The Place Names of Irongray. 23 



Beochs we have the Celtic word for birch. (Compare Beith and 

 Dalbeattie.) On the other side of the parish we have its Saxon 

 equivalent Birkbush. Skeoch is Celtic for hawthorns, Saughtrees, 

 and perhaps Shalloch, tell of willows, though Shalloch may mean 

 a hunting lodge (Sealg, Shallag). Roughtree, Peartree, Bush, 

 Oakbank, etc., owe their names to the vegetable kingdom. 



There is a very interesting place name in Irongray, Barnsoul 

 — Bar-an-solis, the hill of the fire. (The .same as is found in 

 Tongland parish, Barsolis and Drum-na-sole in Ireland.) My 

 predecessor, the Rev. Thomas Underwood, used to speculate on 

 fire worship and Druidism having been once practised there ; but 

 I leave such iniquities to be investigated by my neighbour at 

 Terregles, where they have a Beltane Hill. Our fires at Barnsoul 

 were only watch fires, or beacons. This is confirmed by a hill on 

 the farm being known as the Doune (Dun, a fort), where the 

 watchers of the beacon gathered. Names like Kilncroft, 

 Netherton, Newmains, Park, etc., tell their own story. Threep- 

 neuk (the corner of contention or wrangling) and Snuffhill suggest 

 a story, but do not tell it. 



The psalmist tells us how men try to immortalise themselves 

 by calling their lands after their names. This process of place- 

 naming has gone on very markedly in the case of the highest hill 

 in the parish, Bennan — now known as Johnny Turner, from an 

 eccentric person of that name who was buried there in 1841. 

 Little Beoch is now Rome's Beoch, and Nether Barncleugh is 

 becoming Robson's Barncleugh. We have our fair share of tons 

 (farms — Maxwelton, Macnaughton (pronounced Neston, a con- 

 traction for Naught's ton), Captainton. Ingleston may be the 

 Englishman's farm, though it, too, may be derived from a proper 

 name Ingles. 



Like other parishes we have a good many ecclesiastical names. 

 The church's patron saint is the Apostle of Ireland, and our full 

 title is Kirkpatrick-Irongray. Near the church we have a Kirk- 

 land and a Chapelcroft. In the upper end of the parish there 

 used to be an estate known as Killylour. The old name still 

 clings to a few cottages, though even there it has to fight an uphill 

 battle against the more magnificent title Midtown Cottages. 

 Killylour is a name worth preserving. Sir Herbert Maxwell 

 regards it as Cill-an-lobhair, the Church of the Leper. The 

 Leper was a title given to St. Fillan, I suppose, from his 



