254 Place Names in Kirkpatrick-Durham.' 



Knarrie Burn. Most likely descendants of those adders are there 

 at the present day. 



In those times many trees and even thick forests covered 

 great portions of the country. The lake-dwellings which have 

 been discovered and carefully investigated prove that those 

 ancient people had access to an unlimited quantity of timber. 

 Only one species of tree has left its name in Kirkpatrick. It 

 is the oak. Barderroch was " the hill of the oak. ' ' But that 

 there were woods is testified by Culfad = " the long wood, ' ' and 

 Culshand = " the old wood." Perhaps Garholm, alluded to 

 already, which meant "the rough holm," may have shown some 

 sort of vegetation. 



We need have no doubt that, owing to the absence of any 

 artificial drainage and excessive rains, lochs and marshes 

 abounded in the parish. In fact the whole parish was at one 

 time known as Kirkpatrick on the Moor. The Norse word for 

 moor was adopted in the Keltic speech, and is still maintained 

 on twentieth century lips in such names as Margley = " the moor 

 of the fight," Marwhirn = " the moor of the cairn," and Mar- 

 cartney, which was Cartney's or M'Cartney's moor. 



We have three Isles in the pari.sh : but they are not " tracts 

 of land surrounded by water." The word is Keltic, and denotes 

 meadow land beside a stream. Thus Isles of Tarbreoch is a 

 level carse gently sloping to a burn. Isles of Boot, a name 

 known now only to a few of the older people, is a sloping piece 

 of level land behind Durham Street in the Village, watered by a 

 small stream. Mossisle, though the name is now confined to a 

 cottage, was at one time the name of the level ground near the 

 cottage and adjacent to the running water. The san:e use of 

 the word occurs in the MilHsles of the parishes of Kirkinner 

 and Sorbie. 



The evidence of the ecclesiastical life of those old times 

 which survives in the place-names of the present day is rather 

 disappointing. There is less than one had reason to expect. 

 The parish name of old, Kilpatrick, gives us the Keltic dedica- 

 tion to the saint. That Kilquhanity was the kil or cell of 

 Kennedy, some saint or hermit of Keltic times, is no more than 

 a conjecture. At Kirklebride we are on firmer ground, for there 

 we have the Kirk of St. Bride or St. Brigid, to whom were many 

 dedications in Scotland. The word Kirklebride is interesting, 

 because it shows us that the original name was Kilbride, the same 



