NOTES ON COLDINGHAM 127 



perislied, others whose identification it is possible only to 

 guess at, and only a few which can be pointed out with 

 certainty. Among the latter is '' The Chariot," a grassy 

 lane behind the north wall of the churchyard, which took 

 its name, it is said, from having been the road by which 

 the nuns went in covered carts or chariots to bathe in the 

 sea. Dr Hardy . once suggested that as the 0«jldingham 

 people pronounce the name not "The Chariot" but "The 

 Shire," it might have been a march or division between 

 the abbey and the common lands, the line of the latter 

 passing close by dowu to the sea-braes. 



The burn after leaving Bogan is called E-ickleside burn, 

 from the Ricklaw or Rikelaw, that is the high ground which 

 bounds the burn to the north. This hill rises steeply at the 

 back of Burnhall, and at its summit, not so many years ago, 

 stood a row of cottages called Ha' Bank. la Mr Dysart's 

 time he frequently visited at Rickleside, evidently the name 

 of the houses at the side of the Ricklaw burn. After passing 

 below the bridge beyond Burnhall, the burn unites with the 

 Cole burn, and then takes the name of the Skat or Stak 

 burn from the piece of common land called " the Stak burn 

 Common," mentioned in the Riding already referred to. The 

 name Skat is evidently the origin of Scavie or Scape applied 

 to it in later times, and since then still further corrupted 

 into Scabie. Scoutscroft no doubt derives its name from the 

 same — Skatscraft. 



The other bux'n which flows along the south end of the 

 village, and has in late years been christened the Court burn, 

 is most probably the Cole or Coil or Coal burn, and it is 

 notable that a loan leading from " Coldingham Law dubs" 

 to this burn is still called "the Cole bog"; besides, the old 

 mill on the burn, near Milldown, was always known as the 

 Cole Mill, and in a document of 1647 mention is made of 

 " the Coilmylne, and that piece of land called Coilburnbraes 

 and Coildene." The two burns after uniting at the lower 

 end of the Skat Common — or Scabie — flow onward past 

 Milldown House to the sea. 



Milldown is a comparatively modern name, the old name. 

 Cole Mill, having been changed to Milldown in 1806 by Mrs 

 Logan of Burnhall. Mrs Edgar, who died only a few years 



