Stoneykirk Place-Names. 283 



•oak (Lagganderry) are found in more or less frequency. Shaw, 

 copse, cravie, bosky, tomachie, busby, whillie, wooded, whurrari, 

 grove, appended to knock or cor by these the men make the words 

 almost as good as a photograph of the place. Nor did they con- 

 cei;n themselves only with the more lofty. Heather, bramble, 

 fern, and foxglove are noted in Heugh, Slewsmirroch, Slunkrainy, 

 Inshehannoch. The anthills of Balshangan are not beneath 

 notice. Any peculiarity in a spot or thing notable for 

 position stamped itself on their mind, and was recorded in the 

 name, as Drumantrae, the ridge by the shore; Drum a lig, the 

 ridge with the (chieftain's burial) stone, still standing erect, a 

 massive block; Carrich a lee, the name vanishing from memorv 

 RS the stone from sight; Girgunnochy, rough uneven pool. It did 

 not denote any great capacity of mind to name the many fields, 

 Auchs, by their notabilities, nor to mark a crag as in the west, 

 Craigmytre, but there was considerable observation, combined 

 with discrimination, in the men that named the places Meoul (un- 

 pronounceable unless by a native), bare, bald place, near to or in 

 •contrast with Knockalean, hill of beauty; Lurghie, a ridge sloping 

 to the plain, different from a slew; Lurghie wie, windy hillside; 

 and Tonderghie, backside to (the prevailing) wind. We may now 

 pass to later times. 



There is hardly a place name of Saxon origin as distinguished 

 from modern times. There is a doubt about Balgreggan. The 

 ton in Toskerton marks it as the Saxon town, in the sense people 

 here speak of the ferm toon. Toskerton was before the thir- 

 teenth centnry ; it is no longer a separate manor ; the village was 

 entirely obliterated about a hundred years ago ; there are legends 

 of pit and gallows; one field is called Toskerton knowes. There 

 were Welsh proprietors here then — ap Morgan, etc., but not one 

 name survives now alongside of Toskerton to tell where these 

 more modern Cymri dwelt amid Saxon and Gael- 



A glance in conclusion at modern place names will show 

 similarity of mind at work amid different surroundings. Men 

 are no longer dependent chiefly on skins for clothing, but 

 Dyester's Brae and Lintmill show that later generations named 

 places from occupations carried on there as did the earlier; the 

 very latest, cheesemaking, is threatening to oust an old name, 

 Mote, from a place and call it The Creamery. 



There are now more place names called after persons.. 



