Solway Coastwise

The first of 3 short videos of a talk given to Kirkcudbright History Society has been released. They explain how field-names were gathered, recorded and analysed. 

The seeds of the Borgue Field Name project were sown by a PLACE in the Biosphere talk about Borgue by historian Professor Ted Cowan and place name enthusiast Michael Ansell. Local realisation that the local countryside was evolving as farms are merged and fields are changed provided the inspiration for the project. A plan was hatched by people living locally to gather field-names, map and analysis meanings and share the information to a wider audience.

Over 50 farmers, landowners and farm workers were questioned and were keen to find out more about the names of fields.  More than 800 fields have been mapped and, because some field have had several name changes, nearly 1,000 names have been recorded. 

The names collected can be interrogated on an interactive map on the Borgue website;

During the “Killing Times” some Covenanters were captured by troops, sent to prison, tried and then banished to the Americas. Robert MacLellan was banished but returned to Scotland and this is his remarkable story.

ROBERT MACLELLAN

Robert MacLellan of Barmagachan in the parish of Borgue (house pictured) was a passionate Covenanter. He took part in the Pentland Rising and fled to England only returning to his home after four years away. He later took part in the Battle of Bothwell Bridge and again escaped to England. In 1684 he was captured, imprisoned and eventually sentenced to be banished to America as an indentured prisoner. Accompanied by three of his sons he sailed on the Henry and Francis from Leith in September 1685 and after a difficult voyage they arrived at Perth Amboy, New Jersey in December. Many died on the journey and Robert was so ill he had to be carried off the ship. They protested against their banishment and the prisoners were pardoned. He purchased land at Woodbridge and remained there until June 1689 when, hearing news that it was safe to return, he set out for Scotland with one of his sons.

They made good time on the return journey but then their fortunes changed for the worse. As the ship approached England it was engaged by a French man-o-war and they were taken as prisoners. First held in a prison in Nantes they were then made to walk to Toulon and on the way a guard lashed Robert in the face resulting in him losing his eye. After the six-week march they were then held in a prison ship where they remained for many months, his 12 year old son looking after him until they were released. Heading home again on a ship bound for Amsterdam a storm blew up and forced the ship to land in Ireland where they were once again taken prisoner. Robert was badly treated and fell ill again before they sailed to Dublin and eventually back to Scotland to their home, Barmagachan in Borgue. Robert appears to have died in the early 1690s soon after his return. Barmagachan was inherited by a son, also Robert, before being sold in the early 1700s.

During the “Killing Times” some Covenanters who were captured by troops were sent to prison, tried and then banished to the Americas. A small number of those banished returned to Scotland after the persecution ended and the acceptance of Scottish Presbyterianism with the accession of King William II of Scotland in 1688. The remarkable stories of those who were banished only to return to south west Scotland include Gilbert Milroy (Kirkcowan), Robert McLellan (Borgue) and John Campbell (Barr).

COVENANTERS – A SHORT SUMMARY

The Covenanters were those who confirmed their opposition to the interference by the Stuart Kings in the affairs of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland by signing a National Covenant in 1638. In the early years it was a popular cause but after 40 years support had waned. Reduced to a strong hold of radicals based in south west Scotland they issued a declaration in 1680 effectively waging war on the Stuart King. The King responded by sending troops to the area with the intention of removing the small number of trouble makers. The troops were authorised to carry out field executions of those caught in arms or those who refused to swear loyalty to the King and renounce the Covenant. This led to many injustices as rural inhabitants from the Presbyterian community were executed and although it took place over a relatively short period in the mid-1680s the severe treatment was bitterly resented. This period has since come to dominate the history of the Covenanters and is known as the “Killing Times” and those who were executed where later celebrated as martyrs to the cause.

JOHN CAMPBELL

John Campbell was banished to America and returned to Barr. Much that is known about him is recorded on his headstone in Barr graveyard although the dates of the banishment and return may be inaccurate.

The headstone is difficult to decipher but appears to read:

HERE LYS

THE CORPS OF JOHN

CAMPBELL  WHO  UAS  BAN

ISHED  FROM  WALUOOD TO

AMERICA  FOR  CHRISTS  CAUSE

IN83 BUT BY PROVIDENCE HE RETU

RND IN 85 & DYED  AUGUST  1721

AGED 72    BE FAITHFULL UNTO

DEATH & THOU SHALT HAVE A

CROWN OF LIFE / ALSO MARY &

JAMES CAMPBELL’S CHILDREN

In the Borgue area over 800 fields have been mapped, the names gathered and analysed by volunteers uncover the story of agriculture in the area and can be found at: 

www.borgue.org/borguemap.

Much of the field name evidence has been collected from discussions with landowners and farm workers but occasionally old farm maps have helped uncover the history of agricultural change.

Fields enclosed by drystone dykes, hedges or post and wire fences are a familiar part of our countryside and field names reveal many aspects including owners, wildlife, uses and notable features. They are an integral part of the modern agricultural landscape and are a relatively recent phenomenon on land that has been farmed for thousands of years.

300 years ago the landscape was scattered with small fermtouns, usually collections of three of four dwellings, where the inhabitants farmed the surrounding open countryside. Close to the fermtoun strips of land were cultivated while cattle and sheep were herded to prevent them straying too far or eating the crops. By the 1750s the way the land was farmed began to change as landowners saw the benefits of removing tenants of fermtouns and replacing them with a single leasehold tenant with a new farmstead consisting of a farmhouse, barns and stables. The landowner usually enclosed the farm with a boundary dyke but the new tenant was expected to subdivide the land into fields.

Doon Yeard, Doonyard and The Motte

Maps help us see how fields and names have evolved and we are fortunate to have been given access to old maps of Boreland of Borgue farm that have survived from 1780 and 1819.

Roy’s Military Map from the 1750s (NLS wbesite) shows Borland as a fermtoun, open cultivated land is hatched and land nearby is beginning to be enclosed with early drystone dykes shown as red lines.

Survey of Boarland of Borgue 1780 shows the land enclosed, subdivided and every field named. The field marked as Doon Yeard refers to the hill-name, Doon of Boreland and includes the historic feature annotated moat.

Plan of the farm of Boreland in the parish of Borgue 1819 shows Doon Yeard has been subdivided into field numbers 7 East Doonyard and 8 West Doonyard, with the historic feature annotated Camp.

Doon is very common in Galloway place-names: in Borgue parish alone there are no less than seven names with ‘Doon’. The word is derived from Gaelic dùn the meaning of which is normally given as ‘a fort’ and may have been used by Gaelic speakers to refer to the neighbouring hillfort. It appears to have been picked up and used by Scots speakers to refer to the medieval motte, marked as moat 1780 and camp 1819. Scots yeard, like English ‘yard’, is from Old English ġeard, and referred primarily to a piece of land around or adjacent to a house, but its use widened, partly falling together with yird ‘earth’, to apply to larger pieces of enclosed ground, not necessarily close to the farmhouse. By 1819 yeard has been altered to yard.

By the 1850s the two fields East Doonyard and West Doonyard were reunited and this probably reflects the ability to cultivate larger areas with improved ploughs and horses.

Land Utilisation Survey 1931 – 1935 (NLS website) was surveyed by local school children and shows that the land around the Mote was arable (brown) with other parts of the farm meadow and permanent grass (green).

The Borgue Field Name project has successfully combined traditional survey and research techniques with modern media to help tell the story of their place and create resources for future generations to use.

Over 50 farmers, landowners and farm workers were questioned and were keen to find out more about the names of fields.  More than 800 fields have been mapped and, because some fields have had several name changes, nearly 1,000 names have been recorded. We were fortunate to have two local place name and linguistic experts who could analyse the information and the information is now accessible through an interactive map on the Borgue website; https://www.borgue.org/borguemap/

The countryside we see today is largely the result of agricultural improvements that started in the 1700s and so the fields and their names where formed about the time Scots or English was spoken. However, languages spoken at an earlier time have often loaned words used in field names. The most common loan words are from Gaelic and they often refer to topographical descriptions.

DRUM

Drum meaning ridge is very common in Galloway place names and is derived from Gaelic druim meaning the back of an animal. In field names it was probably adopted by Scots speakers to identify long rounded landforms common in the Borgue landscape. These smooth elongated mounds are evidence of deposits laid down during an ice age when the land was plastered with a layer of glacially transported debris in the form of boulder clay, gravel and sand.

There are several fields simply named Drum and others that incorporate the word drum including:

The Southern Uplands are mostly made up of a brittle grey sandstone that has been eroded away to make rounded hill tops. The stone can be seen exposed in river beds, on hill top cairns and drystone dykes.

In contrast to the amazingly diverse geology found in the Ballantrae complex the hills to the south of the Stinchar Valley are made up of tough sedimentary rock formed about 440 million years ago. Fine particles settled on the bottom of a deep ocean in thin layers that were sometimes covered by thick layers of sediment deposited by underwater avalanches triggered by earthquakes. The ocean closed as two continents collided, uniting lands that we now call Scotland and England. As the ocean floor was forced under the Scottish continent some of it was scraped off, folded and stacked vertically together to form the Southern Uplands.

A weird type of animal life called graptolites lived in the ocean. When they died, they sank down to the layers of sludgy mud and were preserved as fossils that look like ancient writing scratched into the rock. The graptolites evolved into different shapes and geologists studying the rocks noticed that different fossils could be used to identify different periods of geological time.

Over 100 years ago Charles Lapworth spent many years studying graptolite fossils and devised a theory that explained how the Southern Uplands were created. Although his ideas took time to be accepted his conclusions about the order of events that formed the rocks are still undisputed.

Dinvin Motte, near Pinmore and the Stinchar Valley, is a distinctive hill with a flat-topped conical mound at the centre surrounded by a series of defensive ditches and banks that identifies it as a medieval moated homestead.

Very little is known about Dinvin Motte and it may have served many different purposes but was probably built by powerful Anglo-Norman noble who had been granted the land by a Scottish King. On the mound would have been a timber castle surrounded by a tall palisade with a gated entrance. It was a place that could be defended from attack in the 12th century. The structure is in a commanding location and would have been a powerhouse from which local communities were controlled as well as being a display of wealth and status.  The earthwork is impressively well preserved and from the top there are extensive views of the Ayrshire coast, Arran, Girvan, and Byne Hill.

For many years the scale of the defences led scholars to believe that the site was of much earlier date. This analysis was reinforced by the place name Dinvin, with the Gaelic element Dùn identifying it as an ancient fort. The second element of the place name may refer to the mythological Irish hunter and warrior Fionn mac Cuthmail or Finn MacCool and his clan. His exploits were legendary amongst the Gaelic-speaking peoples of Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man and many landmarks are named after him and places where legends about him are located. Dinvin may have been the focus of a local tale where Finn MacCool played a central character.

In a less exciting interpretation Dinvin may simply be White Fort, derived from the Gaelic Dùn Fionn.

PLACE in the Biosphere is taking a closer look at place names in the Stinchar Valley to discover the possible meanings and what they tell us about people in the past - see further analysis here; 

https://www.gsabiosphere.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Stinchar-Valley-Place-Names-V2.pdf

The name of the village of Barr in the Stinchar Valley is likely to be derived from the Gaelic bàrr  meaning ‘a top of anything’ and in place-names in Galloway and Carrick is usually applied to relatively low hills. It is one of the most common topographical place-name elements in south-west Scotland with at least 250 places in Galloway and Carrick incorporating the word. Although now applied to the village it would presumably have originated as a single place-name Am Bàrr, ‘the top’, applied to some local hill.

In this case the low hill named is probably lies between at the confluence of the River Stinchar and the Water of Gregg. This hill had the farms of Nether Barr and Upper Barr on its north facing slope and appears to have been known at one time as Barrhill. A 1696 description of the Stinchar Valley states that there are “pleasant haughs [level ground adjacent to rivers] upon one side or the other till you come to Barrehill upon the southwest of which stands the Kirk of Barre …. which is a new erection for the convenience of the old parish of Daillie and Girvan and dwellers of the remote corners on the borders of Galloway”. The newly formed parish was named Barr and had a church constructed in 1653 using materials reclaimed from the old chapel at Kirkdominae.

Dynamic Ballantrae Beach

Ballantrae shingle beach creates a bar that is the final hurdle for the River Stinchar on its journey to the sea. It is designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest for its shingle habitat but is also an outstanding example of the physical processes of a dynamic beach demonstrating active marine erosion, transportation and deposition. The river almost reaches the sea but is then held back by the shingle bank and is forced to flow south for 500 metres. The frustrated river eventually breaks through the shingle bank near the southern end of the bay however, over the last 120 years the river has breached the bank at other locations and there may be a cyclical pattern to the shifting shingle. The prevailing winds are from the southwest but it is believed that the material that makes up the bank is brought from the north and consists of small pebbles, mostly under 10cm in diameter. Although initially appearing to be made up of grey pebbles a closer look reveals of an extraordinarily diversity of rock types.

The parent rock of many pebbles can be found locally and range from the mottled greens of serpentinite, red chert, grey basalt and speckled porphyry. Other pebbles have been transported by glaciers and rivers from locations to the north and west of Ballantrae. Examples include the distinctive blue microgranite from Ailsa Craig and granite pebbles that have come from much further afield.