain. The first inhabitants of the British Isles were called Celts by the Greeks, and we give the name Celtic to the language which they spoke. In process of time the language had broken up into six or seven dialects, differing in the pronunciation and the use of words. Three of these, called the Gaelic group — spoken in England, Scotland, and Ireland — closely resembled one another. The Celtic language is still spoken in some parts of Scotland. Though it is always called Gaelic the ancient languages of England and Ireland had an equal right to the name. The names of places in the three countries had been given before the language of the Gaelic group began to break up, and I have used Gaelic to denote the ancient language of Great Britain and Ireland.

Originally the names of places in Aberdeenshire had all been Gaelic, and the following coast names show that it was spoken to the very lip of the sea: — Leak Willie, flat rock at a bend in the shore line; Dundarg, red high promontory; Hole an Dirkie, hole leading into a cave; Inverallochy, mouth of the little burn ; Kirk Lakes, smooth flat rocks near a church; Craig Ewen, rock frequented by birds; Baby Gowan, cattle-fold; Boddam, ox house; King's Links, head of the Links; Nigg, the bay. The names Collyhill, Mor- mond, Bowl Boad, Delnadamph, Cam a' Mhaim, show resemblance in form and meaning to the Latin words coUis, mons, bovile, dama, mamma, and show that Gaelic and Latin had a common ancestor. Knockespock. hill of the bishop, and others, show that Gaelic was still spoken when Christianity was introduced in the twelfth centurv, but there

viii Introduction.

is hardly a trace of its earlier introduction by Columba. Idlestone, priest's stone or prayer stone, in Kincardineshire, indicates that prayers had been made at a stone erected at the grave of a Columban priest.

In East Aberdeenshire there are, of course, many place- names of Scotch and English origin, and the number is increasing. Sometimes names of Gaelic origin gave place to English names because their meaning in Gaelic had been lost. Coldhome has been abandoned in the mistaken belief that it meant a cold place. The displacement of Gaelic by Saxon began in England and the Lothians, and probably farther north also, immediately after the departure of the Eomans, but there had been a recurrence to Gaelic when Scotland north of the Forth became a kingdom. With the accession of Malcolm Canmore, Gaelic had begun to give place to English. Probably neither he nor his children spoke Gaelic. He was brought up in England. His first wife was a Norwegian, and his second wife, Margaret, was born in Hungary and brought up in England. The language of the court in her time had been English, and after her death her sons were taken to England and probably never learned Gaelic. A lingering fondness for the ancient language of the country is shown by place and personal names which had originally been Gaelic but having been corrupted into English forms had been retranslated into Gaeli^ with no resemblance either in meaning or in form to their Gaelic originals. The personal name Duncan had originally been Chuitail, cattle-fold, which had been corrupted into White- hill and subsequently translated into Gaelic by dun, hill, and can, white. These had coalesced and produced Duncan. There are also some names which though clearly of Gaelic origin are not in classical Gaelic form and are probably late.

Aboriginal Population of Scotland.

It is impossible to estimate the date at which Scotland began to be inhabited. The sculptured stones of the North- East bear Christian symbols and must be post-Columban. Some of the sepulchral stone circles have cups for making meal, which had been formed to propitiate the ghosts of the

Introduction. *x

deceased occupants of the graves in the centre of the circles, and there are many small cups on the door stone of the circle at Sunhoney. These cups had been made with metal chisels. They are probably older than the coming of St Columba, in 563 a.d., the graves being pagan. But there are many circles with no marks of metal tools on the stones, and stone ploughshares are sometimes found in the ground which bear no traces of metal tools upon them. These carry us back some hundreds, perhaps thousands, of years before Christ. The same language was spoken originally in Scot- land and Ireland, and though the difference between Gaelic and Irish is not great, it must have taken a very long time to develop. The aboriginal language of England was also Gaelic, and many of its place-names are of Gaelic origin.

The examination of the names for etymological purposes has not brought out the least indication of the Pictish language which some philologists and etymologists imagine has left traces of its existence among Gaelic names. A critical examination has been made of what the ancient Greek and Eoman writers have put on record regarding the people of Scotland and their language during the Eoman occupation of Britain ; and it shows that no historian has said that there were Picts in Scotland north of the Forth, or that there were Scots in Ireland. The origin of the Pictish myth is shown in the Appendix to the Introduction.

Formation of Gaelic Names.

The name of a place may be a simple noun in the nominative, and the noun may be preceded by the article.

Names may consist of two nouns in apposition and therefore in the same case. Horse beast, spring well, flesh meat, might be given as English examples of this construc- tion, which is not common in Gaelic.

The commonest form of a Gaelic name is a noun in the nominative followed by another in the genitive qualifying the first. The qualifying noun is nearly always last, and it is accented.

In East Aberdeenshire, after the meaning of Gaelic names had been nearly lost, additions were made to explain

x Introduction.

them. These were very often words almost identical in meaning with the original name, and they ought to have been in apposition to the words which they explained. If the addition was a translation into English of the original name it agreed with it. Craighill may be given as an example of this. If the addition was a Gaelic word it might be in the nominative, but the letter h might be inserted after the first letter of the addition to show that it qualified the first part and was in a dependent position. Lamh-bheinn is an example of this. Both parts mean " hill," and both are in the nominative, but beinn had been made bheinn to show that it was supposed to qualify the first.

Much more frequently the second part was turned into the genitive. This was ungrammatical, and it would not have been done unless the meaning of the first part had been lost. Hardweird, for Ard Uird, in Aberdeen, is an example of this. Ard means hill, and uird means of hill ; but both parts together mean hill.

When a name is made up of one noun qualified by another, the second noun may have before it the article. Sometimes from the meaning and the spelling of the second noun it can be seen that the article had once preceded it but had afterwards been omitted.

When a name is made up of three nouns — the second qualifying the first and the third the second — both the second and third ought to be in the genitive, but the second is usually in the nominative.

When a name is a compound noun made up of two nouns, one in the nominative and the other in the genitive, the first may be declined, but the second remains in the genitive always.

Many names are composed of a noun and a qualifying adjective agreeing with the noun in gender, number, and case. A few short adjectives usually precede the noun, and in this case they remain invariably in the nominative form, but the nouns may be declined. Wliether the adjective precedes or follows its noun it is always accented, and in a much corrupted name the position of the accent may help to indicate the qualifying word, even when it has been transposed from the end to the beginning of the name.

Introduction. xi

Aspiration.

This is an intricate subject, and the difficulty of under- standing it is increased by the term being used in two different senses. With regard to vowels it means that they are to be sounded while the breath is expelled from the chest. In Greek, aspiration of an initial vowel is indicated by the mark (') above the line. In Latin and English it is shown by prefixing the letter h, which in Gaelic is made Ji-. The letter li is called the aspirate, and the vowel is said to be aspirated.

For certain purposes the nine consonants b, c, d, f, g, m, s, t, cease to have their ordinary normal sound and either acquire a second sound or become silent. To indicate that they have undergone this change the letter h is affixed to them, and they are said to be aspirated, because li is called the aspirate when prefixed to a vowel. In Irish, aspiration of a consonant is marked by a dot (■) over the letter. When a consonant is aspirated no attempt should be made to sound h in combination with it, for h is not really a letter but simply a mark like the (•) in Irish.

Bh and mh are both sounded v, which was formerly inter- changeable with u and w, and modern corrupt forms of old Gaelic names beginning with any of these three letters may originally have begun with bh or mh. Hence also in some modern names m represents a Gaelic b. The burn name Marno represents the Gaelic word bearna, gap, and Ram- stone had originally been Clach Eiabhach, grey stone, bh having become first mh and then m by dropping the aspirate h.

Ch is sounded h, roughly, with no sound of c, and in many corrupt forms it is omitted. Hay and Hythie come from chuith, the aspirated form of cuith, a cattle-fold.

Dh and gh both sound y. In dh the sound of d is not heard, but g may be faintly heard in gh before a, o, or u. Modern names beginning with y may have begun with gh in Gaelic. Clachan Yell was in Gaelic Clachan Glical, white stones.

Ph is sounded as /, and hence in modern names ph may be represented by f, as in Blairfowl for Blar Phuill, moor of the pool.

xii Introduction.

F, having itself the sound of an aspirated letter, cannot be further aspirated, but h is added to / to show that it is not to be sounded. Sometimes the h is sounded, but not often. The name Meenlicht represents Moine Fhliuchach, wet moor, fh being silent; but in Old Hangy, for Allt Fhaing, burn of the fank, though / has been lost h has been left.

In sh and th, s and t are silent, but h may be heard.

The use of the second sound of consonants arose from the fact that while in other languages inflexions of nouns, adjectives, pronouns, and verbs are made by terminal changes Gaelic does not admit of many terminal changes, and some changes are made in the body of words and others at the beginning. In mor and beag, m and b have their normal sound, but the genitives of both begin with the sound of v, and if they had been spelled phonetically they would have become vor and veg. This would have prevented a person who saw them from knowing their original initial letters, which are a great help to find their meaning. To get over this difficulty m and b were preserved and h was inserted after them to show that they had their second sound. This ingenious contrivance enabled people to read the Gaelic Bible and books with which they were familiar without the help of dictionaries, which had not been begun to be compiled a hundred years ago. It has its disad- vantages, however. A person needs to have a good know- ledge of Gaelic grammar before he can make much use of a dictionary. He cannot find words unless he knows their etymological spelling. It is well for the etymologist of place-names that he has only to deal with the second sound of the initial consonants of nouns and adjectives, almost the only parts of speech which occur in place-names. The names in East Aberdeenshire are now much corrupted and they are spelled phonetically, so that there may be a great difficulty in discovering their original forms.

The following Rules and the Table give the positions and the circumstances in which the initial consonants of the nominatives and genitives of nouns and adjectives have the second sound, if they are capable of being aspirated. The other cases of nouns and adjectives are hardly found in names.

Introduction.

Rules for Aspiration.

1. — Proper nouns masculine in the genitive singular, and common nouns masculine in the genitive plural, are aspi- rated when preceded by another noun.

2. — Nouns masculine in the genitive singular, and nouns feminine in the nominative singular, aspirate adjectives following them.

3. — Masculine nouns of the second declension in the genitive singular and in the nominative plural aspirate adjectives following them.

4. — A noun is aspirated if it follows its adjective.

5. — The article aspirates masculine nouns in the geni- tive singular, and feminine nouns in the nominative singular.

G. — An adjective is aspirated when it follows and qualifies a noun aspirated by the article.

7. — In a compound name made up of two nouns the second, if masculine, is aspirated in the genitive singular and in the nominative and genitive plural. If feminine, it is aspirated in the nominative singular and in the nominative and genitive plural.

8. — In a compound name consisting of two adjectives the second is aspirated in all cases.

9. — In a compound name consisting of a noun and an adjective the adjective is always aspirated.

Table.

Rule.

Masculine.

Feminine.

Singular. Plural.

Singular.

Plural.

N. G. l N. G.

N. G.

N. G.

1

Noun .

X

X

2

Adj. .

X

X

3

Adj. .

X

X

4

Noun .

X X

X

X

X X

X X

5

Noun .

X

X

(5

Adj. .

X

X

7

Noun .

...

X

X

X

X

X X

8

Adj. .

X

X

X

X

X

X

X X

9

Adj. .

X

X

X

X

X

X

X X

When a name is made up of two parts the second is some- times aspirated abnormally if it qualifies the first.

xiv Introduction.

Interchange of Aspirated Letters.

The second sounds of aspirated consonants are softer and more like vowels than the first, and hence they are liable to be mistaken for one another. This happened in Gaelic but oftener when Gaelic passed into English or Scotch. This was partly because some consonants closely resemble one another after aspiration, and partly because in English ' and Scotch interchange of aspirated consonants has been frequent. As already mentioned, bh and mh are both equivalent to v, and hence in writing the words there was a risk of using the one combination for the other, and when the aspirate was dropped of substituting b for m or m for b.

Dh and gh, being both equivalent to y, were liable to be interchanged in writing, and hence also / and g, both in writing and in speaking, after the loss of the aspirate h. The name Foggymill probably means a mill built of mossy sods, and the first part had been foideacli, which passing through the forms foidlieach and foiglieach had become foigeach and foggy. Gh never has its proper sound in English. It has become / in laugh and it is silent in daughter. In Scotch gh has usually the sound of ch , as in dauchter for daughter. In magh, a maggot under the hide of cattle, the true sound of gh is heard, but this word is of local usage.

C is not really heard in ch, and its place has often been taken by w or qu, and sometimes by p, which with It is equivalent to /. Hence wh becomes / in some parts of Scotland, especially in Aberdeenshire. Ch may become dh or gh, which are equivalent to y, and thus arose clay in Clayfords and Clay stiles, where it represents clach, a stone. Ch in Kochford represents gh in ruigh, the side of a hill. In Scotch th becomes ch in moch for mothj and in chree for three.

The etymologist must be prepared for finding any aspirated letter changed into any other aspirated letter, and as a letter may lose the aspirate any aspirable simple letter may be changed into any other aspirable letter.

Introduction. xv

Interchange of Liquid Letters.

The liquid letters I, n, r, are often interchanged in the combinations cl, en, cr, gl, gn, gr. They are all pro- nounced with the point of the tongue at the back of the teeth in the lower jaw, and the}- can all be pronounced without great change on the position of the body of the tongue. This has given rise to many variants of the same name. The word cnoc means a hill. In the Highlands it still retains its original spelling, but in the Lowlands it has normally become knock. In Gaelic cnoc is generally pro- nounced crochg, n being changed to r, and final c to chg. Both these changes are of frequent occurrence in Gaelic. From crochg we have the personal names Crockart, Croker, and Crookes, and the place-names Crookmore, Hattoncrook, and Crookednook. When r is dropped we get Cook Hill and Cookston. From cnoc, by dropping n, we get Cock, Cock- law, Cockardy, etc. By change of n to another liquid, I, we have the forms Clockhill and Cloak, and by further change of final c to g we get Clog, Cloghill, Clognie, and Clagan or Claggan. By change of g to d we get Clodhill and the plant-name Cloudberry. By substitution of g for initial c we have Gloag, Glog, Goach, Goak, Gookhill, and Gowk- stone.

Translation of the Gaelic Termination " an " into Scotch and English.

The termination an added to a Gaelic noun converts it into its diminutive. In the genitive an becomes ain. The Scotch diminutive termination is ie or y, and in most Gaelic names an or ain is represented by ie or y in Scotch names. Ardan, Logan, Torran, Ouran, have become Ardie, Logie, Torry, Ury. This had been done by dropping final n and changing the obscure a into ie or y, because Scotch words rarely end in a in spelling. In some cases the final a has become o or och in spelling, but the sound of o is not distinctly audible in pronunciation. In some words a and n have been transposed, and then n has been preserved while a has become ie or y, or sometimes ey, as in Bogan, Cluan, Cuithan, which have become Bognie, Cluny, Keithny

xvi Introduction.

or Keithney. The letter d is inserted unwarrantably in some English words after n, as in sound, thunder. This is seen in the names Brindy, Findy, Lundy or Lundie, which in their simpler form would have been Briny, Finy, Luny or Lunie, as representing braonan, finan, lonan. No satisfactory etymology has been offered for the name Dundee. Prob- ably the second d is intrusive, and the local pronunciation, which lays the accent on the first syllable, suggests that final ee ought to be ie. This would reduce Dundee to Dunie, which would represent dunan, a little hill — an etymology appropriate for the place.

After the meaning of Gaelic names had been forgotten the terminations an, ann, eann, unn, etc., were, on passing into Scotch, made ie or y though not diminutives. Uileann, Gamhann, Pouran, Babhunn, have become Willie, Gownie, Powrie, Baby and Bawbee.

An is also a plural termination and has frequently been translated into s, the English plural termination. Cairnan, Leacan, Cnapan, have become Cairns, Lakes, Knaps. Sometimes s has been added to an instead of being sub- stituted for it, making it doubly plural, and, as with the diminutive, some names ending in n preceded by a vowel have been made to end in s though not plural. Knox (for cnocs) represents cnocan, a little hill.

Another very late terminal form derived from an is ies. Bac, peat-moss, became Backies by passing through the forms bacan and bade. Cort, circle, became Cortes by passing through cortan and cortie. Paties in Patiesmill comes from pett, passing through pettan, pettie, and petties. The termination ies almost always represents a diminutive ending in an with s improperly added.

Transposition of the Parts of a Name.

Most Gaelic names consist of a noun in the nominative followed by an adjective or a noun in the possessive. On passing into Scotch no change was made on the order of the parts of the name so long as they retained the Gaelic forms; but if the last part was translated it was often put first to comply with Scotch and English usage, which puts the

Introduction. xvii

qualifying word first. The translation might be right or wrong, but a word in the qualifying place in Gaelic was usually put into the qualifying place in English. The genitive in Gaelic represents the possessive in English, and s was frequently added to the first part in the belief that it must be in the possessive, unless it was evidently an adjective.

Moine Reidh means level moss, coming from moine, moss, and reidli, level. When moine was translated the name became in one place Red Moss, and in another Reid's Moss. Allt Beag means small burn, coming from allt, burn, and beag, small. It has now become Beg's Burn. Kings- crown is accented on the last part, which is an indication that the order of the parts has not been changed. The name was originally Cinn Cruinn, round head, from cinn for ceann, head, and cruinn, round. The resemblance between cinn and king had led to the insertion of s to convert the name to the English form which it now bears, though it is quite inap- propriate. The history of the common name Lady's Bridge illustrates some of the processes referred to. The original form of the name had been Ath Leathan, meaning broad ford, from ath, ford, and leathan, broad. Ath was translated and put last, giving Leathanford. An being erroneously supposed to be the diminutive termination, was translated into y, giving Leathyford. Th often becomes d in Scotch, as in ledder for leather, which gives Leadyford. Dropping e and inserting s gives Ladysford. When a bridge was erected at the ford it was called Lady's Bridge. Lady's retains the accent because it represents an adjective, but King's in names seldom has the accent because it repre- sents a noun in the nominative.

Tracing the Etymology of Names.

In working out the etymology of names an endeavour has been made to give the reader every possible help to ascertain the meaning of a name and the exact form of the word or words entering into its composition. The name has been given as on the Ordnance Survey map, but where this

xviii Introduction.

differs much from the original form this also is given. Next the meaning of the name is given in English. If a name consists of only one Gaelic word it is given with its correct spelling in Gaelic, followed by its meaning. If the name consists of more than one Gaelic word each part with its meaning is given separately. If a Gaelic word is a noun not in the nominative, or not in the singular, its case and number are stated and the nominative singular is given. If the noun has its initial consonant aspirated the simple form of the nominative is also stated. If the Gaelic word is an adjective not in the nominative, or not in the singular or not masculine, its case, number, and gender are stated, and the simple form of the nominative singular masculine is given. The object of this is to enable a student to find in a Gaelic dictionary the word he is dealing with, so that he can see for himself all its meanings and cognate words, and thus be able to judge whether the meaning and etymology offered are correct.

Dictionaries.

The early Gaelic dictionaries, published in 1825 and 1828, were based upon the Gaelic translation of the New Testa- ment, published in 1767, the Gaelic translation of the Old Testament in four volumes, published 1783-1801, and James Macpherson's " Ossian," published in Gaelic in 1818. The dictionaries were supplemented from the personal know- ledge of their authors; but this, of course, was limited, and many words escaped their notice. Some of these have since been gathered up, and there are still many to be gleaned.

There are words in the common speech of the country where Gaelic is still spoken which cannot be found in dictionaries, and still more are found in the place-names. Some of these may not be found in literary Gaelic and ought not to be admitted into dictionaries without a distinguishing mark. In an appendix are given words found in Gaelic names of places in Aberdeenshire which are not in Macleod and Dewar's dictionary at all, -or not found with the requisite meaning. Those of them to which the word Irish is added are in O'Eeilly's Irish dictionary.

Introduction. xix

Obsolete Customs in Farming.

Many names signifying cattle-folds refer to a long-extinct practice which was formerly universal in the cultivated parts of Scotland. From the earliest time at which Scotland had been inhabited, down to the suppression of the last Jacobite insurrection, it had been customary for the people of a district to construct large and substantially walled folds in which their cattle — their only wealth — were placed at night to prevent them from being stolen or from straying and de- stroying growing crops. The fields were not fenced, and the cattle roamed over a large area of uncultivated pasture- ground in charge of herdsmen who folded and guarded them at night. The country began to be divided into parishes about 1100, and every parish church had become the nucleus of a hamlet; but in pre-Christian times the cattle-fold was the most important place in a district, and around it were clustered the houses of the farmers and the cottages of the agricultural labourers and the grass men, whose duty it was to cut grass in the meadows on the burn banks and to make hay for food for the live stock in winter. There seem to have been no dwelling-houses scattered over the country as at present, but all the people had lived at the cattle-fold in which they were interested. A very large number of cattle- fold names have been preserved, and when we learn that the names Gordon, Keith, Hay, Duncan, and many more be- sides, mean cattle-fold, we need not wonder at finding different families of these names spread all over Scotland, since it was the custom in early times to name individuals from the place where they lived. After the introduction of the feudal system every proprietor of land had provided one or more folds for the tenants on his land. Castle Eoy at Abernethy is a good specimen of an ancient cattle-fold. It is 83 feet long and 53 feet wide, and the walls are 30 feet high. x\t two diagonally opposite corners there were towers for the accommodation of guardsmen, who could have manned the walls to ward off attacks of thieves. It has been so long out of use that the purpose for which it had been erected is now quite forgotten, and it is called a castle as if it had been a proprietor's residence. The poems titled

xx Introduction.

Helenore, or the Fortunate Shepherdess," and " Douglas, a Tragedy," tell of fierce barbarians from the west who came in armed bands and swept the peaceful cultivated vales and plains of their flocks and herds.

Some of the cattle-folds were constructed of stones fused together by heat with the aid of salt or seaweed. Such are the vitrifactions on Craig Phadrig and those on Tap o' Noth, Dumhdeer, and Finhaven. Most of the structures called hill forts were cattle-folds. The works on the top of Barra Hill and Bennachie and the Barmekins of Echt and Keig and the Peel of Lumphanan were cattle-folds. So also were some peninsulas along the coast. The still luxuriant grass on Downie, to the south of the Bay of Nigg, tells that it had long been a cattle-fold, and the castles at Dunnottar, Peter- head, and Dundarg had been built to protect cattle-folds. The names of some inland castles indicate that they had been erected not only as residences for proprietors but also- as guardhouses for the folds of the cattle belonging to the tenants on their estates.

A remark in the diary of James Melvill, the eminent Scotch reformer, shows that the great cattle-folds were still in use shortly after the Keformation in 1560. Writing of the state of the parish churches, he says: — "By the in- satiable sacrilegious avarice of earls, lords, and gentlemen, the kirks lie like sheep- and cattle-folds rather than places for Christian congregations to assemble in." They seem to have begun to go out of use in the seventeenth century. This was caused by the increase of cultivated land and a higher style of farming, which led to the abolition of the system by which several tenants held a large farm under a joint lease and worked it in common. The proportion of rent which each tenant paid and the number of oxen which he provided for the common plough determined the share which he received of the produce of the farm and the part which he had to pay of the wages of the common servants on the farm. This system came to an end in Scotland after the disastrous year 1782. Among the Aberdeenshire names there are more than a hundred different forms for cattle- folds, and there are also English cattle-fold names of the same origin and meaning as the Scotch, which helps to prove

Introduction . xxi

that the ancient people of Scotland and England spoke the same Celtic language.

Shiels and Shielings.

Many names refer to a now extinct custom of migrating in summer to distant hills and glens with the whole live stock of a farm, except work oxen and a few milk cows. Summer pastures are indicated by names beginning with airie, airy, arric, hairy, liar, hare, harrow, earl, and early. These are corruptions of the Gaelic word airidh meaning a shiel or temporary summer residence for persons in charge of cattle at summer pasture, and it means also the pasture itself, which is called a shieling. When there were milk cows among the cattle, mothers of families with their children and servants went to the shieling to milk the cows and make butter and cheese. If the shieling was not fai away the cream was carried home in a jar slung on a woman's back, but if it was at a great distance all the dairy work had to be done at the shiels. The shiels were huts built with mossy sods, and as cows from several farms went to the same shieling there was usually a group of huts in one place, forming a solitary hamlet. The shiels required repairs annually before the summer migration, and this led to the construction of permanent underground houses to serve as residences and dairies. On the Ordnance Survey maps these places are called Earth Houses or Erd Houses. They could be constructed only where there were long ice- trailed stones to form the roof. The houses had been formed by digging a deep trench in the ground. The trench, which was sometimes straight and sometimes curved, was lined with substantial stone walls at the sides and ends and covered with long stones left on the surface of the ground by the ice-sheet of the glacial epoch. The length of the stones determined the width of the house ; but the walls could be slightly inclined inwards, so that the houses were wider at the floor than at the roof. Above the roof-stones was laid a tbick coat of earth covered with turf, and when the hole in the roof which served as a door was covered with turf there was no outward indication of the house underground. Such

xxii Introduction.

houses are of various dimensions but a common size is six to eight feet wide, six feet high, and twenty feet or upwards in length. In some houses there is a low-roofed chamber entered by a square hole in the side, three or four feet up from the floor. The chamber might have been used for holding dairy produce or as a sleeping-place. There is seldom a hole in the inner end of a house to let out smoke, and perhaps the underground houses had been chiefly used as dairies. In holes in the walls, or on the floor, or in places in the immediate neighbourhood of the houses, various stone articles have been found which give a clue to the time when they were in use. Stuck into the wall of one was found a small slab with a cup-like hollow on one side. This had been filled with dry grain, which had been pounded with a pestle and made into meal. Such cups are found on rocks and on the underside of the covers of stone-lined graves. Some are seen on one of the stones of megalithic circles round graves, cists, and urns. Whorls, three or four ounces in weight, found at underground houses, would have been usef ul in keeping tight a few threads each in a simple upright loom, or in spinning yarn without a wheel.

Near the sites of shiels and underground houses have been found many stone balls with knobs and grooves upon them. Probably a ball had been attached to a rope by thongs of cowhide let into the grooves, and the rope and ball had been used to catch domestic animals which would not allow a person to get hold of them. In sketches of carvings and paintings on Egyptian tombs showing rural scenes we see this use of a rope and a ball. In breaking up virgin pasture in Argentina single balls are found with a groove round them for a cord by which they had been thrown at guanacos by Peruvian Indians long ago. They had struck animals and had coiled round them but had not brought them to the ground, and they had been carried off too far to be recovered.

Kude stone ladles have also been found near the under- ground houses. These and ail the other finds indicate that the system of summer migration to distant hill pastures must have been followed for a very long time. It has been unknown in the lowland part of Aberdeenshire for more than

Introduction. XXU1

-a hundred years, but in the Highlands old shiels were to be seen about 1850.

The Picts and Scots.

The language to which the ancient place-names of Northern Scotland belong is Gaelic, one of the modern representatives of the Celtic language which the natives of the British Isles spoke when Julius Caesar came amongst them, 55 b.c Other Celtic languages developed from a common ancestor with Gaelic are Irish, Manx, Welsh, and Cornish. Some philologists have imagined that there was in Scotland during the Koman occupation another language called Pictish. They think that at that time the Scots •occupied Ireland and the Picts Scotland, and that the Picts in the eastern slope of Scotland north of the Forth were supplanted by Scots from Ireland. This leads them to think that there may yet remain in the ancient place-names of that part of Scotland some traces of an extinct Pictish language. The names of places in Aberdeenshire give no support to this idea; and a critical examination of ancient Greek and Roman writers shows that it is useless to look for Pictish words among Gaelic place-names. No Greek or Roman historian says that there were Scots in Ireland or Picts in the North-East of Scotland.

Skene has discussed this subject in " Celtic Scotland," and in the Introduction he blames preceding historians for not using discrimination in regard to the relative values of the statements of ancient authors on the subject. The same complaint has to be made against Skene himself. If he had examined critically the writings of Greek and Roman authors who have treated of ancient Britain and its inhabitants he would have seen that some of them wrote history and some of them panegyrics. What the historians say seems to be true and impartial, but what the panegyrists say is palpably inaccurate and exaggerated.

The historians say that when the Romans came to Britain they were informed by the inhabitants that they were of the same race as the aborigines of the country, with the exception of the coast population, who had come over

xxiv Introduction.

from Belgium. The inhabitants tattooed their bodies with woad and might therefore have been called Picti or coloured people ; but this term is not given to any of them till after a period of more than four hundred years, and then only to the people north of the Tyne and south of the firths of the Forth and the Clyde.

In the first century after Christ, Augustus, before he became emperor, visited Britain and carried some of the inhabitants captives to Borne to grace his triumphal entry into the city ; and the citizens had then and subsequently seen the strangely ornamented faces of the Britons. To- wards the end of this century the Bomans invaded Scotland. The country on the eastern slope and north of the Forth was at that time called Caledonia and its inhabitants Caledonian Britons.

In the second century Ptolemy made tables of latitudes and longitudes, from which rude maps could be constructed, but as the Bomans had not then gone beyond the Gram- pians Ptolemy had no knowledge of the North of Scotland. His positions of places are seriously in fault, and the names which he gives to many of them are fictitious. None of them have any meaning in Gaelic. One has z in it, the sound of which is not in the Gaelic language.

In this century the part of England conquered by the Bomans was erected into a province and a row of great camps was constructed on the north side of the Tyne to protect it. The camps were connected by a great stone wall, apparently a later construction than the camps. An attempt was made to conquer the South of Scotland, and to keep out the Caledonians another line of forts with a wall was made from the Firth of Forth to the Firth of Clyde. Tattooing the face and body had probably been put down within the Boman province as being a sign of defiance, but it continued to be practised in Scotland.

In the beginning of the third century the Britons be- tween the two walls were called Maeatae, while those to the north of the Scotch wall continued to be called Cale- donians. Both peoples were regarded by the historians as of the same race, and they acted in concert against the Bomans. They both tattooed themselves with instruments

Introduction. xxv

made of iron or steel. These they had got from the Romans, who got steel from Noricum for making swords, surgical instruments, cutting and puncturing tools. The inhabitants of Noricum used charcoal in smelting iron and thus produced steel without knowing how it was done.

In this century the Romans advanced beyond the Grampians and constructed a fort at Burghead on the Moray Firth, evidently with the intention of making a permanent settlement there; but the death of Severus in 211 caused them to relinquish all their settlements in Scotland, and for a hundred and fifty years the pages of the history of Scotland are blank.

We next hear of Scotland after the middle of the fourth century. The historians have dropped the names Cale- donians and Maeatae, and the aggressors of Rornan Britain are called Scots and Picts. They are said to have been making incessant plundering incursions into the places near the English wall and to have kept the Romanised Britons in constant terror. When the authentic credible history of Scotland begins (about 889) we find the people of the dis- trict formerly called Caledonia now termed Scots, and we may therefore conclude that Scots is a new name for the Caledonians, and Picts for the Maeatae. In what way or for what purpose the Romans distinguished the Scots from the Picts we are not told. It might have been by their clothing, the style of tattooing, the method of making attacks — whether by land or by sea — and what they carried away with them. A few years ago a bit of red glass with a faun carved upon it was found in a small sepulchral cist under a cairn at Monquhitter. The engraving was beauti- fully done and the bit of glass had been set in a signet ring. Though it might have been got by purchase more likely it had been taken in a plundering expedition into the north of England.

The Scots and Picts are not represented as being dis- tant transmarine nations but as the near neighbours of the provincial Britons. Skene, however, says the Scots came over from Irerand when making their incursions. No- historian says this and the statement is most improbable.

The might of the Roman empire began to wane and

^xvi Introduction.

soldiers were called in from the frontiers to defend the home country against attacks of barbarians. A find of gold coins at Corbridge on the Tyne in 1908 indicates that before the end of the fourth century the garrisons on the Eoman Wall had been withdrawn and transferred to the towns. In 410 the Eoman authority in Britain came to an end, and nothing written after that date concerning Eoman Britain is of any historical importance, for it can only be a restatement of what had been written before the Eomans departed.

Let us now see what the panegyrists say. There are two of them, Claudian and Eumenius. Claudian was a poet, who wrote 397-400. In recounting the great deeds of the illustrious general Theodosius he says his hero pitched his camp among the snows of Caledonia, watered the Ork- neys with Saxon blood, warmed Thule with the blood of the Picts, and made Ireland weep over heaps of slain Scots. He couples places and peoples so as to produce a pleasant jingle and to satisfy the metre of his lines, without regard to historical or geographical accuracy.

In " The Praises of Stilicho " he represents Britannia as telling what he had done for her. He had freed her from the terror of three enemies — the Scots, who inhabited all Ireland and came over the sea against her, the Picts, and the Saxons, who made attacks along the whole coast — that is of the North Sea. She says nothing of the Picts but merely gives their name, and we presume that Claudian left it to be understood that they were the inhabitants of the country north of Hadrian's Wall and made their attacks by land.

The other panegyrist is Eumenius, a prose writer who wrote about 310. In 297 Constantius Chlorus, who had been created Caesar, recovered Britain which had been lost to the Eoman empire by a revolt. For this he was lauded in a panegyric by Eumenius, who says that before Caesar's arrival among them the Britons had no more formidable enemies than the Picts and Hibernians, whom they con- quered, but he soon made them yield to the Eoman power. But the most important passage in Eumenius as far as regards Scotland is in his panegyric upon Constantine, in which he says that he is not going to mention the dangers

Introduction. xxvii

Constantine underwent in the woods and marshes of the Caledonians and other Picts. This is identifying the Cale- donians not with the Scots but with the Picts. It may be noted that the historians do not mention the Caledonians or Caledonia after the death of Severus in 211, and that the two panegyrists alone mention them.

As Claudian is the only authority for putting the Scots in Ireland so Eumenius is the only authority for putting Picts in Caledonia.

Following the panegyrists has had a malign influence on the history of Scotland. It made Bede (673-735) in his ecclesiastical history go out of Scotland for the original home of the Scots. Not quite satisfied with Claudian's early seat for them in Ireland, he made Scythia their primal home and said they were only sojourners in Ireland. It also deceived the writer of the life of St Columba and made him say that the Scots came from Scotia — meaning Ireland — into Britain. But the biographer of St Columba could not have been Adamnan, for he was contemporary with persons who knew Columba, and he would have known something of his great enterprise, which the biographer seems not to have done. The " Life of St Columba " was probably written a long time after his death. Following the panegyrists also gave rise to the compilation of spurious lists of kings of the Picts and Scots in the tenth and eleventh centuries. One of these goes back to Noah ; another, less ambitious, goes no further back than the departure of the Romans from Britain ; and a third, keeping better within the bounds of moderation, begins with Kenneth Mac Alpine; but even his date is too early, for the four succeeding kings in the list are still called kings of the fictitious Picts.

None of the chronicles of the Picts and Scots makes a good job of transforming the Picts into the Scots. In " Celtic Scotland " the curtain falls on the Picts in 877, when Constantine, king of the Picts, is reported to have fallen in a battle between the Danes and the Scots !

Following the historians we identify the Caledonians with the aboriginal Britons and the Scots with the Caledonians. We restrict the Picts to the area between the two walls and are thus quit of the insuperable difficulty of accounting for

xxviii Introduction.

the suppression of the Picts and their language in Scotland north of the Forth.

The sum of the matter is that the Pictish story is a myth, and that traces of the Pictish language need not be looked for in the Celtic place-names of Aberdeenshire.

APPENDIX.

The Pictish Question.

The question is — " Was there in the east of Scotland north of the Firth of Forth, within the period of the Pioman occupation of Britain, a people called Picts different in race and language from the Britons whom Caesar found in the country in his two expeditions to Britain in 55 and 54 B.C. ? "

In discussing the question of the Picts and their language it is necessary to attend to three things — (1) What the ancient writers meant by the term Picti or Picts ; (2) what they have told us about the Picts ; (3) what they have said about the Caledonians and Scots, who are usually asso- ciated with the Picts.

We need take notice only of what was written before the departure of the Piomans from Britain in 410. Nothing in late Roman authors or in Gildas, Bede, Nennius, Adamnan, the Chronicles of the Picts and Scots, or modern historians is of any importance in this question. It can only be a re- statement of what had already been written, or the writers' inferences from what they had found in early books. We must also use some discrimination in trusting to the ancient writers. Some of them wrote history meant to instruct posterity, others wrote poetry meant to please and interest their readers, and some wrote panegyrics intended to gain the favour of the persons whom they belauded.

Caesar (54 B.C.) sa3rs that the Britons coloured their bodies with woad, and Ovid (a.d. 9) speaks of the green or blue coloured Britons ; but it is hard to decide whether they meant to say that they stained their whole bodies or tattooed upon them figures of animals and designs. Caesar says their object was to give them a terrific appearance in war. Herodian (238) distinctly says that the Britons tattooed their bodies with figures of animals with an iron instrument, and that it was done as an ornament. Mackay (" Ency. Brit.") says Dion Cassius makes this statement, which is a mistake. Jornandes (552) says the Britons made

xxx Appendix.

designs on their bodies by means of an iron instrument ; and Isodorus (600) makes the ridiculous statement that the Scots got their name from the practice of tattooing them- selves. Both the two last writers are too late to be con- sidered as authorities, but Isodorus evidently thought that the name of a tribe had originated in the practice of tattooing. It might be inferred from Virgil (" Georg." III. 24, 25) that he had seen in a triumphal procession in Rome captive Britons with tattooed or stained bodies, carrying sheets embroidered with a representation of a battle between them and the Romans. It is clear that there had been something very striking in the appearance of the barbarous Britons.

It seems likely that the ancient Britanni had tattooed their bodies with designs and figures of animals for the pur- pose of indicating to one another the tribes to which they belonged, and that tattooing, being a mark of barbarism and hostility to the conquerors, had been put down within the Roman province, though it continued to be practised north of the Roman Wall in England. Picti had primarily meant tattooed and had afterwards been applied first as an epithet and secondly as a tribal name for those beyond the wall, either to distinguish them from the Romanised Britons or from other Britanni who did not tattoo themselves.

Caesar informs us that the natives of Britain believed that they were the aborigines of the island, and that they were all of the same race (and spoke the same language), except the coast population on the south-east, who had come over from Belgium. These statements are not con- tradicted by any subsequent reliable historian. Though. Tacitus says that after Caesar's second expedition the Romans forgot or ignored Britain till the reign of Claudius, both Dion Cassius and Servius state that Augustus made an expedition into Britain. This is supposed to have been in 27 B.C. From Virgil and Horace it would seem that on his return to Rome he had obtained a triumph (" Archaeo- logia," Vol. XLIV., pp. 65-92). The emperor Claudius sent an expedition to Britain (a.d. 43), and in seven years England was subdued as far north as the Humber and formed into a province, within which tattooing had not

Appendix. xxxi

been allowed. In 65 Lucan mentions the Caledonians for the first time, but they are not spoken of as a different race from the Britons of the south. He calls them Caledonian Britons.

The emperor Vespasian in 78 sent to Britain Agricola as governor of the province. His life was written by his son- in-law, Tacitus, who, however, was never in Britain and shows great ignorance of its early history and geography. He is not to be relied upon except in his account of Agricola's campaigns. One thing which he makes clear is that the Caledonians dwelt on the north side of the Forth, but his remarks are so indefinite that Ptolemy placed them on the west side of the Moray Firth. In the year 80 Agricola entered Scotland, and having conquered new tribes he secured his conquests by a line of forts on the isthmus between the Forth and the Clyde. In 86 after three cam- paigns between the Forth and the Tay in which he did not cross the Grampians, Agricola fought a battle with the Britons at a place which Tacitus calls Mons Grampius. The Britons were defeated and withdrew to the north. Tacitus gives a minute account of the battle and a verbatim report of the speech of Galgacus, the commander of the Britons. The account which Tacitus gives of the battle must be fictitious and it damages his character as a trust- worthy historian.

Tacitus says that the language of the Britons did not differ much from that of the Gauls. On this subject the opinion of Tacitus is of no value. Agricola was recalled by Domitian, and after 86 the Roman authority ceased at the line of forts.

In 120 Hadrian began the construction of a vast forti- fication between the Tyne and the Solway for the protection of the province. It consisted of a series of great camps connected by a wall and a ditch. Apparently the camps had been constructed and finished before the wall and the ditch were begun to be made.

In 139 a wall made of earth faced with grassy sods laid upside down was made between the Forth and the Clyde, probably on the line of Agricola's forts. The wall had not been so strong as the English wall, but the forts along it

xxxii Appendix.

were more numerous. A great trench protected it on the north side. The Koman authority was established between the two walls and the extended province was afterwards divided into two governments.

Ptolemy, a Greek geographer who flourished about 150, constructed lines of longitude and latitude for maps and gave the positions of places. By connecting these positions rude maps of countries could be formed. He gave a table of places for Scotland, but as the Eomans in his time had not gone beyond the Grampians a map formed by joining the positions of the places has no resemblance to the North of Scotland. Moreover, the names of the places are mani- festly fictitious.

In the first .year of the third century, as Xiphiline the epitomist of Dion Cassius informs us, the Caledonians and the Maeatae became aggressive against the Eomans. The only information given regarding the Maeatae is that they lived near the Scotch wall, probably on both sides because having been made on the narrowest and lowest part of the isthmus it had not likely been on the boundary line between two tribes. Xiphiline is the only early historian who mentions the Maeatae, and we do not know how far south their territory extended. They were an amalgamation of several tribes, and probably the name Maeatae compre- hended all the inhabitants between the two walls and also those between the north wall and the hills north of the Forth. Severus, hearing of the insurrection,

advanced into Caledonia and held on till he reached almost the extremity of the island. Eecent explorations at Burghead on the Moray Firth discovered a Boman fort, evidently intended to be permanently held. On his return he exacted from the Britons a considerable part of their territory, and having completed or restored the earthen wall he withdrew to England. Seme parts of the trench on the north side of the wall show that it had ultimately been abandoned before being completed. The Caledonians joined the Maeatae in another revolt and Severus prepared to go against them, but he died at York (211) before he could set out.

Herodian, who wrote about 238, also records Severus's

Appendix. xxxiii

expedition into Scotland. He says Severus was glad on hearing of the insurrection because he hoped to gain a trophy from a successful expedition into Britain. He tells us that the Britons punctured their bodies with pictured forms of every sort of animals, and wore no clothing because they wished these to be seen. He mentions this in his account of the people whom Severus was going to attack, and afterwards he says that he passed beyond the rivers and fortresses which defended the Roman territory. Hence it may be inferred that tattooing was practised by the Britons already known to the Romans, whether also by the remote Caledonians or not. The aquatic habits described by Herodian would have been particularly appropriate to dwellers by the Solway Firth, and in a less degree to those on the estuaries of the Forth and Clyde, but not at all to the people of Scotland generally.

After the death of Severus his son Caracalla made peace with the Britons and withdrew from Scotland, and then the northern wall and its forts had been abandoned. From 211 till 380 Scotland and its peoples are not mentioned by his- torians, and when they are again introduced we find that the Caledonians and Maeatae have disappeared and that the Scots and Picts have taken their place. These were possibly the same peoples under new names for they be- haved in the same way — attacking the Romanised Britons south of Hadrian's wall.

Ammianus, a trustworthy authority, writing about 380 says that ten times in the reign of Constantius (353-361) and three times in the reign of Julian (361-363) incursions of fierce Scots and Picts laid waste places near the boundary and kept in terror the people harassed by attacks and de- feats. This implies that there had been previous inroads and plunderings and shows that the garrisons on the wall had not been maintained in full strength. In the single year of Jovian 's reign (363-364) the attacks of the Scots and Picts continued and a new enemy, the Saxons, came over from the Continent. The Attacotti also are mentioned among the invaders but nothing is told of them. Neither do we learn anything definite regarding the Picts when Ammianus tells us that thev comprehended two nations, the Dicalidones

xxxiv Appendix.

and the Vecturiones. If Dicalidones suggests that they were the Caledonians on the other hand what Herodian says of tattooing applies better to the Maeatae than to the Cale- donians and suggests that they were the Picts.

Of the Scots' place of residence Ammianus tells us no- thing, but they did not live near the wall. About 889, when the later history of Scotland begins to be genuine, we find that the region north of the Forth, formerly occupied by Caledonians, was then occupied by Scots, and it is safer to infer that they were the representatives of the Caledonians rather than of the Picts.

The incursions of the Picts and Scots continued during the reign of Valentinian (364-375), and he sent Theodosius to assist the Britons against these cannibals. To prevent the incursions he restored the camps along the wall of Hadrian and placed guards and outposts along the Scotch wall. These precautions indicate that the aggressive parties came from the country between the two walls and on the north of the Scotch wall. The area between the two walls was made a province with the name Valentia, conferred in honour of the reigning emperor Valentinian.

During the reign of Valentinian 's successor Gratian (375- 383), one of Theodosius's generals, Maximus, excited the army in Britain to revolt and got himself proclaimed emperor (383). It is recorded of him by Prosper Aquitanus that he vigorously restrained the incursions of the Picts and Scots. Prosper wrote after the Eomans abandoned Britain but his chronicle may be accepted as reliable, because it was written at Borne in the year 431, where he might have met with persons who had been in Britain before the de- parture. Gratian had to go to the Continent to maintain his position as emperor, and he took away with him the army which guarded the wall. A find of gold coins at Cor- bridge in 1908 indicates that the army did not guard the wall after 384, and as a consequence the incursions of the Picts and Scots were renewed, the country having been drained of its young men as well as its defensive army. The incursions continued till 396 when Stilicho was ap- pointed guardian of the State for the emperor Honorius, who was but twelve years old. Stilicho went to Britain,

Appendix. xxxv

taking with him a legion, which repelled the invaders and garrisoned the north wall. The Britons had a quiet time till 403, when Stilicho had to withdraw the legion for the urgent service of the empire. Then the barbarians of the north renewed their attacks but nothing could be done for the Britons. In 409 they were informed by Honorius that they must defend themselves, but still the Roman authority was maintained. In 410 the Roman rule in Britain entirely ceased, and from that time till the advent of Columba in 563 the history of the North of Scotland is enveloped in impenetrable darkness.

In what has been related there is no indication that the part of Scotland north of the Forth was ever occupied by a people called Picts. It seems rather that the Picts occupied the country between the two walls and that the Scots intro- duced to our notice by Ammianus in 380 were the descend- ants of the Caledonian Britons who occupied Scotland north of the Forth in the time of Agricola and the ancestors of the Scots who occupied it in the ninth century.

We have still to consider what is said by Eumenius and Claudian, two panegyrists who mention Britain. Eumenius was a prose author who flourished about 300. He wrote a panegyric in praise of Constantius Chlorus — styled Caesar — for recovering Britain to the Boman empire in 297. For seven years it had been separated, having been held by usurping emperors. In his panegyric he begins by referring to Julius Caesar and says that till he came the Britons had no more formidable enemies to contend against than the Picti and Hiberni. By Picti he must mean stained or tat- tooed people, for no historian had at that time called any race or tribe by that name. He also says that Caesar wrote home that Britain was so large that it rather comprehended the ocean than was surrounded by it. All these statements are manifestly inventions of the panegyrist. In another panegyric on the emperor Constantine the Great, son of Constantius Chlorus, he introduces the emperor's father and says he is not to mention what he did in Hibernia, nor Thule, nor the Fortunate Isles, nor the woods and marshes of the Caledonians and other Picts. Here again Picti must mean painted or coloured people, for in 310, the date ascribed

xxxvi Appendix.

to the panegyric, the Picts were still unknown to the his- torians. As Eumenius does not tell us anything about these brave deeds of Constantius and no historian mentions them we must remain for ever ignorant of them. It is, however, of importance to note that the Pictish myth has no other foundation to rest upon than Eumenius's phrase " The Caledonians and other Picts." It is known that the Cale- donians lived on the north of the Forth, and if they were Picts then there were Picts north of the Forth; but there is no evidence that Constantius was ever in Scotland. Eumenius does not even say that he was though he wished to produce the belief that he had been.

The other panegyrist is the poet Claudian, who flourished about 400. In sounding the praises of the Roman general Theodosius, who, according to Ammianus, repelled the Picts and Scots (368, 369), he says Theodosius tamed the Picts, whose appearance justified their name, and in chasing the wandering Scots sailed over the Hyperborean seas. In another passage he says that Theodosius pitched his camp among the snows of Caledonia, watered the Orcades with Saxon blood, caused Thule to grow warm with the blood of the Picts and made icy Ireland weep over heaps of slain Scots. He takes a poet's licence and couples peoples and places so as to give a pleasant jingle and satisfy the metre of his lines, but he pays no regard to geographical accuracy. It is incredible that Theodosius was ever in Thule, Orkney, or Ireland. No Eoman soldier ever set a foot in any of these places. Yet there is no other contemporary authority than Claudian for asserting that in the time of the Roman occupation Ireland was the home of the Scots. In a pane- gyric on Stilicho, who in 396 repelled the Picts and Scots, he represents Britannia as telling what Stilicho had done for her. He came to Britain, she said, and led his legion against the most remote Britons. It bridled the cruel Scot and the tattooed Picts, so that she no longer feared the Scot nor the Pict and the Saxon came not to her shores. Instead of going to the extremity of Britain Stilicho probably con- tented himself with freeing of its invaders the part of England south of the Roman wall, and at the most did not go beyond the Scotch wall.

Appendix. xxxvii

Rejecting as unhistorical the unsupported absurd state- ments of the panegyrists and following the contemporary Greek and Roman historians we may with confidence con- clude that ancient Britain was peopled by a Celtic race all speaking the same language ; that the Scots were identical with the Caledonians of the north of Scotland; and that the Picts were the tattooed inhabitants of the south. No writer living within the period of the Roman occupation of Britain said that the languages spoken by the Picts and Scots were different from that of the Britons. But Bede (673-735), writing four hundred .years after the departure of the Romans from Britain, says that in his time five nations — the Angles, Britons, Scots, Picts, and Latins — each, in its own language studied the doctrines of Christianity, and that from its use in religious worship Latin was known by all. This baseless statement, incredible now, was long accepted as true, and during the next four hundred years much fictitious Scotch history was written. The Pictish myth had, however, dissipated before the death of Henry of Hunt- ingdon about 1154. Nobody in his time, he says, knew anything about the Picts.

CELTIC PLACE-NAMES

IN ABERDEENSHIRE.

A' Chailleach. The old woman. A', the; chailleach, cailleach asp., old woman. This is the name of a stone supposed to be like an old woman.

A' Chioch. The pap. A', the; chioch, cioch asp., pap.

Aad Braes. Aod, brae. Perhaps aad had originally been aodan, plural of aod, and an had become s, which had been added to brae.

Abbey. In Gaelic Abaid, Abbey.

Abbotshaugh. Haugh once belonging to the abbot of Deer.

Aberarder. Infall of a hill-land burn. Aber, infall; ard, hill ; tir, land.

Aberdeen. Infall of the Den burn. Aber, infall; Dein, burn of the valley on the west of the city. The Den burn joined the Dee at Point Law before its course was altered by man. It was the harbour of the ancient town, and ships came up to the end of Market Street. Den is treated in Scotch names as if it had been a Gaelic word, and, if so, its nom. would have been dein, pronounced den. The form Aberdeen is quite recent.

Aberdon. This was the name for Old Aberdeen prior to the suppression of the Catholic form of religion in 1560. Aber, infall; Don, river name. See Don.

Aberdour. Infall of the burn. Aber, infall; dobhair, gen. of dobhar, water.

Abergairn. Infall of the Gairn into the Dee. Aber, infall of a river into another or into the sea. See Gairn.

Abergeldie. Infall of the Geldie into the Dee. Aberf infall. See Geldie.

Abersnithock. Infall of the small burn into the Don. Aber, infall; nithaig, gen. of nithag, dim. of nith, burn. S is a euphonic insertion. The little burn is now the Burn of Blairdaff. See " Collections," p. 585.

Aboyne. Water. Abhainn, river, water.

Achadh na Creige. Field of the hill. Achadh, field; na, of the; creige, gen. of creag, rock, steep place, hill.

Achath. Field near a stream or a ford. Achadh, cul- tivated land; ath, stream, ford.

2 Celtic Place-Names in Aberdeenshire.

Achorach Burn. Burn of the place where sheep were pastured. Achadh, place; chaorach, gen. plural of caora, a sheep. Initial A might represent ath, ford.

Achquath. Place near a main highway. Achadh, place; chath, cath asp., road.

Achronie (for Achadh Bonnach). Place of oozing water. Achadh, place; ronnach, dripping.

Acrestripe. Streamlet from high ground. Ard-thir, high land. Ard, high; thir, tir asp., ground; stripe, small streamlet on a hillside.

Adam's Bock, Adam's Tack, Adam's Well, Adamston. The first part of these names represents aodann, brae.

Aden (old forms — Alneden, Aldene, Alden). Probably 7, was inserted to show that initial a was long. Aden may represent aodann, brae.

Adziel. White brae. Aod, brae; geal, white. Geal is probably a translation into Gaelic of the word white, a cor- ruption of chuit, cuit asp., cattle-fold.

Affleck. Place of the stone. Achadh, place ; leac, stone. Ch and dh in achadh had both become ph, equivalent to /.

Affloch. Wet place. Achadh, field, place; fliuch, wet, oozy.

Afforsk. Place of crossing. Achadh, place; chraisg, gen. asp. of crasg, crossing.

Aghaidh Garbh. Bough field. Achadh, field; garbh, rough.

Aikenhead (Cuid Aighean). Pumphal for heifers. Guid, fold; aighean, gen. plural of aighe, heifer. Cuid had been aspirated and put last. Chuid lost c and became head.

Aikenshill. Hill where heifers grazed. Aighean. gen. plural of aighe, heifer, hind.

Aiky Brae. It is a mistake to give this name to a market stance in the belief that it was formerly covered with oak trees. The original Aiky Fair was held in the village of Old Deer, and it may have taken its name from men wearing in their coat an oak leaf with a gall on it, to show loyalty to Charles II.

Air, Airlie. Shieling. Airidh, shieling.

Airdlin. Level place on a hill. Lean, level place: aird, gen. of ard, hill. The parts of the name had been transposed.

Airyhillock. Shieling hillock. Airidh, shiel. This place is near an ancient cattle-fold on the hill of Barra, and it might have been the residence of dairywomen.

Aisirbharr Stripe. Streamlet from the point of a hill. Barr, point, top; aisre, gen. of aisir, hill. Barr had been asp. when the parts of the name were transposed.

Celtic Place-Names in Aberdeenshire. 3

Aisle, The. An addition to the side of a church. Ala { Latin), wing. The name is also given to a chapel con- taining a tomb.

Aitionn Hill. Juniper hill. Aitionn, etnach, juniper. Aldachuie. Burn of the cattle-fold. Allt, burn; a', of the; chuith (th silent), gen. asp. of cuith, fold.

Aldamh. Burn of oxen. Allt, burn; damh, gen. plural of damh, ox.

Aldararie. Same as Allt Darrarie.

Aldie. Small burn. Alltan, small burn.

Aldvaid. Burn of the wood. Allt, burn; bhaid, gen. asp. of bad, bush. This name is in old maps on the Cairn- well road.

Alehousewells. Wells at an alehouse. But wells may be a corruption of bhaile, baile asp., town. Bh is equivalent to u, v, or w, and bhaile has sometimes become well, and sometimes wells.

Alford (for Ath All). Ford of the river. Ath, ford; ■all, river. The parts of the name had been transposed when ath was translated.

Allach. Water, burn.

Allach Bridge. Bridge over Tarland burn.

Allachaller. Burn of the hill of the shieling. Allach, burn; al, hill; airidhe, gen. of airidh, shieling.

Allachan. Small burn. It is the dim. of allach, burn. It occurs in names as allachie, allachy, allochie, ellachie, ellachy, allathan, with the meanings of river and small stream.

Allachfern. Burn of the alder. Allach, burn, stream; fearna, gen. of fearna, alder.

ALLAcnROWAN (for Allach Chaorruinn). Burn of the rowan. Allach, burn; chaoruinn, gen. asp. of caorunn, rowan. This part of the name had been translated, while the first part remained a Gaelic word.

Allachy. Little burn. Allachan, little burn.

Allalees (for Allach na Lise). Burn of the cattle-fold. Allach, burn; na, of the; lise, gen. of lios, cattle-fold, small round enclosure of any sort. See Allach. The cattle-fold is between two branches of a burn.

Allalogie. Burn of the little howe. Allach, water; lagain, gen. of lagan, little hollow. See Allach.

Allamuc Burn of the boar. All, burn; a', of the; muic, gen. of muc, boar.

Allan. Stream. Allan is not in Gaelic dictionaries, but its meaning is obvious from the names Allanaquoich, Allanmore, Water of Allan, Bridge of Allan, Clay of Allan.

4 Celtic Place-Names in Aberdeenshire.

Allan aquoich (for Allan na Cuaiche). Burn of the round hollow. Allan, water; na, of the; cuaiche, gen. of cuach, cup.

Allancreich (for Allan na Criche). Burn of the boundary. Allan, burn; na, of the (suppressed); criche, gen. of crioch, boundary.

Allanmore. Great burn. Allan, burn; mor, big.

Allans, North and South. Place near a small burn. Allan, small burn. An had erroneously been regarded as a plural termination.

Allansack. Burn of willows. Allan, burn; seileach, gen. plural of seileach, willow. Willow in Scotch is saugh or sauch, in English sallow, in French, saule, in Latin salix, gen. salicis. Willows grow far up the highest mountains in Scotland as well as near burns in the Lowlands.

Allanshill. Hill beside a burn. Allan, small burn.

Allanstank. Both parts mean flowing water. Allan, burn; stank, ditch with running water.

Allantersie. Cross burn. Allan, small burn; tarsuinn, cross. Final ie arose from wrongly regarding inn as a dim. termination.

Allargue. Hill of the hill slope. Al, hill; leirg, gen. of learg, slope of a hill. Formerly the name was Allerg, which represents the second part of the name closely.

Allathan (for Allachan). Small stream. Allachan, dim. of allach, stream. Ch had been changed to th.

Allathumpach Burn (for Allan Thomach). Burn of the humpy place. Allan, dim. of all, burn; thomach, humpy. P is a euphonic insertion.

Allnaharvy. Burn of the shieling. All, burn; na, of the; h (euphonic); airidhe, gen. of airidh, shieling. Prob- ably the personal name Harvey or Harvy means a resident at a shieling.

Allrick (for Buigh Ail). Slope of the hill. Ruigh, slope; ail, gen. of al, hill. The parts of the name had been transposed.

Allt a' Bhealaich Bhuidhe. Burn of the yellow road. Allt, burn; a', of the; bhealaich, gen. asp. of bealach, pass, road; bhuidhe, gen. of buidhe, yellow. See Bealaich Bhuidhe and Moine Bhealaich Bhuidhe.

Allt a' Bho (for Allt nam Bo). Burn of the cows. Allt, burn; nam, of the; bo, gen. piural of bo, cow.

Allt a' Bhreabair. The weaver's burn. Allt, burn; a', oE the; bhreabadair, gen. asp. of breabadair, weaver.

Allt a' Chaorruinn. Burn of the rowan. Allt, burn; a', of the; chaorruinn, gen. asp. of caorunn or caorrunn,. rowan.

Celtic Place-Names in Aberdeenshire. 5

Allt a' Chlaiginn. Burn of the skull. Allt, burn; a', of the; chlaiginn, gen. asp. of claigionn, skull, skull-shaped hill.

Allt a' Chlair. Burn of the open space. Allt, burn; a' , of the; chlair, gen. asp. of clar, open place.

Allt a' Choire Bhoidheach. Burn of the beautiful corry. Allt, burn; a', of the; choire, gen. asp. of coire, corry; bhoidhich, gen. asp. of boidheach, beautiful.

Allt a' Choire Chlachaich. Burn of the stony corry. Allt, burn; a', of the; choire, gen. asp. of coire, corry; chlachaich, gen. asp. of clachach, stony.

Allt a' Choire Dhuibh. Burn of the black corry. Allt, burn; a', of the; choire, gen. asp. of coire, corry; dhuibh, gen. of dubh, black.

Allt a' Choire Ghuirm. Burn of the green corry. Allt, burn; a', of the; choire, gen. asp. of coire, corry; ghuirm, gen. of gorm, green.

Allt a' Choire Mhoir. Burn of the great corry. Allt, burn; a', of the; choire, gen. asp. of coire, corry; mhoir, gen. of mor, great.

Allt a' Choire Odhair. Burn of the dun corry. Allt, burn; a', of the; choire, gen. asp. of coire, corry; odhair, gen. of odhar, dun, dark yellow.

Allt a' Choire Yaltie. Burn of the corry frequented by gregarious animals. Allt, burn; a', of the; choire, gen. asp. of coire, corry; ealtaich, gen. of ealtach, frequented by gregarious animals.

Allt a' Chreachainn. Burn of the mountain. Allt, burn; a', of the; chreachainn, gen. asp. of creachann, mountain.

Allt a' Chuil Eiabhaich. Burn of the grey back. Allt, burn; a', of the; chuil, gen. asp. of cul, back, back of a hill; riabhaich, gen. of riabhach, grey.

Allt a' Chdirn Dheirg. Burn of the red cairn or hill. Allt, burn; a', of the; chuirn, gen. asp. of cam, hill, cairn; dheirg, gen. of dearg, red.

Allt a' Gaothain (for Allt a' Ghabhainn). Burn of the fold. Allt, burn; a', of the; ghabhainn, gen. asp. of gabhann, fold.

Allt a' Gharbh Coire (for Allt a' Garbh-choire). Burn of the rough corry. Allt, burn; a', of the; garbh, rough; choire, gen. asp. of coire, corry.

Allt a' Ghlas-Choire (for Allt a' Glas-choire). Burn of the green corry. Allt, burn; a', of the; glas, green; choire, gen. asp. of coire, corry.

Allt a' Mhadaidh. Burn of the fox. Allt, burn; a', of the; mhadaidh, gen. asp. of madadh, fox, wolf.

6 Celtic Place-Names in Aberdeenshire.

Allt a' Mhaidh. Burn of the plain. Allt, burn; a', of the; mhaidh, gen. asp. of madh, plain.

Allt a' Mheoir Ghrianaich. Burn of the sunny branch. Allt, burn; a', of the; mheoir, gen. asp. of meur, finger, branch of a burn; ghrianaich, gen. of grianach, sunny.

Allt an Aghaidh Mhilis. Burn of the pleasant place. Allt, burn; an, of the; achaidh, gen. of achadh, place; mhilis, gen. of milis, sweet, pleasant. AgJiaidh is a mistake for achaidh.

Allt an Aitinn. Burn of the juniper. Allt, burn; an, of the; aitinn, gen. of aitionn, juniper.

Allt an Da Chraobh Bheath (for Allt an Da Craoibh- bheath). Burn of the two birch trees. Allt, burn; an, of the; da, two; craoibh-bheath, gen. of craobh-bheath, birch tree. Da takes the singular of a noun.

Allt an Droighnean. Burn of the sloe • thicket. Allt, burn; an, of the; droighnein, thicket of thorns, sloes.

Allt an Dubh-choire. Burn of the black corry. Allt, burn; an, of the; dubh, black; choire, gen. asp. of coire, corry.

Allt an Dubh-ghlinne. Burn of the black glen. Allt, burn; an, of the; dubh, black; ghlinne, gen. asp. of gleann, glen.

Allt an Dubh-loch. Burn of the black loch. Allt, burn; an, of the; dubh, black; loch, loch.

Allt an Dubh-lochain. Burn of the black little loch. Allt, burn; an, of the; dubh, black; lochain, gen. of lochan, little loch.

Allt an Eas Bhig and Allt an Eas Mhoir. Burn of the little waterfall and burn of the big waterfall. Allt, burn; an, of the; eas, waterfall, burn; bhig, gen. of beag, little ; mhoir, gen. of mor, big.

Allt an Laoigh. Burn of the calf. Allt, burn; an, of the; laoigh, gen. of laogh, calf. Calves had been sent to pasture in summer near this burn.

Allt an Leathaid. Burn of the hillside. Allt, burn; an, of the; leathaid, gen. of leathad, hillside.

Allt an Loch. Burn of the loch. Allt, burn; an, of the ; loch, loch.

Allt an Lochain Uaine. Burn of the green little loch. Allt, burn; an, of the; lochain, gen. of lochan, small loch; uaine, green.

Allt an Stuic Ghiubhais. Burn of the fir hill. Allt, burn; an, of the; stuic, gen. of stiic, pointed hill; ghiubhais, gen. asp. of giubhas, fir-tree.

Allt an Tuim Bhain. Burn of the white hill. Allt, burn; an, of the; tuim, gen. of torn, hill; bhain, gen. of

Celtic Place-Names in Aberdeenshire. ?

ban, white. Tom Ban is a late translation into Gaelic of white hill, which is a corruption of chuithail, cattle-fold.

Allt an Uisge. Burn of the water. Allt, burn; an, oi the; uisge, water. Perhaps beatha, life, is to be understood after uisge, and, if so, the name would mean burn on which whisky was made.

Allt an t-Seilich. Burn of the willow. Allt, burn; an t-, of the; seilich, gen. o/ seileach, willow.

Allt an t-Sionnaich. Burn of the fox. Allt, burn; an t-, of the; sionnaich, gen. of sionnach, fox.

Allt an t-Slugain. Burn of the little slug. Allt, burn; an t-, of the; slugain, gen. of slugan, little slug, gorge, hollow.

Allt an t-Sluich Leith. Burn of the grey gorge. Allt, burn; an t-, of the; sluichd, gen. of slochd, gorge; leith, gen. of Hath, grey.

Allt an t-Sluichd Mhoir. Burn of the great gorge. Allt, burn; an t-, of the; sluichd, gen. of slochd, den, gorge; mhoir, gen. of mor, great.

Allt an t-Sneachda. Burn of the snow. Allt, burn; an t-, of the; sneachda, gen. of sneachd, snow.

Allt Bad a' Choilich. Burn of the bush of the streamlet. Allt, burn; bad, bush; a', of the; choilich, gen. asp. of coileach, streamlet, hill burn.

Allt Bad a' Chuirn. Burn of the bush on the hill. Allt, burn; bad, bush; a', of the; chuirn, gen. asp. of earn, hill.

Allt Bad a' Mhonaidh. Burn of the thicket on the moor. Allt, burn; bad, thicket, grove; a', of the; mhonaidh, gen. asp. of monadh, mountain, moor.

Allt Bad Leana. Burn of the thicket on the plain. Allt, burn; bad, thicket; leana, plain.

Allt Bad Mhic Griogair. Burn of Macgregor's bush. Allt, burn; bad, bush, hiding-place; mhic, gen. asp. of mac. son; Ghriogair, gen. asp. of Griogair, Gregor.

Allt Beinn Iutharn. Burn of Beinn Iutharn; which see. Allt, burn; beinn, hill; iuthairn, gen. of iutharn, hell.

Allt Bhronn (for Allt a' Bhraoin). Both parts mean burn. Allt, burn; a', of the; bhraoin, gen. asp. of braon, mountain burn.

Allt Boruiche. Burn of mountain grass. Allt, burn; borraich, gen. of borrach, mountain grass.

Allt Cac Dubh. Burn of black mire. The substance meant is wet comminuted peat-moss. Allt, burn; caca. gen. of cac, filth; dhuibh, gen. of dubh, black.

Allt Caochain Eoibidh (for Allt Caochain Boibeich). Burn of the miry streamlet. Allt, burn; caochain, gen. of caochan, streamlet; roibeich, gen. of roibeach, miry.

8 Celtic Place-Names in Aberdeenshire.

Allt Carn a' Mhaim. Burn of the breast-shaped hill. Allt, burn; carn, hill; a', of the; mhaim, gen. asp. of mam, something in shape like a woman's breast.

Allt Carn Bhathaich (for Allt Carn a' Bhathaich). Burn of the hill of the cow-byre. Allt, burn; carn, hill; a', of the; bhathaich, gen. asp. of bathach, cow-byre.

Allt Chernie (for Allt Carnach). Stony burn. Allt, burn; carnach, stony.

Allt Choire Dhuibh. Burn of the black corry. Allt, burn; choire, gen. asp. of coire, corry; dhuibh, gen. asp. of dubh, black.

Allt Cholige. Burn with a loud, cheerful sound. Allt, burn; choilleig, gen. asp. of coilleag, loud, cheerful note, rural song.

Allt Chuil. Burn of the back. Allt, burn; chuil, gen. asp. of cul, back, back of a mountain ridge.

Allt Chuil Biabhaich. See Allt a' Chuil Biabhaich.

Allt Chuirn Deirg. Burn of the red hill. Chuirn, gen. asp. of carn, hill; dheirg, gen. asp. of dearg, red.

Allt Clach nan Taillear. Burn of the stone of the tailors. Allt, burn; clach, stone; nan, of the; taillear, gen. plural of taillear, tailor.

Allt Clais an t-Sabhail. Burn of the hollow of the barn. Allt, burn; clais, hollow; an t-, of the; sabhail, gen. of sabhal, barn. The name had originally been Allt Clais a' Bheirn. Burn of the hollow of the gap in the skyline. Bheirn had been supposed to be barn, and had been trans- lated into sabhal, barn, after the meaning of the Gaelic name had been forgotten.

Allt Clais Mhadaidh. Burn of the hollow of the fox. Allt, burn; clais, hollow; mhadaidh, gen. asp. of madadh, fox.

Allt Clais nam Balgair. Burn of the hollow of the foxes. Allt, burn; clais, trench; nam, of the; balgair, gen. plural of balgair, fox.

Allt Coire an Fhir Bhogha. Burn of the corry of the archer. Allt, burn; coire, corry; an, of the; fhir-bhogha, gen. asp. of fear-bogha, bowman, archer, soldier.

Allt Coire an t-Sagairt. Burn of the priest's corry. Allt, burn; coire, corry; an t-, of the; sagairt, gen. of sagart, priest.

Allt Coire an t-Saighdeir. Burn of the corry of the arrower. Allt, burn; an t-, of the; saighdeir, gen. of saigh- dear, arrower, soldier.

Allt Coire an t-Seilich. Burn of the corry of the willow copse. Allt, burn; coire, corry; an t-, of the; seilich, gen. of seileach, willow copse.

Celtic Place-Names in Aberdeenshire. 9

Allt Coire an t-Slugain. Burn of the corry of the little slug. Allt, burn; coire, corry; an t-, of the; slugain, gen. of slugan, little gorge.

Allt Coire Bhearnaist (for Allt a' Choire Bhearnaich). Burn of the corry having gaps round the edge. Allt, burn; a', of the (suppressed); choire, gen. asp. of coire, corry; bhearnaich, gen. of bearnach, having gaps.

Allt Coire Cath nam Fionn. Burn of the corry of the way of the Fingalians. Allt, burn; coire, corry; nam, of the; Fionn, Fingalians. This name must have been intro- duced after the publication of Ossian's poems, or perhaps Fionn is a mistake for fin, hill, mountain.

Allt Coire Chrid (for Allt a' Choire Chreidhmte). Burn of the eroded corry. Allt, burn; a', of the (suppressed); choire, gen. asp. of coire, corry; chreidhmte, past part. asp. of creidhm, to erode.

Allt Coire Domhain. Burn of the deep corry. Allt, burn; coire, gen. of coire, corry; dhomhain, gen. asp. of domhan, depth.

Allt Coire Fhearneasg (for Allt a' Choire Fhearnaich). Burn of the corry where alders grow. Allt, burn; a', of the; choire, coire asp., corry; fhearnaich, gen. of fearnach, growing alders.

Allt Coire Fionn (for Allt Coire an Fhin). Burn of the corry of the hill. Allt, burn; coire, corry; an, of the; fhin, gen. asp. of fin, hill.

Allt Coire Ghiubhais (for Allt Coire a' Ghiubhais). Burn of the corry of the fir tree. Allt, burn; coire, corry; a', of the; ghiubhais, gen. asp. of giubhas, fir tree.

Allt Coire Loch Kander. Burn of the corry of Loch Kander. Allt, burn; coire, corry; loch, loch; canta, lake.

Allt Coire na Ciche. Burn of the corry of the pap- shaped hill. Allt, burn; coire, corry; na, of the; ciche, gen. of cioch, woman's breast.

Allt Coire na Cloiche. Burn of the corry of the stone. Allt, burn; coire, corry; na, of the; cloiche, gen. of clach, stone.

Allt Coire na Meanneasg (for Allt Coire na Meannaich). Burn of the young kid's corry. Allt, burn; coire, corry; na, of the; meannaich, gen. of meannach, place suitable for young kids.

Allt Coire na Saobhaidhe. Burn of Coire na Saob- haidhe. Allt, burn. See Coire na Saobhaidhe.

Allt Coire na Sqreuchaig. Burn of the corry fre- quented by jackdaws. Allt, burn; coire, corry; na, of the: sgreuchaig, gen. of sgreuchag, jackdaw, screeching.

io Celtic Place-Names in Aberdeenshire.

Allt Coire nam Freumh. Burn of the tree-root corry. Allt, burn; coire, corry; nam, of the; freumh, gen. plural of freumh, tree-root.

Allt Coire nan Imireachan. Burn of the corry of the flittings. Allt, burn; nan, of the; coire, corry; imrichean, gen. plural of imrich, flitting, migration to shiels in summer.

Allt Coire Euairidh. Burn of Eoderick's corry. Allt, burn; coire, corry; Ruairidh, Roderick.

Allt Coire Uilleim Mhoir. Burn of the corry of William the great. Allt, burn; coire, corry; Uilleim, gen. of Uilleam, William; mhoir, gen. of mor, great.

Allt Connachty. Burn met by another. Allt, burn; coinnichte, past part, of coinnich, to meet.

Allt Connie. Burn of meeting. Allt, burn; coinne, gen. of coinne, meeting.

Allt Coultain. Burn of the little nook. Allt, burn; cuiltein, gen. of cuiltean, little nook.

Allt Craig Meann. Burn of the mountain of kids. Allt, burn; creag, mountain; meann, gen. plural of meann, kid.

Allt Creag Phadruig. Burn of Patrick's hill. Allt, burn; creag, hill; Phadruig, gen. asp. of Padruig, Patrick.

Allt Cristie Beag, Allt Cristie Mor. Little swift burn, and Big swift burn. Allt, burn; criosda, swift; beag, little; mor, big.

Allt Cul (for Allt Cuil). Back burn. Allt, burn; cuil, gen. of cul, back of a hill.

Allt Dachaidh. Burn at a dwelling-place. Allt, burn; dachaidh. dwelling-place.

Allt Damh. Burn of oxen. Allt, burn; damh, gen. plural of damh, ox, stag. Damh may have the gen. plural like the nom. sing, or like the nom. plural.

Allt Darrarie. Burn of loud rattling sounds. Allt, burn; dairirich, gen. of dairireach, loud stunning noise, rattling of stones.

Allt Dearg. Red burn. Allt, burn; dearg, red.

Allt Deas. South burn. Allt, burn; deas, south.

Allt Deglaven. Burn of the good little hill. Allt, burn; degh, good; lamhain, gen. of lamhan, small hill. The burn issues from a bit of cultivated ground on a hill in Glenbucket.

Allt Devanach. Slow burn. Allt, burn; diomhanach, slow, lazy.

Allt Dhaidh Beag, Allt Dhaidh Mor. Little burn of David, and Big burn of David. Allt, burn; Dhaidh, gen. asp. of Daidh, David; beag, little; mor, big. Dhaidh may be a mistake for daimh, gen. plural of damh, ox.

Celtic Place-Names in Aberdeenshire. li

Allt Dobhrain, Allt Dorie, Allt Dourie, Allt Dowrie. Burn of flowing water. Allt, burn; dobhrain. gen. of dobhran, stream. Bh is equivalent to u, and ain is equivalent to ie. Thus the first name would readily have assumed the same sound as the other three.

Allt Domhain. Deep burn. Allt, burn; domhain, gen. of domhan, depth.

Allt Duch (for Allt Dubh). Black burn. Allt, burn; dubh. black. Ch had taken the place of bh.

Allt Duibhre. Gloomy burn. Allt, burn; duibhre, gloom .

Allt Duisgan. Little brawling burn. Duisg, to rouse; an, diminutive termination.

Allt Duxie. Burn of the little hill. Allt, burn: dunain, gen. of dunan, small hill.

Allt Earse (for Allt Aird). Burn of the hill. Allt, burn : aird, gen. of ard, hill, height. The sound of s results from pronouncing final d forcibly.

Allt Easain, Alltessan. Burn of the small stream. Allt, burn; easain, gen. of easan, small burn, small water- fall.

Allt Fileachaidh (for Allt Feill Achaidb). Burn of the market-place. Allt, burn; feill, market; achaidh, gen. of achadh, place. Feill is pronounced with a sound like e or y at the end, which partly accounts for the mis-spelling of the name.

Allt Fuaranach. Burn receiving many springs. Allt, burn; fuaranach, abounding in springs.

Allt Garbh. Rough burn. Allt, bum ; garbh, rough, rushing.

Allt Geal Charn. Burn of the white hill. Allt, burn: geal, white; charn, cam asp., mountain.

Allt Glas. Green burn. Allt, burn; glas, green, grey.

Allt Glas-choille. Burn of the green hill. Allt, burn: glas, green; choille, gen. asp. of coille, hill.

Allt Glas-neulach. Burn above which is seen a grey cloud. Allt, burn; glas, grey; neulach, cloudy. Vapour rises from running streams, and sometimes when it enters a cold stratum of air it is condensed and forms a long line of cloud above the course of the stream.

Allt Gille Morair. Burn of the landlord's servant. Allt, burn; gille, servant; moraire, gen. of morair, great man, landlord.

Allt Iarnaidh. Burn tinged red with iron oxide. Allt, burn: iarnaidh, chalybeate, tasting of iron.

Allt Leum an Easain. Burn of the leap of the water. Allt, burn; leum, leap, fall; an, of the; easain, gen. of easan, little burn, small waterfall. In dictionaries eas and

12 Celtic Place-Names in Aberdeenshire.

easan have only the meanings of waterfalls, but in the Lowlands of Scotland they are burns without falls, and so also sometimes in the Highlands.

Allt Liath-choire Mhor. Burn of the big grey corry. Allt, burn; liath, grey; choire, gen. asp. of coire, corry; rahoir, gen. of mor, big.

Allt Loch Vrotachan (for Allt Loch a' Bhrotachaidh). Burn of the loch at which cattle fed well. Allt, burn; loch, loch; a', of the; bhrotachaidh, gen. asp. of brotachadh, feeding, fattening.

Allt Lochan nan Eun. Burn of the loch of the birds. Allt, burn; lochan, small loch; nan, of the; eun, gen. plural of eun, bird.

Allt Meirleach. Burn of the thieves. Allt, burn; meirleach, gen. plural of meirleach, thief. This had been a burn in which thieves were drowned.

Allt na Beinne Brice. Burn of the spotted hill. Allt, burn; na, of the; beinne, gen. of beinn, hill; brice, gen. fern, of breac, spotted.

Allt na Beithe. Burn of the birch-tree. Allt, burn; na, of the; beithe, gen. of beith, birch.

Allt na Bruaich Kuaidhe. Burn of the red bank. Allt, bum; na, of the; bruaich, gen. of bruach, bank; ruaidhe, gen. fern, of ruadh, red.

Allt na Caillich. Burn of the old woman. Allt, burn; na, of the; caillich, gen. of cailleach, old woman. The original form of the name might have been Alltan Coileach, in which both parts mean small burn.

Allt na Chlaiginn. Burn of the skull. Allt, burn; na, of the; chlaiginn, gen. asp. of clagionn, skull, hill shaped like a skull.

Allt na Ciste. Burn of the cist. Allt, burn; na, of the; ciste, gen. of ciste, chest, cist, kist.

Allt na Claise Moire. Burn of the big gorge. Allt, burn; na, of the; claise, gen. of dais, trench-like gorge; moire, gen. fern, of mor, big.

Allt na Cloch. Burn of the stone. Allt, burn; na, of the; cloiche, gen. of clach, stone.

Allt na Coille. Burn of the wood. Allt, burn; na, of the; coille, wood, hill.

Allt na Comhnuid. Burn of the dwelling-place. Allt, burn; na, of the; comhnuidhe, gen. of comhnuidh, house. Probably there had been a shiel in early times on this burn.

Allt na Connair. Burn of the road. Allt, burn; na, of the; conair, road, path.

Allt na Craige. Burn of the hill. Allt, burn; na, of the; craige, gen. of creag, hill.

Celtic Place-Names in Aberdeenshire. 13

Allt na Creige Leith. Burn of the grey hill. Allt, burn; na, of the; creige, gen. of creag, hill; leithe, gen. fern, of Hath, grey.

Allt na Duibhre. Gloomy burn. Allt, burn; na, of the; duibhre, darkness.

Allt na Gaobhain, Allt na Gaothain, (for Allt na Gabhainn). Burn of the cattle-fold. Allt, burn; na, of the; gabhainn, gen. of gabhann, cattle-fold.

Allt na Giubhsaich. Burn of the fir-wood. Allt, burn; na, of the; giubhsaicli, gen. of giubhsach, fir-wood.

Allt na Glaic. Burn of the hollow. Allt, burn; na, of the; glaic, gen. of glac, hollow.

Allt na Greine. Sunny burn. Allt, burn; na, of the; greine, gen. of grian, sun.

Allt na h-Earba. Burn of the roe. Allt, burn; na, of the; h (euphonic); earba, gen. of earb, roe.

Allt na Lairig Ghru (for Allt na Lairige Grue). Burn of the gloomy pass. Allt, burn; na, of the; lairige, gen of lairig, hillside road, pass; grue, gloomy. The burn of the Lairig Ghru is sometimes held to be the infant Dee, though it is not the longest or the largest head-water of the river.

Allt na Leitire Hill Hill of the burn of the hillside. Allt, burn; na, of the; leitire, gen. of leitir, hillside.

Allt na Moine. Moss burn. Allt, burn; na, of the; moine, moss.

Allt na Slaite. Burn of the rod. Allt, burn; na, of the; slaite, gen. of slat, rod. At a ford in a burn stems of trees are laid in the bottom longitudinally to facilitate crossing the stream with horses. Such a crossing-place is called Slateford.

Allt na Tulach. Burn of the hill. Allt, burn; na, of the; tulaich, gen. of tulach, hill.

Allt na Vackie (for Allt a' Bhacain). Burn of the peat-moss. Allt, burn; a', of the; bhacain, gen. asp. of bacaiyi, small peat-moss

Allt nan Aighean. Burn of the heifers. Allt, burn; nan, of the; aighean, gen. plural of aighe, heifer, fawn, hind.

Allt nan Caber Burn. Burn with many branches. Allt, burn; nan, of the; cabar, gen. plural of cabar, antler, branch of a burn.

Allt nan Clach Geala. Burn of the white stones. Allt, burn; nan, of the; clach, gen. plural of clach, stone: geala, gen. plural of geal, white.

Allt nan Leum Esain. Burn of the wraterfalls. Allt, burn; nan, of the; leum, gen. plural of leum, fall; easain. gen. of eas, burn, waterfall.

Allt Phadruig. Patrick's burn. Allt, burn; Phadruig, gen. asp. of Padruig, Patrick.

14 Celtic Place-Names in Aberdeenshire.

Allt Phouple (for Allt a' Phubuill). Burn of the tent. Allt, burn; a', of the (suppressed); -phubuill, gen. asp. of pubull, tent.

Allt Preas nam Meirleach. Burn of the bush of the thieves. Allt, burn; preas, bush; nam, of the; meirleach, gen. plural of meirleach, thief, A thieves' bush was a lurking place among trees, where robbers watched for solitary travellers.

Allt Eeppachie. Burn of the rough places. Allt, burn; ribeacha, plural of ribeach, rough place.

Allt Roy. Red burn. Allt, burn; ruadh, red.

Allt Euigh na Cuileige. Burn of the slope of the nook. Allt, burn; na, of the; cuileige — mistake for cuilteige, gen. of cuilteag, corner, nook.

Allt Salach. Dirty burn. Allt, burn; salach, dirty. Perhaps for Allt Seileach. Burn of the willows. Allt, burn; seileach, gen. plural of seileach, willow.

Allt Seileach. Burn of the willows. Allt, burn; seileach, gen. plural of seileach, willow.

Allt Slochd a' Bheithe. Burn of the gorge of the birch. Allt, burn; slochd, gorge; a', of the; bheithe, gen. asp. of beith, birch.

Allt Slochd Chaimbeil. Burn of Campbell's den. Allt, burn; slochd, gorge, den; Chaimbeil, gen. asp. of Caimbeul, Campbell.

Allt Sowan. Burn of sowans. Allt, burn; sughan, gen. plural of sughan, juice, drainings from mealy sids. The burn may have taken its name from the colour of its water after rain, or from receiving water oozing from the ground near it. The Scotch word sowans is a corruption of sughan, juice. Final s had been added in the belief that an represented the plural termination in Gaelic.

Allt Sron nam Fiadh. Burn of the point of the deer. Allt, burn; sron, point; nam, of the; fiadh, gen. plural of fiadh, deer.

Allt Tarsuinn. Cross burn. Allt, burn; tarsuinn, cross.

Allt Thronach. Burn of the ridge. Allt, burn; dron- naige, gen. of dronnag, ridge. Allt ends in t, which had caused change of d to t in dronnag.

Allt Tobair Fhuair. Burn of the cold spring. Allt, burn; tobair, gen. of tobar, well; fhuair, gen. of fuar, cold.

Allt Tom a' Bhealuidh. Broomhill burn. Allt, burn; torn, hill; a', of the; bhealuidh, gen. asp. of bealuidh, broom.

Allt Ton na Gaoithe. Burn at the back of the wind. Allt, burn; ton, backside; na, of the; gaoithe, gen. of gaoth, wind.

Celtic Place-Names in Aberdeenshire. 15

Allt Tuileach. Burn full of holes. Allt, burn; tollach, full of holes.

Allt Veannaich. Burn whose banks gave pasture to kids. Allt, burn; mheannach, suitable for kids.

Allt Vitch (for Allt Bheith). Burn of birch trees. Allt, burn; bheith, gen. plural of beith, birch tree. Th has become tch.

Alltachlair. Burn of the level ground. Allt, urn; a', of the; chlair, gen. asp. of clar, level plain.

Alltamhait. Burn of the wood. Allt, burn; a', ot the; bhaid, gen. asp. of bad, bush, wood.

Alltan Beal (probably for Alltan Beag). Small streamlet. Alltan, small burn; beag, little.

Alltan Dearg. Bed little burn. Alltan, little burn; dearg, red with iron oxide.

Alltan Mhicheil (for Alltan Bheiceil). Jumping little burn. Alltan, little burn; bheiceil, beiceil asp., jumping, bobbing. The Alltan Mhicheil is the infant Don. It de- scends the steep face of Geal Charn.

Alltan na Beinne. Little burn from the hill. Alltan, little burn; na, of the; beinne, gen. of beinn, hill.

Alltan Odhar. Dun burn. Alltan, little burn; odhar, dun, yellowish grey. The colour refers to the vegetation on its banks — Sphagnum moss.

Alltan Roy. Bed little burn. Alltan, small burn; ruadh, red.

Alltan Seileach. Burn of willows. Alltan, little burn; seileach, gen. plural of seileach, willow.

Alltan Sleibh. Little mountain burn. Alltan, little burn; sleibh, gen. of sliabh, mountain of great extent.

Alltan Tarsuinn. Little cross burn. Alltan, small burn; tarsuinn, cross.

Alltcailleach (probably for Allt Coileach). Burn. Allt, burn; coileach, hill burn. Both parts mean burn and are in apposition, but often the second noun in such names is put in the genitive, as if it were governed by the first.

Alltessan Burn. Burn of the small waterfall. Allt, burn; easain, gen. of easan, burn, waterfall.

Alltmore. Big burn. Allt, burn; mor, big.

Alltnakebbuck Burn. Burn of the erosion. Allt, burn; na, of the; caobaidh, gen. of caobadh, biting, eroding by running water.

Alma Cottage. Alma is the name of a stream in the Crimea, where a battle was fought in 1854.

Almanethy Creek (Ahnanethy on the O.S. map). Creek at the rock of the little burn. Al, rock; an, of the; nethain, "en. of nethan, little stream.

16 Celtic Place-Names in Aberdeenshire.

Altanour. Small burn. Alltan, small burn; our, burn.

Altanree. Burn of the circle. Alltan, small burn; rath, circle. Th being silent was lost, and a became ee.

Altdachie. Same as Allt Dachaidh.

Altdargue. Eed burn. Allt, burn; dearg, red.

Altnacraig. Burn of the hill. Allt, burn; na, of the; craige, gen. of creag, hill.

Altnahasach Burn (for Allt na Chasaich). Burn of the steep place. Allt, burn: na, of the; chasaich, gen. asp. of casach, ascent.

Alton (Drumoak) (for Baile Allt). Town on a burn. Baile, town (translated and transposed); allt, burn.

Alton Brae. Brae of a town above a burn (Muchalls burn). Allt, burn.

Alton of Coynach (for Baile Alt). High town. Baile, town (translated and transposed); alt, high. See Coynach.

Altonrea (for Allt an Eeidhe). Burn of the plain. Allt, burn; an, of the; reidhe, gen. of reidh, level place.

Altons. High place. Altan, dim. of alt (Irish), high. Final s is due to the belief that an was a plural termination.

Am Mullach. The summit of a hill. Am, the; mul- lach, top, eminence.

An Car. The winding stream. An, the; car, winding stream. Perhaps the name was originally An Carr, the rock. An, the; carr, projecting rock, monumental stone.

An Creagan. The little hill. An, the ; creagan, little hill.

An Diollaid. The saddle. An, the; diollaid, saddle.

An Garbh Choire. The rough corry. An, the; garbh, rough; choire, coire asp., corry.

An Scarsoch. The hill with a pointed rock like a snout on the summit. An, the; sgor, pointed rock; socach, snouted.

An Slugan. The little slug. An, the ; slugan, little slug, small ravine.

An Socach. The snout. An, the ; socach, snout, pointed rock on mountain range.

An t-Sron. The steep projecting point. An t-, the; sron, nose, long hill ending in a steep brae.

Anderson's Wards (for Cuitan Sithean an Treid). Small fold on a hill where cattle fed. Cuitan, dim. of cuit, fold, ward, enclosure, had erroneously been regarded as a plural and made wards and had been put last. Sithean (pronounced shean), small hill, had erroneously been re- garded as a plural and made sons. An treid (corrupted into Ander), of the herd, is composed of an, the, and treid, gen. of trend, herd. See Andrewsford.

Celtic Place-Na7nes in Aberdeenshire. 17

Andet. The warm place. The original form of the name may have been An Teth Achadh, the warm place. An, the ; teth, warm; achadh (suppressed), place.

Andrew sford (for Ath an Treid). Ford of the drove of cattle, place where droves crossed a burn. Ath, ford; an, of the; treid, gen. of trend, drove. When ath was trans- lated into ford it had been placed last. A hill whose name in Gaelic was Cam an Treid is now called Cairn Andrew.

Anetswell (for Aonach Bhaile). High town. Aonach, high, far up; bhaile, baile asp., town. Bh is equivalent to u. v, or w, and hence bhaile frequently became well or wells.

Angels Burn. Burn, burn of lights. Ainglean, gen. plural of aingeal, fire, light.

Angus Stank. Narrow piece of ground between two burns. Aonachadh, space between streams; tana, slender.

Anguston. If this is not Angus's town it means place between two streams. Aonachadh, junction of two rivers, space between two branches of a river.

Annachie, Annochie. Place at the junction of two burns. Aonachadh, junction.

Anne's Park. Enclosed ground. Innis, enclosed graz- ing ground; pairc, park.

Annesley (formerly Achinsley, for Achadh na Innse, with ley — Scotch). Field of the enclosed grassy place. Achadh, field; na, of the; innse, gen. of innis, island, en- closure, cattle-fold; ley, grassy place.

Annie Fyvie's Knap (for Cnap Innis Chuithain). Knoll of the enclosure for a fold. Cnap, knoll; innis, enclosure; chuithain, gen. asp. of cuithan, small fold. Ch had become ph, equivalent to /; and th had become bh, equivalent to v. Ain had been made ie and afterwards also s.

Annie's Well, Annieswell. Well at a cattle-fold. Innis, enclosed area, fold.

Annisland Park. Enclosure on a hill for a park. Innis, enclosure; lamhan, dim. of lamh, hill; pairc, park.

Ann's Forest. Enclosure for a forest. Innis, enclosure.

Antshillock. Aonach, height, hillock.

Apolinaris's Chapel. Chapel supposed to have been dedicated to a saint named Apolinaris. The first part of the name may be pre-Christian and may represent Poll na h-Airidhe. Pot in the Don at the shiel. Poll, pool, pot; na, of the; h (euphonic); airidhe, gen. of airidh, summer residence, shiel.

Aqueduct. Channel made to convey water. The name is frequently given to a channel on arches conveying water across a hollow. Aqua (Latin), water; ductum, to lead.

18 Celtic Place-Names in Aberdeenshire.

Aquhadlie (for Achadh Leithe). Field of greyness, or grey field. Achadh, place, field; leithe (the silent), grey- cess.

Aquherton. (In the " Register of the Great Seal," 1592, Auquhortin.) Field of the small circle. Achadh, field; chortain, gen. asp. of cortain, small circle, sepulchral stone circle.

Aquhorsk. Place of the crossing. Achadh, place; chraisg, gen. asp. of crasg, crossing.

Aquhorthies. Field of the small circle. Achadh, field; chortain, gen. asp. of corthan, small circle, sepulchral stone circle. S had been added because chorthain was supposed to be plural.

Aquhythie. Field of the cattle-fold. Achadh, place, field; chuithan, small cattle-fold.

Arachie Burn (for Allt Arachain). Burn of the small field. Allt, burn; arachain, gen of arachan, dim. of arach, ploughed field, field of battle. The Gaelic word ar, cultiva- tion, is cognate with the Latin word aro, I plough.

Archballoch (for Bealach Aird). Pass over a hill. Bealach, pass; aird, gen. of ard, hill.

Ard an Damh. Hill of the stag. Ard, hill; an, of the; daimh, gen. of damh, stag, ox.

Ardallie (for Ard Allain). Hill of the burn. Ard, height; allain, gen. of allan, water, burn.

Ardan Breac. Speckled little height. Ardan, small height; breac, spotted, dappled.

Ardarg, Arderg. Bed hill. Ard, hill; dearg, red.

Ardbeck (for Ardbeag). Little height. Ard, height; beag, little.

Ardbuck. Hill of the he-goat. Ard, hill; buic, gen. of boc, he-goat, roe-buck.

Ardchattan. Hill of the drove roads. Ard, height; chatan, gen. plural asp. of cat, hill road.

Ardconnan, Ardconnon. Hill where Eriophorum vag- inatum (cotton grass) grew. Ard, hill; conan, gen. plural of cona, catstail grass, cotton grass.

Ardendraught. Hill of the pulling. Ard, hill; an, of the; draghaidh, gen. of draghadh, dragging, pulling. The name indicates a place where loads were pulled up a brae with difficulty.

Ardeneret (for Ardan Airidhe). Hill of the shieling. Ardan, dim. of ard, hill; airidhe, gen. of airidh, shieling, summer pasture.

Ardennan (perhaps for Ard Dunan, in which both parts mean hill). Ard, hill; dunan, little hill.

Ardevin (for Ard a' Bheinne). Summit of the hill. Ard, height; a', of the; bheinne, gen. asp. of beinn, bill.

Celtic Place-Names in Aberdeenshire. 19

Ardfork. Oat hill. Ard, hill; choirc, gen. asp. of core, oats.

Ardgallie. Hill of the little rock. Ard, hill; gallain, gen. of gallan, small rock.

Ardganty (for Ard Tigh Gabhainn). Hill of the house at a cattle-fold. Ard, hill; tigh, house; gabhainn, gen. of gabhann, cattle-fold. Tigh had been put last, but gabhainn is the qualifying word.

Ardgathen. Windy height. Ard, height, hill; gaothan- ach, windy.

Ardgeith. Windy height. Ard, height; gaoith, gen. of gaoth, wind.

Ardgill. White hill. Ard, hill; geal, white. White hill is a corruption of chuitail, cattle-fold; and white hill had been turned into Gaelic by ardgeal.

Ardglessie. Hill of the little burn. Ard, height; glaise, small burn.

Ardgowse. Fir-hill. Ard, hill; giuthais, gen. of giuthas, fir-tree.

Ardgrain. Sunny hill. Ard, hill; greine, gen. of grian, sun.

Ardhuncart. Hill of the enclosure. Ard, height, hill; luncart, enclosure, circle. L had been aspirated and then dropped, while h remained. Luncart is a common word in Scotch for a circle of stones for holding a fire for an outdoors washing; and it is used as a place name— Luncarty. It is the same word as the Irish long-phort, a fortress.

Ardidacker. Hillock of the messenger. Ardan, height; ieachdaire, messenger.

Ardiebrown (for Ardan Braoin). Hill of the mountain burn. Ard, hill; an, of the; braoin, gen. of braon, mountain burn.

Ardieknows (for Ardan Cnapan). Small knoll. Ardan, small hill; cnapan, small knoll. Both parts of the name have the same meaning. An of ardan became ie, and an of cnapan should have also become ie, but being regarded as a plural termination it was changed to s.

Ardiffery (for Ard Dubh Airidhe). Black hill of the shieling. Ard, hill; dubh, black; airidhe, gen. of airidh, shieling, summer pasture.

Ardin (for Ard Dun). Hill. Ard, hill; dun, hill.

Ardiraar. Small hill with level ground on the top. Ardan, small hill; reidh, level; ar, land.

Ardlair, Ardler. High land. Ard, high; lar, land.

Ardlawt, Artlaw. Hill. Both parts of the names have the same meaning. Ard, hill; lamh, hill.

Ardlethen. Broad hill. Ard, hill; leathan, broad.

20 Celtic Place-Names in Aberdeenshire.

Ardlogie. Hill of the little howe. Ard, height; lagain, gen. of lagan, dim. of lag, howe.

Ardmachron (for Ard Machairain). Hill of the small plain. Ard, hill; machairain, gen of machairan, small plain.

Ardmeanach. Middle hill. Ard, hill; meadhonach, middle.

Ardmedden. Hill of the middle, or middle hill. Ard, hill; meadhoin, gen. of meadhon, middle.

Ardmiddle (for Ard Meadhoin). Hill of the middle, hill; meadhoin, gen. of meadhon, middle.

Ardmore. Big hill. Ard, hill; mor, big.

Ardmurdo (for Ard Mor Dubh). Big black hill. Ard, hill; mor, big; dubh, black.

Ardneidly. Hill with a semi-circular hollow on the side. Ard, height, hill; neid, gen. of nead, nest, hollow like a nest; leth (th silent), side, half.

Ardo, Ardoch. Small hill. Ardan, small hill.

Ardonald (for Ard Donn Allt). Hill of the brown burn. Ard, hill; donn, brown; allt, burn.

Ardoyne. Hill at the burn — Shevock. Ard, height, hill; abhann, gen. of abhainn, burn, river.

Ardtannes. Hill of the ghost. Ard, height; tannais, gen. of tannas, apparition.

Ark Stone. Perhaps Stone believed to commemorate a hero. Arc, hero.

Arks, The. (In Gaelic, Na h-Uircean.) The young pigs. Na, the; h (euphonic); uircean, plural of uircean, small pig. The Arks are bare round stones on a hilltop.

Arn Hill. Hill growing alder-trees. Fhearna, fearna asp., alder. Fh is silent.

Arnage (for Aod Fhearna). Brae of alders. Aod, brae; fhearna, gen. plural asp. of fearna, alder, arn. Fh is silent and had been lost. Aod has become edge in Edgehill and Windy Edge. The parts of the name had been transposed. In the name Mains of Arnage e has been made h on the O.S. map.

Arngrove. Cluster of alder trees. Fhearna, fearna asp., alder-tree, arn (Scotch).

Arnhall. Farm-town where alders grew. Fhearna, fearna, asp., alder-tree; hall (Scotch), farm-kitchen, public room in a house.

Arnhash (for Fhearnach Chas, asp. form of Fearnach Cas). Brae growing alders. Fhearnach, abounding in alders ; chas, ascent, brae. Fh, being silent, had been lost; ach also had been lost, and s of cas had been aspirated.

Arnhead. Cattle-fold at alder-trees. Fhearna, fearna asp., plural of fearna, alder tree; chuid, gen. asp. of cuid,

Celtic Place-Names in Aberdeenshire. 21

cattle -fold. F after aspiration had become silent and had been lost, and so also had been c of chuid.

Arntilly. Pebbly hill. Artan, pebble; tulach, hill. The t of artan had been aspirated and had subsequently become silent. Am might represent fearna, alder, but alders thrive best in wet places.

Arntilly Craig. Same as Arntilly. Craig, hill.

Arntilly Hard. Hill of Arntilly. Artan, pebble; tulach, hill; ard, height. This is the name of a farm on a tableland 700 feet up.

Arnwood. The wood of alder-trees. Fhearna, fearna asp., alder. Fh is silent and had been rmitted.

Arnybogs (for Fhearnach Bogan). Alder Bog. Fhear- nach, growing alders; bogan, bog. An had been made s in the mistaken belief that it was a plural termination.

Arnyburn. Burn of alders. Fhearnach, fearnach asp., place of alders.

Artamford. Pebbly ford. Artan, pebble.

Arthrath (for Ard Katha). Hill of the circle. Ard, hill; ratha, gen. of rath, circle, stone circle round a grave, cattle-fold.

Arthurseat (for Suidhe Ard-Thir). Place on high ground. Suidhe, seat, place; ard, high; thir, tir asp., land. The parts of the name had been transposed.

Artloch. Hill of the loch. Ard, height; loch, pool.

Artrochie (for Ard Troiche). Hill of the little person. Ard, hill; troiche, dwarf, fairy.

Aryburn. Burn near which there had been a shiel. Airidh, shiel, shieling.

Ashalloch, Ashallow. Sheltered place. Asgallach, (derivative from asgall, shelter), sheltered place.

Ashogle (for Aiseag-lach). Place of a ferry. Aiseag, ferry; lach, place of. Ais is pronounced ash.

Ashtown. If this is an English name it means town at an ash tree. If it is Gaelic it means water town. Eas, water; ton (English), town.

Ashyfolds (locally Aisyfaulds). Small enclosed mossy fields, ploughed and burned to increase their fertility.

Asleid (for Eas Leoid). River of breadth, or broad river. Eas, water, waterfall; leoid, gen. of leud, breadth.

Asloun. Burn of the meadow. Eas, burn; loin, gen. of Ion, meadow, moss, lawn, grassy place.

Aswanley. Wet grassy field. Achadh, field; sugh- anach, wet, watery; ley, grass land.

Atherb (for Ath Earb). Ford of the roe. Ath, ford; earba, gen. of earb, roe. But perhaps the original form had been Allt a' Thearbaidh, burn of division. Allt, burn; a', of the; thearbaidh, gen. asp. of tearbadh, division. In

22 Celtic Place-Names in Aberdeenshire.

the " Poll Book," 1696, the name is Aucherb, which means place of the roe. Achadh, place; earba, gen of earb, roe.

Atholhill. Limekiln hill. Ath, kiln; aoil, gen. of aol, lime.

Atnach Wood. Wood in which there are junipers. Aitionnach, abounding in junipers.

Auburn. Both parts mean water. Abh, water, stream; burn, flowing water. Auburn is a name imported from Goldsmith's " Deserted Village."

Auchaballa. Field of the town. Achadh, field, a', of the; baile, town, village, farm.

Auchaber (for Achadh Aber). Place of the ford. Achadh, field, place; aber, infall of a river, ford, outfall of a lake into a river -

Auchabrack. Field of the hill. Achadh, field; braghad, gen. of braigh, hill.

Auchairn (for Achadh Chairn). Field of the hill. Achadh, place; chairn, gen. asp. of cam, hill.

Auchallater (for Achadh a' Calla-Tire). Place of the meadow-land. Achadh, field, place; a', of the; calla, meadow; tire [e silent), gen of tir, land.

Auchanachy. Place between two branches of a burn. Achadh, place; aonachaidh, gen. of aonachadh, confluence of streams.

Aucharnie (for Achadh Charnach). Stony field. Achadh, place, field; charnach, carnach asp., stony. C of charnach had become silent and had been lost.

Auchavaich. Field of the cow-house. Achadh, field, place; bhathaich, gen. asp. of bathaich, cow-house. Bh became v, and th being silent was dropped.

Auchedlie (for Achadh Liath). Grey place. Achadh, place; liath, grey.

Auchelie (for Achadh a' Choille). Place in a wood. Achadh, place, field; a', of the: choille, gen. asp. of coille, hill, wood.

Auchencleith. Place of the concealment. Achadh, place; an, of the; cleith, concealment.

Auchencruive. Place where a dead body had been found. Achadh, place; an, of the; creubh (bh equivalent to v), dead body.

Auchenhandock. Place of the black head. Achadh, place; an, of the; cheann, ceann asp., head; dubh, black. The name is descriptive of the place, which rises from the Deveron to a hill.

Auchenten (for Achadh na Taine). Place of the cattle, or of the burn. Achadh, place; na, of the; taine, gen. of tain, cattle, burn.

Celtic Place-Names in Aberdeenshire. 23

Auchentoul, Auchintoul. Place of the howe. Achadh place; an, of the; tuill, gen. of toll, howe, pool.

Auchentrade. Place of the herd of cattle. Achadh, place; an, of the; treid, gen. of trend, drove, herd.

Auchentumb. Place on a hill. Achadh, place; an, of the; tuim, gen of torn, hill.

Aucheoch. Place in a howe. Achadh, place; iocfed, howe.

Auchernach. Place of sloes. Achadh, place, field; airneach, producing sloes.

Auchinbo (for Achadh na Bo). Place of the cow. Achadh, place; na, of the; bo (for hoin, gen. of bo), cow.

Auchinbradie. Place of judgment. Achadh, place; na, of the; 6reaf/i, judgment, Th had been changed to dh in passing into Scotch.

Auchinclech. Same as Auchencleith.

Auchindarg (for Achadh na Deirge). Place of redness, or red place. Achadh, place; na, of the; deirge, redness.

Auchindellan (for Achadh an Dailain). Field of the meadow. Achadh, field; an, of the; dailain, gen. of dailan, dim. of dail, meadow.

_ AuchindixNnie. Place of the little hill. Achadh, place, held ; an, of the ; dunain, gen. of dunan, little hill.

Auchindoir. Place of the grove. Achadh, place; an, of the; doire, thicket, clump of trees.

Auchindroin, Auchindryne. Place of the thorn. Ach- adh, place; an, of the; droighinn, gen. of droigheann, thorn, hawthorn.

_ Auchinhove, Auchinhuive, (for Achadh an Chuith). Field of the cattle-fold. Achadh, field; an, of the; chuith, gen. asp. of cuith, cattle-fold. An had originally been a'\ but when c of ch had been lost through softening a' had become an. Final th of chuith had become bk— equivalent to v. This change is very common in East London at the present day, where feather is pronounced fever and mother muver. Faobhar (pronounced fa-ver), edge of a tool, has become feather in Scotch.

Auchinleith. Field of the half side. When a burn has a hill-face on one side and a flat space on the other the flat part is called the half side. Achadh, field, place; na, of the; leith, side, half.

Auchintarph. Place of the bull. Achadh, place; an, of the; tairbh, gen. of tarbh, bull.

Auchintender (for Achadh Taine Airidhe). Place of the cattle pasture. _ Achadh, place; na, of the; taine, gen. of tain, cattle; airidhe, gen. of airidh, summer pasture among hills. D is a needless insertion made after n.

24 Celtic Place-Names in Aberdeenshire.

Auchinyell. Field of the fold. Achadh, field; an, of the; ghil, gen. of geal, white. White was a corruption of chuith, cuit asp., fold, and it had been turned into Gaelic by ghil.

Auchiries. Place of the shieling. Achadh, place; airidhe, gen. of airidh. Final s arises from pronouncing dh forcibly.

Auchlaws. Place on a small hill. Achadh, field, place; lamhain, gen. of lamhan, small hill. Mh is equivalent to w. An should normally have become ie, but it had been made s.

Auchlee. Grassy place. Achadh, field, place; lee (form of lea or ley), grass land. Lee might represent Hath, grey.

Auchlethen. Broad place. Achadh, place; leathan, broad.

Auchleuchries (for Achadh Fliuch Airidhean). Place of the wet pastures. Achadh, place; fliuch, wet; airidhean, gen. plural of airidh, hill pasture. The local pronunciation of the name is afleuchries.

Auchleven. Level place. Achadh, field; liomhanach (mh sounded v and ach silent), smooth, even.

Auchlin, Auchline. Place of the pool. Achadh, place; linne, pool, waterfall. Or, Place of the swampy plain. Achadh, place; lein, gen. of lean, plain, corn-land, meadow.

Auchloon. Wet place. Achadh, place; fhliuchain, gen. asp. of fliuchan, wetness. Fh is silent and had been dropped; so also had ch, which left liuain, lapsing into loon.

Auchlossan. Place near a small river. Achadh, place; lossan, small river.

Auchmachar. Place of a level plain. Achadh, place; machair, plain, level country.

Auchmacleddie (for Achadh na Clidhe). Place of the assembly. Achadh, place; na, of the; clidhe, gen. of clidh, assembly.

Auchmacoy (for Achadh na Cuith). Place of the cattle- fold. Achadh, place; na, of the; cuith (th silent), cattle-fold. Qui had at first been pronounced coo-ie.

Auchmade (for Achadh Moid). Place of the seat of a barony court. Achadh, place; moid, gen. of mod, seat of a court of justice.

Auchmaliddie (for Achadh an Leathaid). Place on the slope of a hill. Achadh, place; an, of the; leathaid, gen. of leathad, side, hill slope.

Auchmar. Place of the officer of justice. Achadh, place ; maoir, gen. of maor, bailiff, messenger of a court.

Auchmedden (for Achadh Meadhonach). Middle field. Achadh, field; meadhonach, middle.

Celtic Place-Names in Aberdeenshire. 25

Auchmenzie. Place reserved for heifers. Achadh, place; mangan, gen. plural of mang, heifer, fawn.

Auchmill, Auchmull. Place on a hill. Achadh, place, field; mill, gen. of meall, hill.

Auchmore. Big field. Achadh, field, place; mor, big.

Auchmullen. Place of the mill. Achadh, place, field; muillinn, gen. of muilleann, mill.

Auchmunziel. Place of the white hill. Achadh, place; munaidh, gen. of munadh, hill; ghil, gen. of geal, white. See Whitehill.

Auchnabo. Field of the cow. Achadh, field; na, of the; bo (for boin), gen. of bo, cow. The name indicates a place to which cows were sent to graze by themselves.

Auchnacant. Place of the pool. Achadh, place; na, of the; canta, lake, puddle.

Auchnaclach. Field of the stone. Achadh, field; na, of the; cloiche, gen. of clach, stone.

Auchnacraig Hill. Hill of the field of the mountain. Achadh, field; na, of the; craige, gen. of creag, rocky moun- tain, hill.

Auchnafoy, Auchnahoy, (for Achadh an Chuith). Place of the fold. Achadh, place; an, of the; chuith, gen. asp. of cuith, fold. Ch had become fh; and th, being silent, had been lost. In Auchnafoy h had become silent and had been lost, and in Auchnahoy / had been silent and had been lost.

Auchnagathee. Place of the windy hill. Achadh, place, field; an, of the; gaothach, windy; aill, gen. of aill, hill, rocky hill.

Auchnagatt. Place of the roads. Achadh, place; nan, of the; cat, gen. plural of cat, road, drove road. Two im- portant roads cross at Auchnagatt.

Auchnagorth (for Achadh na Corth). Field of the stone circle. Achadh, field; na, of the; corth, stone circle.

Auchnamoon. Place in a moss. Achadh, place; na, of the; moine, moss.

Auchnapady. Field of the hummock. Achadh, field; na, of the; paite, gen. of pait, hump.

Auchnarie. Place of the shieling. Acliadh, place; na, of the; airidhe, gen. of airidh, summer pasture among bills.

Auchnarran, Achnaran (1696). Place on the hill. Achadh, place; na, of the; arain, gen. of aran, hill.

Auchnashag (for Achadh na Aiseig). Place of the ferry. Achadh, place; na, of the; aiseig, gen. of aiseag, ferry.

Auchnashinn. Place on a hill. Achadh, place; an, of the; sithein, gen. of sithean (pronounced she an), hill.

Auchnavaird. Place at a meadow. Achadh, place, field; a', of the; bhaird, gen. asp. of bard, meadow.

26 Celtic Place-Names in Aberdeenshire.

Auchnave. Place at a loch. Achadh, place; an, of the; abh, water.

Auchnavenie. Field of the hill. Achadh, field; na, of the; bheinne, gen. asp. of beinn, hill.

Aucholzie. Place in a wood. Achadh, field, place; choille, gen. asp. of coille, wood, forest, hill.

Auchorie. Place near a stream. Achadh, place ; ourain, gen. of ouran, small stream. Ain normally became ie.

Auchorthie. Place of the stone circle. Achadh, place; chortain, gen. asp. of cortan, sepulchral stone circle.

Auchquhath. Place on a main road. Achadh, place; chath, gen. asp. of cath, road.

Auchravie. Woody place. Achadh, place; chraobhach, craobhach asp., woody.

Auchreddachie. Keddish place. Achadh, place; ruadhach, expansion of ruadh, red.

Auchreddie. Place of levelness, or level place. Achadh, place; reidhe, gen. of reidhe, levelness.

Auchronie. Place rising to a sharp point. Achadh, place; roinneach, pointed.

Auchrora Burn. Bed field burn. Achadh, field; ruarach, expansion of ruadh, red.

Auchry. Place on a slope. Achadh, place; ruigh, slope.

Auchrynie. Ferny place. Achadh, place; raineach, ferny.

Auchtavan. Small permanent dwelling-place. Achadh, place; tamhan, dim. of tamh, residence.

Auchterellon. Upper island in the Ythan. Uachdar, upper; eilean, island.

Auchterless. Upper circle. Uachdar, upper; lios (o silent), circle of stones guarding a grave.

Auchterlownie (for Uachdar Fhliuchanach). Upper wet place. Uachdar, upper; fhliuchanach, abounding in wet places. Fh and ch, having become silent, had been dropped. Ach had become ie.

Auchterwhaile (for Uachdar Bhaile). Upper town. Uachdar, upper; bhaile, baile asp., town. Bh is equivalent to u, v, or xv.

Auchtidonald (for Achadh a' Donn Uillt). Place of the brown burn. Achadh, field; a', of the; donn, brown; uillt, gen. of allt, burn.

Auchtydore. Place of the wood. Achadh, place; na, of the; doire, wood, grove.

Auchtygall. Place of the rock. Achadh, place; a', of the ; gall (Irish), rock, stone.

Auchtygills (for Uachdar Chuitan). Upper little fold. Uachdar, upper; chuitan, small fold. Chuitan became whitean, which was turned into gealan (geal, white; an,

Celtic Place-Names in Aberdeenshire. 27

dim. termination). An by mistake was made s, and geals lapsed into gills.

Auchtylair. Upper land. Uachdar, upper; lar, land.

Auld Auchindoir. Burn of Auchindoir. Allt, burn. See Auchindoir.

Aulu Fouchie Burn. Burn of the little fold. Allt, burn; chuidan, cuidan asp., small fold. Ch became ph or /, th became ch, and an became ie.

Auld Guid Wife's Cairn. Boundary pile of stones near a burn passing a fold. Cairn is earn, pile. Auld is allt, burn. Guid is cuid, fold, which had been prefixed to wife's to explain it when its meaning had almost been forgotten. Wife's represents cuitan, dim. of cuit, fold, which had successively been chuitan, ivhiphan, wifan, wife's. Asp. c had become asp. w and had afterwards lost the aspirate. Asp. t had become asp. p, which is equivalent to /. An had become s instead of ie.

Auld Kirk of Tough. Ancient stone circle round a grave in Tough.

Auld Mill Bay. Mill-burn bay. Allt, burn.

Auld Warrachie Burn. Burn near which there is a cottage. Allt, burn; bharrachaid, gen. asp. of barrachad, hut, cottage. Bit is equivalent to w.

Auld Water. Burn. Allt, burn. Both parts of the name have the same meaning.

Auldenachie (for Alltan a' Chuith). Small burn at a fold. Alltan, small burn; a', of the: chuith (th silent), gen. asp. of cuith, fold.

Auldfrushoch Burn. (In Gaelic, Allt Fraochach). Burn from a heathery place. Allt, burn; fraochach, heathery. Here ch has changed into sh — one asp. letter into another.

Auldgarney. Bough bum. Allt, bum; garbhanach, rough.

Auldlaithers. Burn of the hillside. Allt, burn; leitre, gen. of leitir, hillside.

Auldmad. Burn of the level place. Allt, burn; maidh, gen. of madh, a variant of magh, plain, level place among hills.

Auldmaling (for Allt Meallain). Burn of the little hill. Allt, burn; meallain, gen. of meallan, little hill.

Auldmuck. Burn of pigs. Allt, burn; muc, gen. plural of muc, pig. Where there were cows on a shieling pigs were kept to consume whey and buttermilk.

Auldton, Auldtown. Old town. Auld might be a corruption of allt, burn, and then the name would mean burn town.

28 Celtic Place-Names in Aberdeenshire.

Auldyoch (for Allt Iochd). Burn of the howe. Allt, burn; iochd, howe, low place.

Aultan Burn (for Alltan Burn). Small burn. Alltan, dim. of allt, burn.

Aultdavie. Burn of oxen. Allt, burn; damhan, gen. plural of damh, ox. Mh is equvalent to u, v, or w. The usual gen. plural of damh is like the nom. sing.

Aultnapaddock (for Allt na Paiteig). Burn of the little hump. Allt, burn; paiteig, gen. of paiteag, little hump.

Auquhadlie. Grey field. Achadh, place, field; Hath, grey.

Auquharney. Same as Acharnie.

Auquhorthies (for Achadh a' Chorthain). Place of the small stone circle. Achadh, place; a', of the (suppressed); chorthain, gen. asp. of corthan, for cortan, small stone circle. Ain had been translated both by ie and s, having been regarded first as a dim. and secondly as a plural termination.

Aven. Kiver. Abhainn, river.

Avendow. Black water. Abhainn, water; diibh, black.

Avenue. Approach to a house. Latin through French. Ad, to; venire, to come.

Aver Hill. Goat hill. Eibhir, castrated goat.

Avochie (for Abh a' Chuith). Water of the fold. Abh, water, stream; a', of the; chuith, gen. asp. of cuith, fold. Final th is almost always silent.

Ba' Hill. Hill on which there was a byre for cows at summer pasture. Ba'iche, cow-byre.

Ba Muir. Muir of the cow-byre. See Ba' Hill.

Baad Brae. Wooded brae. Bad, thicket, wood.

Baads (for Badan). Thicket, small bushy place. An in badan is a dim. termination, being singular, but it had been represented by s in the belief that it was plural.

Baby Gowan. Both parts mean a cattle-fold. Babh- unn, fold where cows were milked; gabhann, cattle-fold. In babhunn bh lost the aspirate, and unn, being supposed to be the dim. termination, was changed to y. In gabhann, bh was equivalent to u, v, or w.

Back Bog. Moss bog. Bac, peat-moss; bog, bog.

Back Burn, Backburn. Moss burn, or burn on the north or remote side of a hill. Bac, peat-moss.

Back Drum. Moss hill. Bac, moss; druim, long ridge.

Back Moss, Backmoss. Both parts of the name mean the same thing. Bac, peat-moss.

Back of Mare. This name may mean moss at the edge of the sea. Bac, moss; mara, gen. of muir, sea.

Celtic Place-Names in Aberdeenshire. 2&

Back Styles. Back entrance. Styles means the pillars of a gate.

Back Well. Moss well. Bac, peat-moss.

Backcammie Burn. Burn of the moss at a bend in the boundary between Aberdeen and Forfar. Bac, peat-moss; camaidh, gen. of camadh, crook, bend.

Backfold. Moss fold. Bac, peat-moss.

Backfolds. Folds for sheep or cattle on the north side of a hill.

Backgarrach. Dirty little moss. Bac, moss; garrach, small and dirty.

Backgreens. Green places in a moss. Bac, peat-moss.

Backiescroft. Croft at a small peat-moss. Bacan, small moss. An, the dim. termination, had been made first ie and subsequently s.

Backley. Mossy ley growing grass. Bac, peat-moss.

Backstone. Moss stone. Bac, peat-moss.

Backstrath. Back valley. Srath, alluvial river valley.

Backstripes. Small moss burns. Bac, moss.

Backwall, Back Wall, (for Bhaile Bac). Town of the moss. Bhaile, baile asp., town; bac, peat-moss.

Backward, Backwaird. Enclosed field for beasts on the north or remote side of a hill. Ward, place of protection for live stock.

Backweird. Moss of the hill. Bac, moss; uird, gen. of ard, hill.

Bad an Teachdaire. Bush of the messenger. Bad, bushy place; an, of the; teachdaire, messenger. There are rocks on the summit of the Bad, on which signals by fire could be made.

Bad Leana. Bushy plain. Bad, bush; leana, level ground.

Bad Mhic Griogair. See Allt Bad Mhic Griogair.

Bad na Ban (for Bad nam Ban). Bush of the women. Bad, bush, wood; nam, of the; ban, gen. plural of ban, woman. The name would have been appropriate for a wooded place in which there was a hut for women in charge of cows at hill-pasture in summer.

Bad na Beinne. Wood of the hill. Bad, bush, grove; na, of the; beinne, gen. of beinn, hill.

Bad na Cuaiche. Bushy cup-shaped hollow. Badr bush; na, of the; cuaiche, gen. of cuach, cup.

Bad na Imireach. Thicket of the migration. Bad, thicket; na, of the; imriche, gen. of imrich, migration.

Bad na Moin, Bad na Moine. Thicket of the moor. Bad, wood, clump of trees; na, of the; moine, moor.

Bad na Muic Bushy place to which swine were sent

30 Celtic Place-Names in Aberdeenshire.

to feed, away from cultivated ground. Bad, bush, place of small trees; na, of the; muic, gen. of muc, sow.

Bad nan Cuileag. Wood of the flies. As the wood is within a deep bend of a hill road, the name should perhaps be Bad na Cuilteige, wood of the nook. Bad, wood, bushy place; na, of the; cuilteige, gen. of ciiilteag, nook.

Bad nan Dearcag. Place where small berries grow. Bad, bush; nan, of the; dearcag, gen. plural of dearcag, little berry, cranberry, blaeberry.

Badanseanach, Burn of. Burn of the little hilly bushy ^lace. Badan, dim. of bad, bush; sitheanach (th silent), hilly.

Baddoch (for Badach). Place where there are clumps of trees. Badach, abounding in groves or small groups of trees.

Badanhall Burn (for Bad an Choill Burn). Burn of the bush on the hill. Bad, bushy place ; an, of the ; choill, gen. asp. of coill, hill. C in choill is silent, and hoill be- comes sometimes hole and sometimes hall.

Badenlea Hill (for Bad an Liath Choill). Thicket on the grey hill. Bad, bush; an, of the; liath, grey; choill, gen. asp. of coill, hill.

Badens. Small wood. Badan, thicket, small group of trees. An, the dim. termination, had been supposed to be plural, wherefore s was affixed to Badan.

Badenscoth (for Bad an Eas Cuith). Bush of the burn at a fold. Bad, bush; an, of the; eas, burn; cuith, fold. Bush means in Scotch a few trees. Burns says that when he visited the famous Bush of Traquair it consisted of eight or nine birch trees.

Badenshilloch (for Bad an Seilich). Bush of the willow. Bad, bush; an, of the; seilich, gen. of seileach, willow.

Badenshore. Bush of the wild pea. Bad, thicket; an, of the; siorr, vetches, wild pea.

Badanstone (for Baile Badain). Town at a bushy place. Baile, town; badain, gen. of badan, small bushy place. Town had become ton, and this had been corrupted into stone.

Badentyre. Bushy place of the land. Bad, bush; an, of the; tire, gen. of tir, land.

Badenyon (for Badan Iain). John's town. Badan, house with trees round it, bushy place, grove; Iain, John.

Baderonach (for Badan Eoinneach). Eough bushy place. Badan, thicket, bushy place; roinneach, shaggy, rough.

Badgers' Hill. In Gaelic this name might have been

Celtic Place-Names in Aberdeenshire. 31

Tom nam Broc. Tom, hill; nam, of the; broc, gen. plural of broc, badger.

Badiebath. Grove of birch trees. Badan, clump of trees; beath, gen. plural of beath, birch tree.

Badiechell. Wood of the hill. Bad, bush, thicket, wood; a', of the; choill, gen. asp. of coill, hill.

Badifoor. Shrubby place where there is grass. Badan, small bushy place; feoir, gen. of feur, grass.

Badilaughter (for Badan Lamh-thire). Thicket of the hill land. Badan, thicket; lamh-thire, gen of lamh-thir, hill land.

Badingair Hill (for Coille Badain Ghairbh). Hill of the rough bush. Coill, hill; badai?i, gen. of badan, bush; ghairbh, gen. of garbh, rough.

Baditimmer (for Badan Tuim Airidhe). Thicket of the hill of the shieling. Badan, thicket; tuim, gen. of torn, hillock; airidhe, gen. of airidh, shieling.

. Badlean Burn. Burn of the level wooded plain. Bad, grove ; lean, level ground.

Badnabein. Bush of the hill. Bad, bush, wood; na. of the; beinne, gen. of beinn, hill.

Badnacauner. Bushy place on a level plain on a shiel- ing. Bad, bush; na, of the; cabhain-airidhe, gen. of cabhan-airidlie, plain on a shieling. Bh is equivalent to u.

Badnachraskie. Thicket of the crossing. Badan, grove; na, of the; chrasgain, gen. asp. of crasgan, little crossing.

Badnagoach. Bushy place on a hill. Bad, bush; an, of the; chnuic, gen. asp. of cnoc, hill. Goach is pronounced with the vocal organs in nearly the same positions as for cnoc.

Badnayarrib (for Bad na h-Earba). Thicket of the roe. Bad, wood, thicket; na, of the; h (euphonic); earba, gen. of earb, roe.

Badnyrieves (for Badan Bathain). Bush at a small circle. Badan, dim. of bad, thicket (a and n transposed); rathain, gen. of rathan, small circle of stones round a grave, small cattle-fold. Ain had been thought to be a plural termination and had been changed to s.

Badochurn (for Bad a' Chuirn). Bush of the hill. Bad, bush, bushy place; a', of the; chuirn, gen. asp. of cam, hill.

Badychark (for Badan Fare). Clump of oaks. Badan, clump; fare, gen. plural of fare, oak.

Badythrochar Well (for Tobar Badan Cnoc Airidhe). Well of the thicket on the hill of the shieling. Tobar, well; badan, dim. of bad, bush; cnoc, hill; airidhe, gen. of airidh,

32 Celtic Place-Names in Aberdeenshire.

shieling. Cnoc had become croc, and both the first and the last letters had been asp. Then initial ch had been made th.

Baggageford. Ford at a bushy place. Badach, bushy.

Bagra (for Beag Bath). Small circle. Beag, small; rath, circle of stones round a grave, fold for cattle or sheep.

Bahill. Same as Ba' Hill.

Baikie Burn. Burn of the moss. Bacain, gen. of bacan, dim. of bac, peat-moss.

Baikiehill. Hill of the small peat-moss. Bacain, gen. of bacan, dim. of bac, peat-moss.

Baikiehowe (for Toll Bacain). Howe of the moss. Toll, howe (translated); bacain, gen. of bacan, dim. of bac, peat- moss. Ain became ie in Scotch.

Baile na Coil. Town of the wood. Baile, town; na, of the; colli, gen. of colli, wood, hill.

Bailiff's Skelly (for Baoghail Sgeilg). Bock of danger. Baoghall {gh silent), gen. of baoghal, danger; sgeilg, rock. The parts of the name had been transposed when baoghail became bailiffs.

Baillie's Lair. Town land. Baile, town; lair, for lar, land (transposed).

Bailliesward. Town at an enclosure for cattle. Baile, town; ward, enclosure.

Baine Slack. Milk slack. Balnne, milk; slochd, slack, gorge (transposed). Cows had been milked at this hollow.

Bainshole. White hill. Ban, white; choill, colli asp., hill. Coill is asp. because its adjective precedes it. In choill c is silent and it had been dropped. S had been in- serted to make Bain possessive. See Whitehill.

Bairnie. Gap. Bearna, gap, cleft, deep gorge between hills.

Bairnie Hill. Hill with a gap. Bearna, gap, low place in the horizon.

Bairnies Bocks. Bocks with a gap in them. Bearnas, gap.

Bairn's Hill. Hill with a gap in it. JBearnas, gap. From bearnas come also Barns, Barnes, Bairns, Bairnies, Birness, Birns, and Burns.

Bairnsdale. Field in a gap or long hollow. Bearnas, gap in a hillside, long hollow in level ground.

Bakebare. Point of land projecting into the Dee at a bend. Bac, crook; barra, gen. of barr, point.

Balbithan. Town of birches. Baile, town; belthan, gen. plural of belth, birch-tree.

Balblair. Town in an open moor. Baile, town; blair, gen. of blar, open plain, moor.

Balblyth. Warm town. Baile, town; blath, warm.

Celtic Place-Names in Aberdeenshire. 33

Balcairn. Town of the hill. Baile, town; cairn, gen. of cam, hill.

Balohellach, Balachailach. Town of the kiln. Baile, town; a', of the; chealaich, gen. asp. of cealach, limekiln, kiln for drying oats, smith's forge.

Balchers (for Baile Chroise). Farm-town at cross-roads. Baile, town; chroise, gen. asp. of crois, cross.

Balchimmy. Town of combing wool. Baile, town; ciomaidh, gen. of ciomadh, combing wool.

Balcraig. Hill town. Baile, town; craige, gen. of creag, hill, rock.

Baldyfash (for Baile a' Chais). Town on the brae. Baile, town; a', of the; chais, gen. asp. of cas, ascent. D is an intrusion. Ch had become ph, equivalent to /. 8 after i sounds sh.

Baldyvin. Town on the hill. Baile, town; a', of the; bheinne, gen. asp. of beinn, hill. D is an intrusion and y represents a'.

Balearn (for Baile Fhearna). Town at the alder. Baile, town; fhearna (fh silent), alder, arn.

Balfextaig. Nettle town. Baile, town; feanntaige, gen. of feanntag, nettle.

Balfiddy (for Baile a' Chuidh). Town of the cattle-fold. Baile, town; a', of the; chuidh, gen. asp. of cuidh, cattle- fold. In Aberdeenshire ch frequently became ph or / in passing into Scotch.

Balfluig. Wet town. Baile, town; fluich, wet.

Balfour. Town of grass. Baile, town; feoir, gen. of feur, grass.

Balgairn. Town on the Gairn Burn. Baile, town. See Gatrx.

Balgavexy. Town at a cattle-fold. Baile, town; gab- haiyin, gen. of gabhann, cattle-fold. Ai and nn had been transposed. This had frequently taken place, and hence many names end in nay, ney, nie, or ny. Bh is equivalent to u, v, or w.

Balgosie. Town of the fir-wood. Baile, town; giuth- saich, gen. of giuthsach, fir-forest.

Balgove. Town of the smith. Baile, town; gobhainn, gen. of gobha, smith. Gobhainn is also the gen. of gob- hann, a cattle-fold.

Balgowax. Town of the cattle-fold. Baile, town; gabhainn, gen. of gabhann. cattle-fold. Bh is equivalent to u, v, or w.

Balgowxie (for Baile Gabhainn). Town of the cattle- fold. Baile, town; gabhainn, gen. of gabhann, cattle-fold. Ai and nn had been transposed. Bh is equivalent to u, v, or w. See Balgavexy.

c

34 Celtic Place-Names in Aberdeenshire.

Balgreen, Balgrennie. Sunny town. Baile, town; greine, gen. of grian, sun.

Balhaggardy. Town with a yard for hay and stacks of corn. Baile, town; haggard, cornyard. Haggard is the common term in Ireland for an enclosed yard for stacks of hay and corn. Much hay was needed in Scotland in ancient times for winter food for cattle.

Balhandy. Town at a fank. Baile, town; fhangain, gen. asp. of fangan, small fank. F had been aspirated, then it had been dropped, leaving the aspirating h. D had been inserted for euphony, and ain had become y.

Balhennie, Balhinny. Town of assembly. Baile, town; ehoinne, gen. asp. of coinne, meeting.

Balintuim. Town at the hillock. Baile, town; an, of the; titim, gen. of torn, hillock, knoll.

Ballabeg (for Bhaile Beag). Small town. Baile, town; beag, small.

Ballachlaggan. Pass of the little howe. Bealach, pass, road; lagain, gen. of lagan, little howe.

Ballamore. Big town. Baile, town; mor, big.

Ballater. Town at the hillside. Baile, town; leitire, gen. of leitir, hillside. The accent ought to be on the syllable lei; but doubling the I of baile had thrown it upon the first syllable.

Ballaterich (common form Ballaterach). Town on a hillside. Baile, town; leitrach, gen. of leitir, hillside. In the " Eegister of the Great Seal " the name is Balnatrich. Town on the river side. Baile, town; na, of the; traighe, gen. of traigh, river side. This is probably the original form, though both are appropriate.

Ballhill. Town of the hill. Baile, town.

Baluntober. Town at the well. Baile, town; an, of the ; tobair, gen. of tobar, well. Tobar often became tipper.

Balloch. Pass between hills. Bealach, pass, moun- tain gorge.

Ballochan. Pioad by a burn side. Bealach, way; abhunn, gen. of abhainn, river.

Ballochbuie. Yellow road. Bealach, hill road; buidhe, yellow. On the Ordnance Survey maps there are mistakes in the use of bealach, a hill road, and bealaidh, broom. To determine which should be used the circumstances of soil, altitude, and convenience in travel have to be attended to. Here bealach, a road, is selected because a yellow road means one in which the subsoil appears yellow, as dis- tinguished from a black, mossy, unsafe route.

Ballochburn. Burn of the pass. Bealaich, gen. of bealach, pass over or between hills.

1740468

Celtic Place-Names in Aberdeenshire. 35

Ballochduie. Black road. Bcalach, hill road; dubh, black.

Ballogie. Town in a little howe. Baile, town; lagain, gen. of lagan, howe.

Balmacassie. Town at a brae. Baile, town; casaich, gen. of casach, ascent.

Balmannocks. Middle town. Baile, farm-town; mea- dhonach, middle. Aspirated d is silent. Final s is super- fluous.

Balmaud. Town which was the seat of a barony court. Baile, town; moid, gen. of mod, court of justice.

Balmedie. Town in the middle. Baile, town; mead- hoin, gen. of meadhon, middle. Oin of meadhoin had been regarded as the dim. termination, and it had been turned into ie, the Scotch dim. termination.

Balmellie. Town of the little hill. Baile, town; mel- Jain, gen. of meallan, dim. of meall, hill.

Balmenach. Middle town. Baile, town; meadhonach, middle. The dh is silent.

Balmoor, Balmuir. Town of the moor or muir. Baile, town; muir (Scotch), moor.

Balmoral. Big town. Baile, town; moral, majestic, large. Moral might represent mor, big, and aill, gen. of aill, hill.

Balmore. Big town Baile, town; mor, big.

Balnaan. Town at the river. Baile, town; na, of the; ■abhunn, gen. of abhainn, river.

Balnaboth. Town at a mansion. Baile, town, farm- town; na, of the; both, house, mansion.

Balnacoil. Town of the wood. Baile, town; na, of the; coill, wood, hill. Same as Baile na Coil.

Balnacraig. Town of the hill. Baile, town; na, of the; craige, gen of crcag, hill, rock, cliff.

Balnacroft. Town at a level grassy place. Baile, town; na, of the; croite, gen. of croit, croft.

Balnagarth. Town of the enclosure. Baile, town; na, of the; garth, enclosed space, stone circle round a grave, island in a river, fold, garden. Garth is the same as gorth.

Balnagowan (for Baile na Gabhainn). Town of the cattle-fold. Baile, town; na, of the; gabhainn, gen. of gabhann, cattle-fold, pumphal.

Balnagower. Town of the goats. Baile, town; na, for nan, of the; gobhar, gen. plural of gobhar, goat.

Balnahard. Hill town. Baile, farm-town; na, of the; h (euphonic); ard, height, hill.

Balnakelly. Town of the hill. Baile, town; na, of the; coille, hill.

36 Celtic Place-Names in Aberdeenshire.

Balnakettle (for Baile na Cuitail). Town at the- cattle-fold. Baile, town; na, of the; cuitail, cattle-fold.

Balnalan. Town of the green plain. Baile, town; na, of the; ailein, gen. of ailean, green plain.

Balnamoon. Town of the moor. Baile, town; na, of the; mona, gen. of moine, moor.

Balnault. Town at the burn. Baile, town; na, of the; uillt, gen. of allt, burn.

Balno, Balnoe. New town. Baile, town; nomlia, new (mh silent).

Baloch Quarry. Quarry at the pass between Glen Nochty and Glenbucket. Bealach, pass, road between two hills. '

Balquhain. Town of assembly. Baile, town; choinne, gen. asp. of coinne, meeting. There is at Balquhain a stone circle round a grave, which had been a place appointed for meetings because it had been well known.

Balquharn. Town of the hill. Baile, town; chairn, gen. asp. of earn, hill.

Balquhindachy. Town of the place of meeting. Baile, farm-town; choinne, gen. asp. of choinne, assembly; achadh, place. The place of meeting had been on the Hill of Bal- quhindachy, where cists, urns, and flint implements were found in 1835. D is a phonetic insertion, but it is not usually sounded.

Balquholly. Town of the hill. Baile, town; choille, gen. asp. of coille, hill wood. Balquholly was formerly the name of the place now called Hatton Castle. It is now the name of a place in the Den of Kingsford,

Balring (for Baile Kuighein). Town on the slope of a hill. Baile, town; raighein, gen. of ruighean, dim. of ruigh, hill slope.

Balronald. Bonald's town. Baile, town; Raonull, Ronald.

Balthangie (for Baile Fangain). Town of the sheep- fold. Baile, town; fangain, gen. of fangan, dim. of fang, fank, sheep-fold. F or ph became th, and ain became ie.

Baluss. Town on the water. Baile, town; uisge, water.

Balvack. Town of the moss. Baile, town; bhac, gen. asp. of bac, moss.

Balvenie. Town of the hill. Baile, town; bheinne, gen. asp. of beinn, hill.

Balwearie, Balweirie. Town at the seat of judgment. Baile, town'; a', of the (suppressed); bhearachd, bearachd asp., judgment.

Ban-Car. A modern name in which Ban represents Bannerman, and Car represents Carnegie.

Celtic Place-Names in Aberdeenshire. 37

Bandeen (originally Chuithail). Fold. Chuithail, cui- thail asp., fold, corrupted into white hill and turned again into Gaelic by ban, white; dun, hill.

Bandley (originally Chuit Liath). Grey fold. Chuit, cuit asp., fold, corrupted into white and turned again into Gaelic by ban, white, with d added for euphony; liath, grey.

Bandodle (originally Chuit Dubh Dail). Fold in a black field. Chuit, cuit asp., fold, corrupted into white and turned again into Gaelic by ban, white; dubh, black; dail, field.

Bandory (originally Chuit Doire). Field at a wrocd. Chuit, cuit asp., fold, corrupted into white and turned again into Gaelic by ban, white; doire, wood.

Bangalore. The chief town of Mysore. This must be an imported Indian name.

Bank (originally Chuit). Fold. Chuit, cuit asp., fold, corrupted into white and turned again into Gaelic by ban, white, with k added for euphony. In the " Poll Book," 1696, this place is called Bank Behitch. Behitch is beithach, growing birches.

Bankhead (originally Chuit, to which chuid was added). Both words mean fold. Chuit, cuit asp., fold, corrupted into white and turned again into Gaelic by ban, white, with k added for euphony; chuid, cuid asp., fold, corrupted into head.

Bankie's Loup (originally Chuit Chuid Luib). Fold at a nook. Chuit, cuit asp., fold, corrupted into white and turned again into Gaelic by ban, white; chuid, cuid asp., fold, corrupted into head and turned again into Gaelic by ceann, head; luib, bend, nook. Chuid had been added to chuit to explain it after being corrupted. C of ceann had been changed to k, and eann had been made ie by some and s by others, and both had been added to k.

Banking (originally Chuit Chuid). Fold. Chuit, cuit, asp., fold, corrupted into tchite and turned again into Gaelic by ban, white; chuid, cuid asp., fold, corrupted into head and turned into Gaelic by ceann, head. Ceann had afterwards become cinn, and this had been corrupted into king.

Banks. The same as Bank with s added, ban being regarded as plural.

Bannoch (originally Chuitan). Small fold. Chuitan, cuitan asp., small fold, corrupted into white an and turned again into Gaelic by banan, dim, of bayi, white. Final an had become na, and banan had become banna, now bannoch.

Banshed Moss (originally Bac Chuit Chuid). Moss at a fold. Bac, moss; chuit, cuit asp., fold, corrupted into tchite and turned again into Gaelic by ban, white, with s added for euphony; chuid, cuid asp., fold, corrupted into head, now hed.

38 Celtic Place-Names in Aberdeenshire.

Ban stickle Burn. Burn draining the Links of Aber- deen. Small fishes called banstickles were caught in it. The Links are now drained.

Banteith (for Teach Chuit). House at a fold. Teach, house, corrupted into teith; chuit, cuit asp., fold, corrupted into ivhite and turned again into Gaelic by ban, white.

Bar Pot. Pot in the river Ythaa at a projecting point. Barr, point.

Barbara's Hillock. Knoll of the barberry bush. Bar- brag, barbery.

Bardock Eiver. Biver formed by a great dam. Bard, dam, dyke; och, termination meaning great.

Bareflat, Barefold, Barehillock. Places destitute of soil. By the ancient method of farming cattle were penned at mid-day and at night in an enclosure or fold. For litter to keep the fold dry thin turf sods were taken off waste ground and carried into the fold. When wet and dirty the earth was carried out and spread on a field constantly cropped. Outlying parts of a farm were impoverished to improve infield parts.

Barhaugh Pot. Pot at a point in a haugh. Barr, point.

Barmekin of Echt. An ancient cattle-fold on the sum- mit of a hill in Echt. There are two rings of stones with ditches. Barmekin is for barbican, the outermost ward or enclosure of a castle, within which cattle were kept.

Barmkyn of Keig. An ancient cattle-fold on the summit of a hill in Keig, surrounded by a single dyke.

Barn Door. Gap between two rocks. Bearna, gap.

Barn Yards. The place where the crop of the pro- prietor's farm and his live stock were kept.

Barnes, Barns. Gap in high ground. Beam as, gap.

Barnoch Hill. Hill with a gap. Bearna, gap.

Baronet's Cairn. Cairn erected in honour of Sir Charles Forbes, created a baronet in 1823.

Baron's Gate. If not English this name represents Bearnas Gaothach, windy gap. Bearnas, gap; gaothach, windy.

Baron's Hotel. Formerly the seat of barony courts and probably an inn at the time. The baron was the holder of the barony, which was hereditary.

Barr Hill, Barhill, Bar Hill. Pointed hill. Barr, point.

Barra Hill. Hill of the point. Barr a, gen. form of barr, point. On Barra there is a large enclosure which had been a cattle-fold, though it is 'usually supposed to have been a fort.

Barrack. High place. Barrachd, pre-eminence, place raised up above others.

Celtic Place-Names in Aberdeenshire. 39

Barreldykes (for Blairdykes). Dykes on an open moor. Blair, gen. form of blar, open space. By transposition of I and r, blair had become barrel, and sometimes burrel, as in Honeybarrel, Burreldales.

Barrowsgate. Gate at a point of a wood. Barra, gen. of barr, point.

Barry. Point. Barra, gen. form of barr, point, pro- jecting end of a hill.

Bartle Muir. Muir on which a fair was held on St Bartholomew's Bay.

Barthol Chapel. Chapel dedicated to St Bartholomew.

Basilhall. Farm-town named after a person whose name was Basil, a derivative from basilcus (Greek), king.

Bass, The. The place of execution for the burgh of Inverurie. Bas, death.

Bastion Lodge. Gatekeeper's house in the style of a fortified entrance to Glentanar House. Bastione (Italian), fortification.

Battle Fauld. Fauld supposed to have been the site of a battle.

Battlehill. Hill on which a battle was said to have been fought. Of this there is no evidence on record. Battle might represent Bad Tulaich, bushy round-topped hillock. Bad, bush; tulaich, gen. of tulach, hillock.

Baudnacauner. See Badnacauxer.

Baudy Meg. Bushy hill of great extent. Badan, bushy place; mead, greatness of size and extent. Dh and gh are pronounced alike, and thus d and g are interchanged.

Baudygaun. Thicket at a cattle-fold. Badan, thicket; gabhainn, gen. of gabhann, cattle-fold.

Baudyground (for Badan Cruinn). Bound clump of trees. Badan, clump; cruinn, round.

Baudylace Burn. Burn of a bushy place where there was a cattle- or sheep-fold. Badan, bushy place, thicket; Use, gen. of lias, enclosed place, cattle-fold, sheep-fold.

Baulus. Same as Baads; which see. After the letter a, especially if long and broad, I is inserted.

Bawbee Loch. Milking-fold loch. Babhunn, cow-fold. Babhunn having been thought to be a diminutive unn had been made ee for ie.

Bawdley (for Bad Ley). Bushy grass land. Bad, bush; ley (Scotch), grass land.

Beadshallock. Grove of willows. Bad, wood, grove; seileach, gen. plural of seileach, willow.

Bealach Buidhe. Yellow pass. Bealach, pass; buidhe, yellow. The reference must be to the colour of the subsoil.

Bealach Dearg. Bed pass. Bealach, pass, mountain gorge ; dearg, red.

40 Celtic Place-Names in Aberdeenshire.

Bealachodhar. Yellow pass. Bealach, pass; odhar, dun, reddish yellow, with reference to the colour of the subsoil.

Bean's Hill. Hill. Beinn, hill.

Beardie Wood. Trees and bushes with their tops look- ing as if they had been shorn off. Bearrte, past part, of bearr, to shear.

Bearhill. Top of the hill. Beur, top.

Bearnie. Place in a gap in a range of high ground. Bearna, gap.

Bear's Den. Den where the bear-berry grew. Bear- berry is in Gaelic grainnseag.

Beaulah Hall. Beaulah may be a mis-spelling of Beulah, a place named in " The Pilgrim's Progress," where the sun shone by night as well as by day.

Beauty Hill (for Buidhe Choill). Yellow hill. Buidhe, yellow; choill, gen. asp. of coill, hill.

Beaver Crags. Kocks where beavers had made dams in a burn. The Beaver Craigs are at the place where the Macduff railway crosses the Gorrachie burn.

Bedehouse. House of prayer. The bedehouse was a hospital for infirm old men, who were bound to say prayers for the souls of the founder, his ancestors, and successors, etc. Biddan (Anglo-Saxon), to pray.

Bedlaithen, Burn of. Broad wood burn. Bad, wood; leathan, broad.

Bedlam. Thicket on a hill. Bad, bushy place; laimh, gen. of lamh, hill. An old form is Bedlain, which would mean thicket of the plain. Bad, bushy place; lean, meadow, level place.

Begarry. Little rough place. Beag, small; garbli, rough.

Beg's Burn. Little burn. Beag, little.

Begshill (for Coill Beag). Little hill. Coill, hill ; beag, small. Beag having been supposed to be a personal name 's had been added to it, and it had been put first in the English way.

Begsley. Small piece of grass land near Beg's Burn. Beag, small; ley, grass land.

Behinties. Thriving birch-wood. Beith, birch; chin- tinn, pres. part. asp. of cinn, to thrive. Final inn had been regarded first as the dim. termination, and afterwards as the plural.

Beidlestown. Town at the thicket of the enclosure. Bad, thicket; Use, gen. of lios, circle, stone circle, fold.

Beinn a' Bhuird. Table mountain. Beinn, mountain; a', of the; bhuird, gen. asp. of bord, table. There is an

Celtic Place-Names in Aberdeenshire. 41

accent instead of an apostrophe on a on the Ordnance Survey map.

Beinn a' Chaokruinn, Beinn a' Chaorruinn Bheag. Mountain of the rowan tree, and Little mountain of the rowan tree. Beinn, mountain; a', of the; chaorruinn, gen. asp. of caorrunn, rowan tree; bheag, gen. of beag, little.

Beinn a' Chruinnich. Hill of the roundness, round hill. Beinn, mountain; a', of the; cruinne, roundness.

Beinn Bhreac. Spotted hill. Beinn, hill; blireac, fern, of brcac, spotted, dappled.

Beinn Bhrotain. The meaning of the name is uncertain. Perhaps mountain of the veil. Blirotain, gen. asp. of brotan, dim. of brot, veil, envelope. If this is correct the name indi- cates that the summit of the hill is enveloped in cloud. Or the name may be a derivative from brot, to fatten, which would indicate that when cattle were pastured on it they fed well.

Beinn Iutharn Bheag and Beinn Iutharn Mhor. Little mountain of hell, and Big mountain of hell. These absurd meanings are the results of ignorantly altering Lara to Iutharn in the new edition of the Ordnance Survey maps for the purpose of putting sense into the names. But Uarn was correct and gave appropriate names to the two moun- tains. The correct forms of the names would have been Beinn a' Bheirn Bheag and Beinn a' Bheirn Mhor. Little mountain of the gap and Big mountain of the gap. Beinn, mountain; a', of the; bheirn, gen. asp. of beam, gap; bheag, gen. asp. of beag, small; mhor, gen. asp. of mor, big. The heights of the two mountains are 3424 and 3096 feet, and their tops are a mile apart, with a deep gap between them. Bh is sounded ;/, v, or iv, so that bhearn would have been pronounced uarn, varn, or warn, indifferently, by the same person.

Beinn Mheadhoin. Middle mountain. Beinn, moun- tain; mheadhoin, gen. asp. of mcadhon, middle.

Bekiebutts. Small tails or bits of moss. Bacain, gen. of bacan, small peat-moss; biitts, ends.

Belbo. Cow-fold. Buaile, milking-fold; bo, gen. plural of bo, cow.

Beld Craig. Bald hill. Crcag, hill.

Beldorney. Stony town. Baile, town; dornach, abounding in small stones.

Belfatton. Town of the small fold. Baile, town; chuitain, gen. asp. of cuitan, small fold. Ch had become ph, equivalent to /.

Belhangie. Town at a small fold. Baile, town; fhan- gain, gen asp. of fangan, small fold. F silent had been lost.

Belhelvie (for Baile Shealbhain). Town of cattle.

42 Celtic Place-Names in Aberdeenshire.

Baile, town; shealbhain, gen. asp. of sealbhan, cattle. After being aspirated s had become silent, and it had been lost.

Bell Knowe. Knoll on which there was a church-bell.

Bell Wood. See Belwade.

Bellabeg. Small town. Baile, town; beag, little.

Bellamore. Big town. Baile, town; mor, big.

Bellamore Craig. Cliff on the hill above Bellamore. Baile, town; mor, big; creag, rock, cliff, hill.

Bellastrade (for Baile na Sraide). Town at the road- side. Baile, town; na, of the; sraide, gen. of sraid, road.

Bellevue. Beautiful prospect. Belle (French), beau- tiful; vue (French), prospect.

Bellmuir. Town on the moor. Baile, towu. Or, Fold on the moor. Buaile, cattle-fold.

Bellsfold (for Baile Cuith). Town at a cattle-fold. Baile, town; cuith, cattle-fold (translated).

Bellyhack (for Baile Acha). Town on a burn. Baile, town; acha, burn.

Bellys wells, Bellieswell. Little town. Baile, town; suail, small. Final s is a needless addition.

Belnabodach. Town of the spectre. Baile, town; na, of the; bodaich, gen. of bodach, spectre.

Belnaboth. Town at the mansion-house. Baile, town; na, of the; both, hut, house, mansion.

Belnacraig. Town on a hill. Baile, town; na, of the; craige, gen. of creag, hill.

Belnagauld (for Baile na Gabhail Allt). Town at the fork of a burn. Baile, town; na, at the; gabhail, fork; allt, burn.

Belnaglack. Town of the howe. Baile, town; na, of the; glaic, gen. of glac, hollow.

Belnagoak (for Beinn a' Chnoic). Hill. Both parts have the same meaning, and the first had been added to explain the last. Beinn, hill; a', of the; chnoic, gen. asp. of cnoc, hill. The first syllable is sometimes made ben and sometimes bel, as in Belrinnes or Benrinnes. See Cnoc.

Belneaden. Town on a brae. Baile, town; na, of the; aodainn, gen. of aodann, face, brae. Aodann becomes eden or edin in place-names when it is a prefix.

Belnoe. New town. Baile, town; nomha, new. Mh represents the sound of v, but it readily becomes silent.

Belrorie. Bed hill. Beinn, hill; ruarach, expansion of ruadh, red. Beinn sometimes becomes bel before r.

Belscamphie. Bellscamphie, Belskavie, (for Baile Sgamhain). Farm town of a barn stored with hay or grain. Baile, town; sgamhain, gen. of sgamhan, barn for hay or grain. Mh is equivalent to u, v, or w; and ain became ie in passing into Scotch.

Celtic Place-Names in Aberdeenshire. 43

Beltamore (for Baile Teach Mor). Town at <the big house. Baile, town; teach, house; mor, big.

Beltie. Farm towns. Bailte, plural of baile, farm town, village.

Beltimb. Town of the hill. Baile, town; tuim, gen. of torn, hill.

Belvidere. Beautiful view. Belvidere (Italian), to have a beautiful prospect.

Belwade (for Baile a' Bhaid). Town of the wood. Baile, town; a', of the; bhaid, gen. asp. of bad, wood, bush. Bh is equivalent to u, v, or iv.

Ben Avon. Mountain near the Avon. Beinn, moun tain; abhunn, gen. of abhainn, river.

Ben Macdhui (for Beinn na Muiche Duibhe). Mountain of the black cloud. Beinn, mountain; na, of the (sup- pressed); muiche, gen. of mulch, fog.

Ben na Flog (for Beinn a' Chnuic). Hill of the hill. Beinn, hill; a', of the; chnuic, gen. asp. of cnoc; which see.

Ben Newe. Hill of Newe. Beinn, hill. See Newe.

Benaquhallie. Hill of the herding. Beinn, hill; a', of the: cliuallaich, gen. asp. of cuallach, herding.

Bendauch. Hill farm. Beinn, hill; davoch, farm.

Bennachie (old form, Bennochkey). Hill of the cattle- fold. Beinn, hill; na, of the; chuith (tli silent), gen. asp. of cuitli, cattle-fold. The so-called fort on the hilltop was a cattle-fold. Ciche, gen. of cioch, pap, has also been sug- gested as the root of the last part of the name, but it is an objection to this etymology that the last part is always a monosyllable.

Bennet's Love. Hills at a crook. Beanntan, plural of beimi, hill; luib, bend. An had normally become s.

Benstill Brae (for Beinn na Still Brae). Brae of the hill of the spring. Beinn, hill; na, of the; still, gen. of steall, gushing spring. Brae may represent the Gaelic word braighe, hill.

Benthoul (for Beinn Choill). Both parts of the name mean hill, and it must be post-Gaelic. Beinn, hill; choill, gen. asp. of coill, hill. Ch had become th.

Bents. Hills. Beanntan, plural of beinn, hill. An had been translated into s, the English plural termination.

Ben wells. Hill town. Originally the name had been Baile Beinne, town of the hill. Baile, town; beinne, gen. of beinn, hill. The order of the parts had been changed to get the accented part first in the English way, and then baile became bhaile, pronounced ivale, which had lapsed into wall and then well. Final s is an improper addition.

Berefold. Fold near a stream. Bior, water, stream. Berefold is near Dudwick burn.

44 Celtic Place-N ames in Aberdeenshire.

Berrybrae. Brae where small berries grow.

Berryden (for Biorach Den). Watery hollow. Biorach, watery, marshy. In its natural state a stream of water ran along the den, and there were several pools in it.

Berryhill. Watery hill. Biorach, watery. Or, Hill whereon berries grow.

Berryleys. Wet grassy places. Biorach, watery; leys (Scotch), grassy places.

Berrymill. Watery hill. Biorach, watery; meall, hill.

Berrymoss. Wet moss. Biorach, watery.

Berry's Burn. Both parts of the name refer to water. Biorach, watery.

Berry's Loup. Bend with a sharp point. Biorach, pointed; luib, bend.

Berryslack, Berryslacks, Berrysloch, (for Biorach Slochd). Watery slack. Biorach, watery; slochd, ravine. Final s is unnecessary.

Berrywell. Watery town. Biorach, watery; bhaile, baile asp., town. Bh is equal to u, v, or iv ; and bhaile be- came wale, then ivall and well.

Bervie. End of cattle-fold. Bear, top end; chuidh, gen. asp. of cuiclh, cattle-fold. See Cuid and Fyvie.

Berwick. Head of a nook. Beur, end, head; uige, gen. of uig, nook, solitary hollow.

Bethelnie (for Beith Ailein).. Birch growing in a level place. Beith, birch tree; ailein, gen. of ailean, plain. Ei and n had been transposed.

Bethlin. Birch-wood in a plain. Beath, birch-wood; lean, plain, level ground.

Betteral Well. Well at a byre for cows on a shieling on a hill. Betteral may represent Bo-thigh Airidh Ail. Bo- thigh, cow-house; airidh, shieling; aill, gen. of aill, hill.

Bhonich (for Tir a' Mhonaich). Land of the mountain. Tir, land; a', of the; mhonaich, gen. asp. of monach, a variant of monadh, mountain. Bh and mh are both sounded v, hence they are sometimes interchanged.

Bicker Moss. Moss of the shieling. Bac, moss; airidhe, gen. of airidh, shieling.

Bickerhard. Moss on a shieling hill. Bac, moss; airidh, shieling; ard, hill, height.

Bield. Place full of farm-towns. Bailte, plural of baile, town, house, home.

Bieldside. Site of farm-towns. Bailte, plural of baile, farm-house; suidhe, seat, site, place.

Biffie (Bidben in the " Book of Deer "). Yellow hill. Buidhe, yellow; bheinn, hill.

Bilbo, Bilboa. Cow-fold. Buaile, milking-fold ; bo,

Celtic Place-Names in Aberdeenshire. 45

gen. plural of bo, cow. Buaile is equivalent to Latin bovile, cattle-fold.

Bilbopark. Park at an ancient cattle-fold. See Bilbo. Poire, park.

Bin, The. The hill. Beinn, hill.

Bin Moss. Hill moss. Beinn, hill.

Binghill. Hill of judgment, seat of barony courts. Binn, judgment, sentence.

Binhall, Binhill. Both parts mean hill. Beinn, hill.

Bink of Whiteshin (originally Beinn a' Chuithail). Hill of the fold. Beinn, hill, with euphonic 7; added; a', of the; chuithail, cuithail asp., fold, corrupted into white hill. Hill had afterwards been turned into Gaelic by sithean (pro- nounced she-an), hill.

Binside. Hillside. Beinn, hill.

Birkenbkewl (for Bior an Bruillidh). Burn of a mill. Bior, water, burn: an, of the; bruillidh (idh silent), gen. of bruillcadli, thrashing, crushing.

Birkford. Ford of birches. Fords on rapid streams were made safe to cross by laying stems of trees in the channel, side by side, close together, to prevent excavation of holes. For this purpose birches were used. Such a ford was called Slateford, from slat, rod, stem of a tree.

Birkhall. Mansion-house among birch trees. For- merly a farm-house with a large kitchen open to all about the farm was called by a name ending in hall.

Birkie Wood. Birch wood. Birhen (Scotch), birchen.

Birks. Birch-trees.

Birks Burn. Burn bordered with birches. Birks (Scotch), birch-trees.

Birlie Cottage. The accented syllable of Birlie is now first, but originally it had been last, and the name may have been Leth Bior. Side of the water. Leth (th silent), side: bior, water.

Birness, Mill of. Mill in a gap between two heights. Bcarnas, gap.

Birnie Wood. Wood of the gap or hollow. Bearna, gap.

Birns. Gap. Beam as, gap. There is a gap between two knolls on the south side of the house called Birns.

Birsack (for Barr Samhach). Pleasant point. Barr. point; samhach. quiet, pleasant.

Birse. Hilly places. Braigh, high part of a district, with s, the sign of the plural in English. An old spelling is Brass. In the modern form r and i have been transposed.

Birsebeg. Little Birse. Bcag, little. See Birse.

Birselasie (for Braigh Lasaidh). Hill of flame, Braigh, hill; lasaidh, gen. of lasadh. fire, flame.

Birsemore. Big Birse. Mor, bin. See Birse.

46 Celtic Place-Names in Aberdeenshire.

Bishop's Loch. Loch belonging to the Bishop of Aber- deen.

Bisset. Detached place. Pioste, past part, of pios, to cut off.

Bisset Moss. Detached piece of moss. Pioste, past part, of pios, to cut off.

Bissetscross (for Crios Piosaidh). Cross of division. Crios, cross; piosaidh, gen. of piosadh, dividing.

Bithnie (for Beithan). Birches. Beithan, plural of •beith, birch. A and n had been transposed.

Blachrie, Blackrigg. Milking-fold on a hillside. Bleogliann, milking; ruigh, slope.

Black Banks. Black fold. See Banks.

Black Bothy. A hut made of black sods. Bothan, small hut. In smuggling times whisky was made in bothies among the hills, so situated that they could not be seen from a distance.

Black Dog, Blackdog. Bock like a black dog. If the last part of the name has the accent it must be an adjective, and it may be a corruption of dubh, black. Both parts of Black Dog may have the same meaning.

Black Hill of Mark. Black hill beside Glen Mark. See Glen Mark. *

Black Sneck, Blacksnake. Black slow-running burn. Snaig, to creep, crawl.

Black Spout. Black watercourse. Sput, small waterfall clearing the rock from which the water falls, watercourse.

Black Stob. Black pointed hillock.

Blackbaulk. Black band of division between two farms. Baulk, the strip of uncultivated ground between two ridges. There was no soil on the baulks, and stones of the fields were laid on them.

Blackblair. Open black moor. Blar, open place. Per- haps for Blar Bleoghainn. Moor on which cows were milked when at summer pasture. Blar, open moor; bleogh- ainn, gen. of bleogliann, milking.

Blackchambers. This name is corrupted, and the original form cannot with certainty be restored. Perhaps it had been Sean Airidhean Dubha. Old black shieling huts. Sean, old (pronounced shan); airidhean, plural of airidh, hut on a shieling; dubha, black. Sean has become sham in some names ; b is a needless insertion ; final s shows that a part of the name had ended in an — the Gaelic plural termination.

Blackfolds. Fold built of black mossy sods. In the inside of the wall there might have been a row of trunks •of trees let into the ground. The wall gave shelter from wind and rain.

Celtic Place-Names in Aberdeenshire. 47

Blackgutter. Black water channel. Guitear, conduit, •drain, sewer.

Blackhall. Hall may represent choill, coill asp., hill, after loss of initial c, as in Hallhill, where both parts mean the same thing. A large mansion-house has often a name ending in hall, perhaps because it has taken the place of the castle of old times, and it is often spoken of as The Hall. Blackhouse. Dairy house. Bliochd, milk. Blacklatch Well. Black hollow well. Lathacli, mire. Latch means a hollow crossing a road. It is usually wet and muddy.

Blacklinn Burn. Black pool burn. Linne, pool, pond, waterfall.

Blacklug. Black projecting high ground. Lug (Scotch), ear, projection from the head. At Blacklug Norrie hill projects from a large mass of high ground.

Blackmiddens. Black middle town. Meadhon, middle. Final s represents on.

Blackness (for An Eas Bleoghainn). The burn of the milking. .4/*, the; eas, burn; bleoghainn, gen. of blcogltann, milking. There had been a fold for cows near the burn.

Blackpots, Bleckpots (1696). Small pool at a place where cows were folded and milked. Poitean, small pot or pool; bleoghainn, gen. of bleoghann, milking. An had wrongly been made s.

Blackrigg. Same as Blachrie.

Blackscrath. Place where the green sod had been removed, leaving bare black soil. Sgrath, turf, sod.

Blackshiel Burn. Burn near a summer hut built of mossy sods. Seal (pronounced shyal), shiel, shieling.

Blackstock, Blackstocks. Black, steep, pointed hill. Stoc, steep, sharp hill.

Blackstrath. Burn valley where cows were fed and milked. Bliochd, milk; strath, burn valley.

Blackton. Town of the milking, place where cows had been penned and milked. Baile, town; bleoghainn, gen. of bleoghann, milking.

Black well Head (for Tobar Chuid Bleoghainn). Well of the milking-fold. Tobar, well; chuid, cuid asp., fold; bleoghainn, gen. of bleoghann, milking. Chuid had become first huid and afterwards head.

Blaikie Well. Well at a milking-fold. Bleoghann, milking.

Blair, Blairs. Open place. Blair, for blar, open place, moor, heath. Final s is an improper addition, made because Blair is the gen. form and was supposed to be a personal name.

48 Celtic Place-Names in Aberdeenshire.

Blair Glas, Blairglas. Green open moor. Blarr open moor; glas, green, grey green.

Blair Hussey (for Blar Choise). Open place at the foot of a hill. Blair, for blar, open place; choise, gen. asp. of cos, foot.

Blairbowie. Yellow open place. Blair, for blar, open place; bvidhe, 37ellow.

Blairdaff. Open moor of the oxen. Blar, open place,, moor; damh, gen. plural of damh, ox. Blair, the gen. form, is often used for blar.

Blairdubh, Blairduff. Black open moor. Blair, for blar, open moor; dubh, black.

Blairfad, Blairfads. Moor of the fold, and Moor of the small fold. Blar, open moor; chuid, gen. asp. of cuid, fold; chuidan, gen. asp. of cuidan, small fold. Asp. c had become asp. p, which is /. Ain had been made s instead of ie.

Blairfowl. Open place where there was a pool. Blair, for blar, open place; ph/uill, gen. asp. of poll, pool, marsh.

Blairhead. Open muir of the cattle-fold. Blair, for blar, open moor; chuid, gen. asp. of cuid, cattle-fold. After being asp. c had become silent.

Blairindinny. Open space at a small hill. Blair, for blar, open place; an, of the; dunain, gen. of dunan, small hill.

Blairmore. Large open space. Blair, for blar, expanse; mor, big.

Blairmormond. Big moor. Blair, moor; mor, big; monadh, moor.

Blairnamuick. Field of the sow. Blar, open place, green field; na, of the; mine, gen. of muc, sow, pig.

Blairordens. Open place of the little hill. Blair, for blar, open place ; ordain, gen. of ordan, small hill. Ain had been mistaken for the plural termination, and s had been added to ordain.

Blairour. Open moor between two burns. Blar, moor, open place; our, gen plural of our, water, burn.

Blairton. Town in an open place. Blar, open moor, heath. In names, the gen. form blair is generally used.

Blairwick of Cults. Wide part of the Glen of Cults. Blair, wide, open place; uig, gen. of uig, nook.

Blairythan. Open space beside a stream. Blair, open place; ithan, stream. See Ythan, Ythanside, Itenheade.

Blakeshouse (for Teach Bleoghainn). Milking-house. Teach, house (translated); bleoghainn, gen. of blcoghann, milking. Ainn had erroneously been supposed to be the plural termination and had been translated into s. At

Celtic Place-Names in Aberdeenshire. 49

Blakeshouse there had been a byre for cows on summer pasture and a dairy for butter and cheese.

Blankets (for Cuitan Bleoghainn). Fold of milking. Cuitan, dim. of cuit, fold; bleogliainn, gen. of bleoghann, milking. An of cuitan having been supposed to be a plural termination had been changed into s.

Blar Dubh. Black open moor. Blar, open place; dubli, black.

Blar Ime. Field of butter. Blar, plain, open place; ime, gen. of im, butter.

Blashbeans (for Blath Bheann). Warm hill. Blatli , warm; bheann, beann asp., hill. Th had become sh, and ann had been erroneously regarded as a plural termination and s had therefore been added to bheann.

Blelack. Smooth stone. Blaith-leac, smooth stone. The stone referred to is St Wolack's stone at Kirkton, nearly a mile south of Blelack House.

Blethery Well. Warm shieling well. Blath, warm; airidhc, gen. of airidh, shieling.

Blind Burn, Blindburn, Blind Stripe, Blindstripe. There is in Gaelic a word caoch, blind, and there had once been another meaning burn, with its dim. caochan, small burn. Blind here seems to be a translation of the first caoch instead of the second, whose meaning had been forgotten. In Blind Burn both parts of the name mean the same thing.

Blind Well. Town near a burn. Caoch, burn (trans- lated); bhaile, baile asp., town. Bh is equivalent to u, v, or w, and baile asp. has frequently become well. See Blind Burn.

Blindmills. Mills on a burn. See Blind Burn.

Blinkbonny. This name is probably taken from the words "blink bonny" in Motherwell's song " Craigielea." If it is Gaelic it might be a corruption of Bleoghann Boine, the milking of a cow. Bleoghann, milking; boine, gen. of bo, cow.

Blockiehead (for Cuid Bleoghainn). Fold of milking. Cuid, fold; bleoghainn, gen. of bleoghann, milking. Bleoch- ainn had become blockie, which had been put first. Cuid had been asp. and put last, and c being silent had been lost.

Bloody Burn. (In Gaelic Allt Bleodhainn). Milk burn, burn where cows were pastured and milked. Allt, burn (translated); bleodhainn, gen. of bleodhann, milking. Ainn had been changed into y.

Bloody Butts of Lendrum. See Lendrum. Bloody Butts had originally been Buthan Bleodhainn, houses for milking cows. Buthan, plural of buth, booth; bleodhainn, gen. of bleodhann, milking.

D

50 Celtic Place-Names in Aberdeenshire.

Bloody Faulds. Milking folds. Bleodhann, milking. Ann had been thought to be the dim. termination and had been changed to y.

Bloody Hole (for Bleodhann Choill). Milking of trip hill. Bleodhann, milking; choill, coill asp., hill. C had been lost, being silent. Originally the name had been Coill Bleodhainn, hill of milking. Coill, hill; bleodhainn, gen. of bleodhann.

Blue Bog. Bog at a milking-foid. Bleoghann, milking- place.

Blue Cairn. Perhaps this name means hill on which there was a cow-fold where cows were milked. Bleoghainn, gen. of bleoghann, milking; cam, hill. Cam had once been first. The O.S. map shows the site of a cairn, but the officials did not know that cam meant a hill.

Blue Corrie. Corry where cows were milked. Bleogh- ann, milking of cows; coire, corry. Blue Corry may be a translation of Coire Gorm, which might have been better rendered Green Corry. Gorm means both blue and green.

Blue Hill, Bluehill. Hill where cows were milked when at summer pasture. Bleoghann, milking of cows. There are many Blue Hills, all indicating old dairying places.

Blue Stone. Bock at which there was a milking-fold on a shieling. Bliochd, milk.

Blue Well. Well at a milking-place. Bleoghann, milking-place.

Bluecraig Hill. Hill seen from a great distance, at which it has a blue colour. Creag, hill.

Bluefield. Milking-field, or field whose pasture yields much milk. Bliochd, milk.

Bluefold. Milking-fold. Bleoghann, milking-place. Unless when part of the name of a lofty hill blue generally means milk or milking-place in a place-name.

Blueley. Grassy place productive of milk. Bliochd, milk; ley, grassy place.

Bluemill (for Meall Bleoghainn). Hill of the milking. Meall, hill; bleoghainn, gen. of bleoghann, milking. Gh is silent and ainn had become ie, which produced bleoie, and this had become blue.

Bluemoor Hill. Hill on which cows were pastured and milked. Bleogliann, milking-place.

Blythehillock. Milking-place at a hillock. Bliochd, milk.

Bo (for Achadh Bo). Place of cows. Achadh, place (suppressed); bo, gen. plural of bo, cow.

Boar's Stone. Big stone. Borr, big.

Boarshead, Boar's Head. Big fold. Borr, big, with s

Celtic Place-Names in Aberdeenshire. 51

added to get an English possessive; chaid, cuid asp., fold. By loss of c silent clniid had become head.

Boat Craig. Kock where a boat could be entered or left. Creag, rock.

Boatleys. Grassy places at a boat. Ley, grassy land.

Bockie Burn. Burn of the bog. Allt, burn (translated); bogain, gen. of bogan, quagmire. Ain had been translated into ie in Scotch.

Bodachra. Fold-house. Both, house; a', of the; chra, gen. asp. of era, fold.

Boddam, Boddum. Oxen-house. Both, hut, house; damh, gen. plural of damh, ox.

Boddomend (for Both Damhan). House for oxen. Both, house; damhan, gen. plural of damh, ox.

Bodychell (for Badan Choill). Thicket of a hill. Badan, bush ; choill, gen. asp. of coill, hill.

Bodylair (for Bothan Lair). House of the land. Bothan, dim. of both, house; lair, gen. of lar, land.

Bog Brannie. Bog of the little burn. Bog, marsh; branain, gen. of branan, little mountain stream. Ain be- came ie.

Bog Loch, Bogloch. Bog of the loch.

Bog Luchray. See Luchray.

Bog of Culsh. Bog in a retired place. Bog, bog; cuil- teach, private, secluded.

Bog of Saughs. Willow bog. Seileach, saugh, Scotch for willow. See Saughs.

Bog of Gothie. See Gothie.

Bog Sluey (for Bog Sluic). Bog of the den. Bog, bog; sluic, gen. of slochd, pit, gorge, ravine, slug.

Bog Wartle. Bog beside a hill where cattle at summer pasture were guarded at night to prevent them from straying and from being stolen by Highland thieves. See " Historical Papers," Vol. I. (New Spalding Club). Wartle, ward hill.

Bogancaller. Bog of the marsh Bog, bog; an, of the; calla, marsh.

Bogandacker. Bog of the water. Bog, bog; an t-, of the ; acha, water.

Bogandy. Black bog. Bogan, bog; dubh, black.

Boganglaik. Bog of the hollow. Bog, bog; an, of the; glaic, gen. of glac, hollow between two heights.

Boganloch. Bog of the loch. Bog, marsh; an, of the; loch, lake.

Bogansourie. Bog of wetness. Bogan, bog; sugh- mhorachd, wetness. The asp. letters and final d had been lost.

Bogbraidy. Bog of the hill. Bog, bog; braighe (for

52 Celtic Place-Names in Aberdeenshire.

braghad, gen. of braighe), hill. As gh and dft are pronounced alike the one is often used for the other.

Bogbuie. Yellow bog. Bog, bog; buidhe, yellow.

Bogcoup. Bog of the hill. Bog, bog; coip, gen. of cop, hill.

Bogdavie. Bog of oxen. Bog, bog; daimh, gen. of damh, ox. Mh is equivalent to u, v, or w.

Bogenchapel. Bog at the chapel. Bog, bog; an, of the ; chaibeil, gen. asp. of caibeal, chapel, family burying-ground. Before 1560 there were many small chapels with burying- grounds in Scotland.

Bogendinny. Bog of the little hill. Bog, bog; an, of the; dunain, gen. of dunan, little hill.

Bogengarrie. Rough bog. Bogan, bog; garbh, rough.

Bogenjohn. Bog at a hill. Bogan, wet place; duin, gen. of dun, hill.

Bogenjoss. Bog of the fir. Bogan, bog; giuthais, gen. of giuthas, fir.

Bogenlea. Bog of the grassy place. Bog, bog; an, of the; ley (Scotch), grassy place.

Bogenspro. Meadow where cattle fed. Bogan, bog, meadow; spreidhe, gen. of spreidh, cattle.

Bogentassie (for Bog an t-Easain). Bog of the little burn. Bog, bog; an £-, of the; easain, gen. of easan, small burn, little cataract.

Bogerduch (for Bog Airidhe Duibhe). Bog of the black shieling. Bog, marsh; airidhe, gen. of airidh, shieling; duibhe, gen. fem. of dubh, black.

Bogerfoul (for Bog Airidh Phuill). Bog of a shieling at a pool. Bog, bog; airidh, shieling; phuill, gen. asp. of poll, pool.

Bogfearn, Bogfern. Alder bog. Bog, bog; fearna, alder.

Bogfechil. Bog near a watching-place. Bog, bog; faicille, gen. of faicill, watch, guard.

Bogfennan (for Bogfinain). Bog of the little hill. Bog, wet place, meadow; finain, gen. of finan, dim. of fin, hill.

Bogforgue. Bog consisting of a semi-liquid mixture of earth and water. Bog, bog; fuaraig, gen. of fuarag, mix- ture of earth and water.

Bogforlea. Bog at a grassy place outside of a farm. Bog, bog; for-ley, grassy place at the front.

Bogforth (perhaps for Bog Chorth). Marsh at an enclosed space. Bog, marsh; chorth, corth asp., circle, stone ring round a grave, fold for cattle or sheep.

Bogfossie (for Bog a' Chosain). Bog of the little hollow. Bog, bog; chosain, gen. asp. of cosan, dim. of cos,

Celtic Place-Namcs in Aberdeenshire. 53

hollow. No Gaelic word in / yields fossie ; but /, being an asp. letter, may represent ch, another asp. letter.

Bogfouton (for Bog Chothain). Bog covered with a frothy scum. Bog, bog; chothain, gen. asp. of cothan, froth. Ch had become ph, equivalent to /; and h of th had become silent and had been lost. Fouton may represent chuitan, small fold.

Bogfur. Bog of grass. Bog, bog; feoir, gen. of feur, grass.

Boggach. Boggy place. Bog, bog; and ach, abounding in.

Boggerie Burn. Burn from a shieling bog. Bog, bog; airidhe, gen. of airidh, shieling.

Boggiefern. Bog in which alders grow. Bogan, bog; feama, alder-tree.

Boggiehinach Burn. Burn from a bog of vegetable growth. Bogain, gen. of bogan, bog; chinneachaidh, gen. of cinneachadh, growth.

Boggy Stripes. Streamlets causing the formation of a bog. Bogan, bog.

Boggyshiels. Summer huts at a bog. Bogan, bog; scalan, plural of seal, summer residence. S before e sounds sh.

Boghead. Farm at the upper end of a bog. Head may represent chuid, gen. asp. of cuid, fold.

Bogie. Bog. Bogan, bog. Bogan is not a diminutive and an should not have been made ie. Bogie is also the name of the stream draining the great bog on the east side of The Buck.

Bogieneuk. Corner of the bog. Bogain, gen. of bogan, wet place.

Bogie's Hole. Sea cave supposed to be inhabited by a spectre. Bodach, spectre, boodie (Scotch).

Bogiesavock. Willow bog. Bogan, bog; samhach (pronounced sauch, and supposed to mean willow). The proper meaning, however, of samhach is quiet, peaceful.

Bogieshalloch, Boggieshalloch. Willow bog. Bogan, bog; seileach, gen. plural of seileach, willow.

BOGIESHEAL, BOGIESHIEL, BoGIESHIELS. Bog at a hut

on summer pasture. Bogan, bog; seal, hut, shiel. Shiels represents sealan, which might be either the plural of seal, or sealan, shieling, summer pasture.

Bogindhu. Black bog. Bogan, bog; dubh, black.

Bogixgore. Bog of the mud, filth. Bogan, bog; gaorra, gen. of gaorr, mud, gore.

Bogingoss (for Bogan Giuthais). Bog of fir. Bogan, bog; giuthais, gen. of giuthas, fir.

Bogixthort. Bog of the circular enclosure. Bog, bog;

54 Celtic Place-Names in Aberdeenshire.

an, of the; choirt, gen. asp. of cort, circle, cattle-fold, stone circle.

Bogintorry. Bog of the little hill. Bog, bog; an, of the ; torraxn, gen. of torran, little hill, hillock.

Boglach Gorm. Green marsh. Boglach, quagmire, bog; gorm, green.

Boglash. Bog where lights were said to have been seen. Bog, marsh; lais, gen. of las (Irish), flame, light.

Bogle Den. Den of the ghost. Bogle (English), spectre.

Boglea. Bog at a grassy place. Bog, bog; ley (Scotch), grass land.

Bogless. Bog at a cattle-fold. Bog, bog; Use, gen. of lios, enclosure, cattle-fold, sheep-fold.

Bogloch. Loch in a bog.

Boglouster. Shaking bog, quagmire. Bog, bog; gluasdach, moving.

Bogmeinneach, Burn of. Middle bog burn. A4ead- honach, middle.

Bogmoon. Bog of the moss. Bog, bog; mona, gen. of moine, moss, moor.

Bogmore. Big bog. Bog, marsh, bog; mor, big.

Bognamoon. Bog of the moss. Bog, bog; na, of the; mona, gen. of moine, moss, moor.

Bogneish Hillock. Hillock at the bog of the burn. Bogan, marsh; eas, burn.

Bognieboll (for Bogan Buaile). Bog of the cattle-fold. Bogan, bog (with transposition of a and n) ; buaile, cattle- fold.

Bogniebrae (for Bogan Brae). Bog of the hill. Bogan, bog; braigh (for braghad), gen. of braigh, hill. A and n had been transposed in passing into Scotch.

Bogranda. Ugly bog. Bog, bog; granda, ugly.

Bogbaxie, Bog of ducks. Bog, bog; trachd, gen. plural of trachd, drake.

Bogree William. Cattle-fold at the angle where two roads meet. Bog, bog; rath (th silent), circle; uilinn, gen. of uileann, elbow, angle. Uileann usually becomes William in Scotch, as in Cairn William, mountain at the turn.

Bogriffe (for Bog Buighe). Bog at the base of a hill. Bog, bog; ruighe, slope of a hill, the highest cultivated ground at the base of a hill.

Bogrotten. Bog at a round hill. Bog, bog; rotain, gen. of rotan, round hill, mound, cognate with Latin rotundus, round.

Bogs. Bog. Bogan, soft wet place.

Bogskeathy. "Vomiting bog. Bog, bog; sgeitheach, vomiting. When water enters at the top of a bed of clay on a brae and finds vent lower down it sometimes pours out

Celtic Place-Names in Aberdeenshire. 55

steadily in winter a mixture of water and clay, which comes up out of the ground as if it were vomited.

Bogsley. Bog of the hill. Bog, hog; sleibhe, gen. of sliabli, hill.

Bogsowie. Wet bog. Bog, bog; sughain, gen. of sughan wetness, oozing water.

Bogston. Town near a bog. Bogan, bog. An had been made s.

Bogtamma. Bog full of tufts. Bog, bog; tomach, full of tufts.

Bogturk. Bog of the boar. Bog, bog; tuirc, gen. of tore, hog, boar.

Bohill. Cow-hill. Bo, cow.

Boich Head. Head curved like a bow. Bogha, bow. Boilmore (for Buaile Mhor). Big cattle-fold. Buaile, cattle-fold; -mhor, fern, of mor, big.

Bolting Stone (for Clach Buailtein). Stone at a small fold. Clach, stone; buailtein, gen. of buailtean, dim. of buaile, fold.

Bomahoy (for Both na Chuith). House at the fold. Both, hut, house; na, of the; chuith, gen. asp. of cuith, fold. C being silent had been lost. Th final is silent and is readily lost. Hui had been pronounced hoo-ie, which had become hoy.

Bonlee. Grassy hollow. Bonn, bottom; ley, grassy piace.

Bonnykelly (for Coille Bainneach). Hill producing milk. Bainneach, abounding in milk; coille, hill.

Bonnymuir. Moor productive of milk. Bainneach, abounding in milk; muir (Scotch), heath, uncultivated ground.

Bonnyside. Place productive of milk. Bainneach abounding in milk; suidhe, place, seat.

Bonnyton (for Baile Bainneach). Farm-town abounding in milk. Baile, town (translated); bainneach, productive of milk.

Boonie, Burn of. Kapid burn. Buinne, rapid current. Borestoke. Big stone. Borr, great. See Boar's Stone. Borrowhill. Hill. Bruch, hill. The second part is a translation of the first.

Borrowston, Borrowstone. Hill town. Bruch, hill; ton, for English town.

Botany. This name in full is Botany Bay, so named from a place in Australia to which convicts were first sent. Residence at Botany was regarded as banishment.

Botary (for Both Airidhe). Hut of the shieling. Both, hut; airidhe, gen. of airidh , shieling.

56 Celtic Place-Names in Aberdeenshire.

Both Hill. Hill of the hut. Both, but, house where women in charge of cows on summer pasture lived.

Bothy. A house built of sods. In the Highlands it usually meant a house built of sods among the hills, where smuggled whisky was made. In the Lowlands it was a house in which farm-servants lived and prepared their own food. Both kinds of bothies have nearly gone out of use. Both an, small house, hut, cottage.

Bothwellseat. Farm-town at the place of the man- sion. Bhaile, baile asp., town; both, house, mansion; suidhe, seat, place. Bli is equivalent to w and bhaile has become well.

Bottomend. Same as Boddomend.

Bottomhead. Ox-house at a cattle-fold. Both, house; damh, ox; chuid, cuid asp., cattle-fold.

Boudiestone. Stone of the ghost. Bodach, ghost, spectre.

Bourtie. Fortified place for cattle. Buar, cattle; dun, hill, fort. Boverdyn, 1195. See " Chartulary of Abbey of Lindores." Bourtie might represent buar-thigh, cattle- house. Buar, cattle; thigh, tigh asp., house.

Bourtree Well. Well with an elder-tree to mark its position in a snowstorm.

Bourieman's Well. Well of the man in charge of a milking-fold. He had to put fetters on the legs of cows before they were milked. Buarach, cow-fetter.

Bovaglie (for Both Faicille). Guard-house. Both, house; faicille, gen. of faicill, watch, guard. The house had been occupied by persons guarding cattle in a glen against thieves. F and v, and c and g are interchangeable.

Bow, The. Bend inward in the coast-line. Bogha, bow, bend.

Bowbutts. Places near a parish church where people practised shooting with bows and arrows on Sunday. This was enjoined by Act of the Scots Parliament, to train men for the national defence. Yews were planted in churchyards to provide bows.

Bower Well (for Tobar Buair). Cattle well, lobar, well; buair, gen. of buar, cattle.

Bowie Hillock. Yellow hillock. Buidhe, yellow.

Bowiebank. Yellow bank on the east side of the Deveron. Buidhe, yellow. The place named Bowiebank would have been suitable for growing broom.

Bowl Boad, Bowlroad. Way from Aberdeen to the town cattle-fold. It is now called Albion Street. Buaile, cattle-fold, milking-fold. It was very likely on the Bowl Croft, which was on the north side of the street and on the west of the railway. The cowts of the citizens had been

Celtic Place-Names in Aberdeenshire. 5?

folded in the Buaile at mid-day, and women had gone there to milk them. There are, or were, Bowl Roads in Tarves, Strachan, and Edinburgh as well as in Aberdeen.

Bowman Stone (for Bellman Stone). Stone on which the bellman stood when making announcements at a church.

Boyndlie (for Ley Buinn). Grassy place at the bottom of a howe. Ley (Scotch), grassy place; buinn, gen. of bonn, bottom.

Boynds. Quarry. Buidhinn, quarry. S had been affixed in the mistaken belief that inn here represented the Gaelic plural termination.

Boynsmill (for Muileann Buinn). Mill at the bottom of the howe. Muileann, mill; buinn, gen. of bonn, bottom.

Brackans (for Braighan). Little hill. Braighun, dim. of braigh, hill. An, the dim. termination, had been regarded as plural, and it had been translated into s, which had been added though an remained.

Brackenbraes. Ferny braes. Bracken is an English word of Anglo-Saxon origin.

Brackenstake. Pointed mountain. Braigh, mountain, bill; an, of the; stuic, gen. of stuc, pointed hill.

Brackley. Grey hill. Braigh, hill; Hath, grey.

Brackloch Cratg. The three parts of the name mean hill. Braigh, hill; lamh, hill; creag, hill.

Braclamore. Big grey hill. Bracach, grey, black and white; lamh, hill; mor, big.

Braco, Bracco. Grey place. Bracach, grey.

Brae of Biffie. Hill of Biffie. See Biffie. Braigh, hill.

Braegarie. Rough hill. Braigh, hill, upper part of a district; garbh, rough.

Braelea. Grey hill. Braigh, hill; Hath, grey.

Braeloine. Bralyne in 1696. Hill or brae above a meadow. Braigh, hill, brae; loin, gen. of Ion, marsh.

Braeinjohn, Brainjohn. Burn of the hill. Braon, burn ; duin, gen. of dun, hill.

Braemar. The meaning of mar is uncertain. Brae represents braigh, hill.

Braemar (Cruden) represents Braigh Bharr. Hill of the point. Braigh, hill; bharr, barr asp., point. Bh is liable to become mh, which by loss of the asp. becomes m. Probably the name had originally been Barr Bhraigh, point of the hill.

Braenaloin. Hill of the moss. Braigh, hill; na, of the; loin, gen. of Ion, moss, marsh.

Braeneach. Hill of the spectre. Braigh, hill: neach, ghost, apparition.

Braeneil (for Braigh an Aill). Hill. Braigh, hill; an, of the; aill, gen. of aill, hill, rocky hill.

58 Celtic Place-Names in Aberdeenshire.

Braeriach. Grey mountain. Braigh, mountain; riabhach, grey.

Braeroddach. Hill abounding in Myrica gale, bog myrtle, a somewhat rare plant. Braigh, hill; roid, bog myrtle; ach, place of.

Braes of Begarry. Hill of the little shieling. Braigh, hill; beag, small; airidhe, gen. of airidh, shieling.

Braes of Gight. Windy braes. Gaothach, windy.

Braeside. Hillside. Braigh, hill.

Braestairie. Place on a bill where a causeway or a road- formed of tree stems had been made to cross a wet place. Braigh, hill, brae; staire, gen. of stair, causeway, stepping- stones at a wet place.

Braid Bog (for Bog Braigh). Marsh at a hill. Bog, wet place; braigh, hill. If the name is Scotch it means broad bog.

Braid Cairn. Cairn on the summit of a hill. Braid, summit; cam, cairn, hill. The hill is on the boundary between Aberdeen and Forfar.

Braidshaw. Broad wood. Shaw (English), thicket, wood. Braid may mean hill, as in Braid Cairn.

Braigh Coire Caochan nan Laogh. Mountain of the burn of the calves. Coire, corry ; caochan, burn; nan, of the; laogh, gen. plural of laogh, calf.

Braigie. Hill. Braighe, brae, top of a brae, hill.

Braigiewell. Hill town. Braighe, hill; bhaile, baile asp., town. Bh is equivalent to u, v, or w.

Braiklay (for Breac Lamh). Dappled hill. Breac, variegated; lamh, hill.

Braikley (perhaps for Braigh Liath). Grey hill. Braigh, hill ; liath, grey.

Braiks Burn. Places of various colours near a burn. Breacan, spotted places. Breac had been supposed to be a personal name, and an had therefore been changed to s to be in the possessive.

Brain Loan (for Lon Braoin). Moss of the hill burn. Lon, moss, bog; braoin, gen. of braon, hill stream.

Brainley (for Ley Braoin). Grassy place near a burn. Ley (Scotch), grassy place; braoin, gen. of braon, hill burn.

Brainjohn. See Braeinjohn.

Brakeshill. Hill. Braigh, hill. The second part of the name is a translation of the first.

Brakies Croft. Croft on a hillock. Braighean, dim. of braighe, hill. An had been made both ie and s.

Brandsbutt (for Buth Braoin). House at a burn. Buth, house, hut; braoin, gen. of braon, hill burn. When the parts of the name were transposed s had been added to braoin to make it the English possessive.

Celtic Place-Names in Aberdeenshire.

59

Brandyie (for Branan). Small hill burn. Branan, dim. of bran, hill burn. An had become yie.

Brankanentum, Brankinentum. Burn of the little fold on the hill. Bran, burn; cuithan, dim of cuith, fold; an, of the; tuim, gen. of torn, hill.

Braneholm, Brankholme. Burn of the hill. Bran, hill burn; thvim, gen. asp. of torn, hill. T being silent before h had been lost, and k and I had been inserted for euphony, but I is seldom heard.

Brankie (originally Braon Cuith). Burn at a fold. Braon, mountain burn; cuith (th silent), fold. Cut had be- come hie.

Brankston. Town at a mountain burn. Bran, mountain

burn.

Brawland Knowes (for Braigh Lamhan Cnocan). lhe three parts of the name all mean hill. Braigh, hill, higher part; lamhan, dim. of lamh, hill; cnocan, dim. of cnoc, hill. An had been translated into s, in the belief that it was a plural termination.

Brawnsbog (for Bog an Braoin). Bog of the mountain burn. Bog, wet place; an, of the; braoin, gen. of braon mountain burn. When the parts of the name were trans- posed s had been inserted in the belief that braoin was a personal name in the genitive in Gaelic.

Breac Leitir. Spotted hillside. Breac, dappled; leitir, hillside.

Breacan Hillocks (for Toman Breaca). Spotted hill- ocks. Toman, hillocks (translated); breaca, spotted.

Breagach Hill. Dappled hill. Breacach, spotted, party-coloured.

Breda. Broadhaugh in "Poll Book," 1696. Breda Hill. Here Breda seems to be a corruption of braighe, hill. Dh and gh are both pronounced like y, and hence g was sometimes changed into d in passing into Scotch. Breedie's Haugh. Haugh where a court of justice was held. Breith, judgment. Bretus in the name of the chief magistrate of the Aedui (Caesar, " De Bell. Gall.," III., 16) is probably cognate with breith, judgment.

Bressachoil. Bush of the hill. Prcas, bush; a', of the; choill, gen. asp. of coill, hill.

Brewthin. Fairy knowe. Bruighinn, fairy knoll. The knolls at which barony courts were held are now often sup- posed to have been regarded as abodes of fairies.

Brickfield (for Burghfield). This is near the site of the Burgh of Battray.

Bride's Well, Brideswell. Well dedicated to St Bridget, an Irish saint venerated also in Scotland.

60 Celtic Place-Names in Aberdeenshire.

Bride stonefold. Fold at a stone where courts of justice were held. Breith, judgment.

Bridge o' Ess. Bridge over the Tanar Water. Eas, water.

Bridge of Don. There are two bridges of this name. The upper, at Balgownie, is very old and its builder is uncertain. It may have been built by the Earl of Mar at the same time as Kildrummy Castle was built. It is some- times attributed to Bobert Bruce. The lower bridge was built 1831-3.

Bridge of Leid. Broad bridge. Leoid, gen. of leud, breadth.

Bridle Boad. Poad along which a traveller on horse- back may pass.

Bridlefold. Substantial fold. Brigheil, efficacious. Gh and dh are pronounced in the same way and are mis- taken the one for the other.

Bridlies (for Breith Lios). Judgment circle. Breith, judgment; lios, circle. The place had been the seat of a barony court, which had been held within an enclosed place.

Brierfield (for Achadh Braigh Airidhe). Field of the hill of the shieling. Achadh, field; braigh (pronounced briye), hill; airidhe, gen. of airidh, shieling.

Briggs. Places where water rushes through with force. Bruchdan, plural of bruchd, openings in sea rocks through which the tide rushes.

Brimmond Hill. All the three parts of this name mean hill. Braigh, hill; monadh, hill or moor of great extent. The Brimmond is more than a mile broad, and it is 870 feet high.

Brindy Burn. Small burn. Branan, dim. of bran, hill burn. Brindy is locally pronounced breeny.

Broad Cairn. Hill. Braid, hill; earn, hill, mountain.

Broad-Gate, Broad Street. A wide street in Aber- deen, originally extending from the west side of Guestrow to the east side of .Broad Street. Gate was formerly a common name in towns for a street leading to any important place, as Castlegate, Gallowgate.

Broad Hill. The hill is only about 300 yards wide and hardly deserves to be called broad. Apparently, however, it had been called leathan in Gaelic, which means broad, for about the end of the Catholic period it was sometimes called the Lady Hill, lady being erroneously supposed to refer to the Virgin Mary. See Ladysford.

Broad Place. Hilly place. Braid, hill.

Broad Shade. Broad extent of gently sloping ground. Shed, slope, separation, division.

Celtic Place-Names in Aberdeenshire. 61

Broad Ward. Hilly enclosed place for calves or other farm animals. Braid, hill; tvard, enclosed, protected place.

Broadgate. Place near a turnpike road.

Broadgreens (perhaps for Ailean Braghead). Green place of a hill. Ailean, green level place; braghad (gh silent), gen. of braigh, hill. The s in Broadgreens represents an in ailean, which had been supposed to be plural.

Broadland. Both broad and land mean hill. Braigh, hill; lamhan, dim. of lamli, hill. Bh is liable to become mh, which by loss of the aspirate becomes m. Mh in lamhan is usually equivalent to v, but it may become silent and be lost. Final d is euphonic.

Broadley. Broad grassy place. Perhaps the name had at first been Braidley, meaning hilly, grassy place, from braid, hill, and ley, grassy place.

Broad straik (for Strioch Braid). Hill stripe. Strioch, stripe; braid, hill.

Broback, The. The hill of the moss. Brucli, hill; bac, moss.

Brochdhu. Black hill. Bruch, hill; dubh, black.

Brock Ness. Badgers' point. Broc, badger; ness (English), promontory.

Brockholes. Badgers' holes. Broc, badger. But brock may be bruch, hill, and holes may be choill, coill asp., hill, with s added.

Brockie Burn, Brocky Burn. Burn of the steep brae. Bruchaich, gen. of bruchach, steep ascent. Same as Burn of Brooky.

Brock's Brae. Badger's brae. Broc, badger.

Broclach. Badger's den.

Brodiach. Broad howe. Iochd, howe.

Brodie Brae, Brodies Braes. The Gaelic form of Brodie had been brodan, but the meaning of this word is uncertain. It sometimes seems to mean a projecting point or a narrow piece of ground, and sometimes a level place. In Brodies an has been made both ie and s.

Brodies Burn. Perhaps Burn in a narrow strip of land.

Brogan. Small hill. Bruchan, dim. of bruch, hill.

Broken Grip (for Groban Bruchain). Top of the small hill. Groban, summit; bruchain, gen. of bruchan, small hill. The parts of the name had been transposed when bruchain was made an English word.

Broken wind (for Bruchan Bheinn). Hill. Bruchan, dim. of bruch, hill; bheinn, beinn asp. and pronounced loeinn, hill.

Bronie Burn. Small burn. Braonan, dim. of braon, burn.

■62 Celtic Place-Na7nes in Aberdeenshire.

Broom Hill, Broomhill. In old leases it was some- times stipulated that farmers should sow a few acres of broom, to provide thatch for buildings on a farm. Hence broom is found on some high hills and only in a few places in a district, instead of being generally distributed.

Broom Inch. Eiver island clothed with broom. Innis, island.

Broomhead. Broomy place at a fold. Chuid, gen. asp. of cuid, fold. G had been lost, being silent.

Broomielaw. Broom hill. Lamh, hill.

Broomies Burn. Small burn. Braonan, dim. of braon, hill burn. An had been rendered by both ie as a dim. and s as a plural termination.

Brooms. Small hill burn. Braonan, dim. of braon, hill burn. Medial n became m, and an became s instead of ie.

Broomy Lea. Level grassy place growing broom. In Scotch, lea means land level enough to be cultivated.

Brotherfield (for Achadh Bruch Airidhe). Field of the hill of the shieling. Achadh, field; bruch, hill; airidhe, gen. of airidh, shieling. C asp. had become t asp., and dh becoming silent had been omitted.

Brothers, The. Kocks resembling a family of children.

Brown Cow (for Braon Cuith). Burn of the cattle-fold. Braon, mountain burn; cuith (th silent), cattle-fold. Cui had been pronounced coo-ie.

Brown Cow" Hill. Hill from which flows a burn passing a cattle-fold. See Brown Cow.

Brown Hill. Hill of the mountain burn. Braon, hill burn.

Brownhills, Brownieshill. Both names mean hill from which flowed a little burn. Braonan, dim. of braon, burn. In Brownhills an had been made s and put after hill. In Brownieshill an had been made both ie and s.

Brownside. Burn side. Braon, burn.

Bruach Dhubh. Black bank. Bruach, bank; dhubh, fern, of dubh, black.

Bruach Mhor. Big bank. Bruach, bank; mhor, fern, of mor, big.

Bruach Euadh. Red bank. Bruacli, bank; ruadh, red. Bruach in Bruach Dhubh, Bruach Mhor, Bruach Ruadh, Tighnabruaich, etc., is probably a late translation into Gaelic of Banks or Bankhead, both of which mean cattle- fold. See Bankhead and Banks.

Bruce Hill, Brucehill. Hill. Bruch, hill. The name had originated in a mistaken belief that King Robert Bruce had halted on it in his pursuit of Comyn, Earl of Buchan.

Bruce 's Camp. Place locally fancied to have been a ■camp of King Robert Bruce; but this idea must have origi-

Celtic Place-Names in Aberdeenshire. 63

Bated in the likeness of bruch, a Gaelic word for a hill, to the name Bruce. The