List of Ayrshire place-names beginning with 'F'
Fair Ground
Auchinleck (AUK)
Classification: Other
Grid reference: NS548221
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 155m
Elements: SSE fair ground
Description:
'A piece of ground where a fair or mart is held'. According to the Ordnance Survey Name Books in 1855-57: ‘There is an annual fair held here on the last Tuesday of August for the Sale of Horse Hound cattle etc.’ (OS1/3/3/53).
Fair Ground
Old Cumnock (OCU)
Classification: Other
Grid reference: NS571195
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 139m
Elements: SSE fair ground
Description:
'A piece of ground where a fair or mart is held'.
‘This Fair Ground is about ¼ of a mile S E [South East] of Cumnock on the Turnpike road to New Cumnock the fair is held on the Thursday after Candlemas for the Sale of Horses and Horned cattle’ (OS1/3/52/42).
Farden
New Cumnock (NCU)
Classification: Settlement
Grid reference: NS582117
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 219m
Elements: G fàrdan or Sc farding
Description:
'A farthingland' i.e. land formerly estimated at a farthing; a quarter of a pennyland. Given that it forms a group with Blackfarding (Scots) and Fardenreoch (Gaelic) it is not certain whether Farden was coined by Scots- or Gaelic-speakers. See also FARDEN, Farding – NEW CUMNOCK HISTORY.
Fardenreoch
New Cumnock (NCU)
Classification: Settlement
Grid reference: NS562139
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 263m
Elements: G fàrdan + G riabhach
Description:
'Variegated or striped farthingland'? There is no doubt about the first element, namely Gaelic fàrdan ‘land formerly estimated at a farthing’, i.e. a quarter of a pennyland, while the second (specific) element is probably G riabhach (OG ríabach) 'striped, variegated'. In its first appearance in the record, fàrdan is given its Latin equivalent, namely quadrantatam terre (quadrantatam terre de Rewach 1384 x 1427 RMS ii no. 90).
It forms a group of three farthinglands, namely Blackfarding, Fardenreoch and Farden, one Scots, one Gaelic and one either Scots or Gaelic.
Fardenreoch Plantation
New Cumnock (NCU)
Classification: Vegetation
Grid reference: NS562141
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 271m
Elements: en Fardenreoch + SSE plantation
Fauldhead
Ochiltree (OCH)
Classification: Settlement
Grid reference: NS461138
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 250m
Elements: Sc fauld + Sc heid
Description:
‘farm at the head of an enclosure’. Scots fauld means ‘An enclosure for cattle, sheep, or other domestic animals’. By the 1950s this farm, along with several others, had been abandoned and subsumed into the farm of Ravenscroft.
Faulds Moss
New Cumnock (NCU)
Classification: Vegetation
Grid reference: NS594120
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 222m
Elements: Sc fauld + Sc moss
Description:
'A bog or moss associated with outfields'. For good photographs of the moss in summer and winter, see Faulds Moss – NEW CUMNOCK HISTORY.
It is described in the OS Name Book as: 'A small moss on Lanemark farm, near Lanemark Moss, from which it is separated by the road from New Cumnock to Dalmellington' (OS1/3/49/124).
Fernbank
New Cumnock (NCU)
Classification: Settlement
Grid reference: NS600132
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 197m
Elements: SSE fern + SSE bank
Description:
‘A bank or small slope characterised by ferns’. It is the name of a house built in the 20th century beside Woodend, now Woodend Cottage, which see for more details.
Findlayston
Ochiltree (OCH)
Classification: Settlement
Grid reference: NS501204
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 138m
Elements: pn Finlay + Sc toun
Description:
‘A farm associated with a man called Fin(d)lay’. This could be either a man’s first name or a surname. The surname Findlay appears to have been fairly common in Ayrshire in 1881 (see FaNBI).
RN
Fingland Lane
Kirkconnel (KCL), New Cumnock (NCU)
Classification: Water
Grid reference: NS755177
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 340m
Elements: en Fingland + Sc lane
Description:
A lane or burn which rises in the north-east corner of the parish then flows eastwards past the farm of Fingland, Kirkconnel parish (KCL) DMF.
Flush (Ruin)
New Cumnock (NCU)
Classification: Settlement
Grid reference: NS523084
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 313m
Elements: Sc flush
Description:
Sc flush is ‘a piece of boggy ground, especially one where water frequently lies on the surface, a swampy place etc.’ (SND). This well describes its position beside boggy ground at the source of the Knockenlee Burn. While marked as a ruin on the OS map of the 1850s, there were two families living there in 1851 (Census cited Flush – NEW CUMNOCK HISTORY).
Fordmouth
New Cumnock (NCU)
Classification: Settlement
Grid reference: NS594135
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 202m
Elements: Sc fuird + Sc mooth, mouth
Description:
‘The mouth of or entrance to a ford’, the ford in question being across the River Nith near where the later Nith Bridge was built. There has been confusion on some maps between this place and Waterside NCU, 2km downstream to the east.
It appears to have had the alternative name of Boig Rig in the early 18th century. For more discussion, including a good photo of the river and the farm, see FORDMOUTH – NEW CUMNOCK HISTORY.
Fore Rogerton
Auchinleck (AUK)
Classification: Settlement
Grid reference: NS562219
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 175m
Elements: Sc fore + en Rogerton
Description:
In terms of the surrounding names that are formed in the same way, Rogerton, clearly originally Rogerstoun, is likely to derive from the family name of a medieval owner (cf Craigston, Keithston, etc.), but it is possible that in this case it is the name of an individual. Although the document refers to Cumnock, it is tempting to think about the Roger son of Finlay who is mentioned in a royal grant of 1313: ‘to Roger son of Finlay (Fynlai), whose stud (equicinium) had been stolen by John de Seton (Setona) and his son and brother, all the said John’s lands in Cumnock’ (omnes terras que fuerunt prefati Johannis infra tenementum de Comnok’). RRS v no. 38 (1313)
According to The Correspondence, App. 1 (p. 219), ‘Rogerton East or Fore (L[arge farm) which included Barbiston was let to William Foster and to John Foster in 1787 and 1791 … Its houses built in 1792, it was rented to George Alexander in1796.’
Foredib Syke
Auchinleck (AUK)
Classification: Water
Grid reference: NS697179
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 371m
Elements: en Foredib or en Foredibban + Sc syke or SSE syke
Description:
It seems likely that this is a shortened form of an earlier ‘*Foredibban Syke’, referring to the hills named East and West Foredibban Hill (q.v.); perhaps influenced by a reanalysis of the name as including the Scots word dib (also dub), ‘A pool, esp. one of muddy or stagnant water; a pond’.
Forerig
New Cumnock (NCU)
Classification: Settlement
Grid reference: NS533097
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 298m
Elements: SSE fore + en Rig
Description:
‘Lying at the front of Rig’, Rig being the lands taking their name from Rig Hill. It contrasts with Back-Rigg. This does not appear on OS maps but is mentioned in 1851 (see Rig Hill, Rig, Rigend – NEW CUMNOCK HISTORY).
Fountainhead
New Cumnock (NCU)
Classification: Other
Grid reference: NS657104
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 541m
Elements: SSE fountain + SSE head
Description:
It was presumably the source of a pipe taking water to New Cumnock. It lies right beside a disused Antimony Mine.
Fox Park
Dalmellington (DAL)
Classification: Field
Grid reference: NS496081
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 391m
Elements: SSE fox + SSE park
Front Park
Auchinleck (AUK)
Classification: Field
Grid reference: NS509229
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 126m
Elements: SSE front + SSE park
Description:
Named only on the 6 inch 1st edn, this is the field in front of Auchinleck House.