List of Ayrshire place-names beginning with 'T'
Taiglim
Old Cumnock (OCU)
Classification: Settlement
Grid reference: NS580164
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 206m
Elements: Sc taigle + Sc them or Sc him
Description:
'Taigle him or them'; Sc taigle is a verb meaning 'hinder, harass him or them; keep him or them back'. This is a so-called verbal place-name, a relatively common name-type in lowland Scotland which are at the same time humorous and pejoritive. There is another settlement of this name in the neighbouring parish of Ochiltree (OCH), spelled Teiglum, as well as a Teiglum Burn in Lesmahagow parish LAN, a tributary of the River Nethan, which it joins at NS810424. The settlement from which the Lesmahagow burn takes its name has not survived. Many such settlements have not survived, chiefly because they originally referred to relatively small and non-productive places.
Taiglim Belt
Old Cumnock (OCU)
Classification: Vegetation
Grid reference: NS581164
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 209m
Elements: en Taiglim + SSE belt
Taiglum
Ochiltree (OCH), Stair (STA)
Classification: Settlement
Grid reference: NS446185
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 107m
Elements: Sc taigle + Sc him or Sc them
Description:
'Taigle him or them'; Sc taigle is a verb meaning 'hinder, harass' so the whole name is 'hinder or harass him or them; keep him or them back'. This is a so-called verbal place-name, a relatively common name-type in lowland Scotland which are at the same time humorous and pejoritive. There is another settlement of this name in the neighbouring parish of Old Cumnock, spelled Teiglim, as well as a Teiglum Burn in Lesmahagow parish LAN, a tributary of the River Nethan, which it joins at NS810424. The settlement from which the Lesmahagow burn takes its name has not survived. Many such settlements have not survived, chiefly because they originally referred to relatively small and non-productive places.
Taiglum Burn
Ochiltree (OCH), Ochiltree (OCH), Stair (STA)
Classification: Water
Grid reference: NS442180
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 99m
Elements: en Taiglum + SSE burn
Description:
Judging from Blaeu’s map, this would appear to have risen in Loch of Scheel, which must have been at least partly drained by the time of the OS 6 inch 1st edn.
Taiglum Burn Bridge
Ochiltree (OCH)
Classification: Other
Grid reference: NS447184
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 104m
Elements: en Taiglum Burn + SSE bridge
Description:
A road bridge spanning Taiglum Burn, from which it takes its name.
Taiglum T.P.
Ochiltree (OCH), Stair (STA)
Classification: Settlement
Grid reference: NS445187
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 109m
Elements: en Taiglum + SSE toll house
Tailor's Syke
Auchinleck (AUK)
Classification: Water
Grid reference: NS686196
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 298m
Elements: SSE tailor or pn Tailor + SSE syke
Description:
Difficult to know if this is named from someone with the job of being a tailor, or from the surname. The spelling might make the common noun more likely, as Taylor is the more usual spelling for the surname.
Tappet Hill
New Cumnock (NCU)
Classification: Relief
Grid reference: NS533129
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 297m
Elements: Sc tappett + Sc hill
Description:
‘High-topped hill’. It lay on the lands Craigman, hence the Roy map’s Tappit Hill of Craigman (1752 x 1755). The farm-steading of Craigman has now been obliterated by open-cast mining. Tappit Hill has survived, just, but it is ‘a deeply depressing landscape now. There is a works road that cuts across the summit’ (Robert Guthrie pers. comm.).
Tappethill Moss
New Cumnock (NCU)
Classification: Vegetation
Grid reference: NS529130
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 301m
Elements: en Tappet Hill + Sc moss
Tarbeg
Ochiltree (OCH)
Classification: Settlement
Grid reference: NS486206
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 157m
Elements: G tòrr + G beag
Description:
The NGR is that of High Tarbeg, since it appears on various maps at least as late as OS 1 inch 7th Series (1955) simply as Tarbeg. There was over time a proliferation of places named Tarbeg in the vicinity, though it is not clear how many of these were independent farms. Blaeu (Kyle) shows a threefold division of the lands, namely east, middle and west (E. Torbeg, M. Torbeg and W. Torbeg), with M or M Torbeg probably later Tarbeg then High Tarbeg. Laigh Tarbeg (q.v.) appears perhaps as early as Roy, and its existence is perhaps implied by Blaeu’s M Tarbeg (= Meikle Tarbeg, implying there was another one).
The name seems straightforward, but there is nothing in the topography which resembles a ‘small conical hill’, the usual meaning of G tòrr. Perhaps there had been such a feature here previously which was then ploughed out or levelled? See e.g. the entry for Mote Toll which records the levelling of what must have been a similar sort of hill.
RN
Tarelgin
Ochiltree (OCH)
Classification: Settlement
Grid reference: NS463199
Certainty: 2
Altitude: 149m
Elements: Br trev + Br ir + Br helig
Description:
‘Farm of the willow; willow farm’. The final element of the name is to be explained as having a suffix present in Welsh called a singulative, i.e. Welsh helyg means ‘willows’, helygen means ‘a willow-tree’. NBr *helig + the NBr definite article ïr + singulative suffix -en ‘a willow-tree’. The Welsh equivalent would be tre’r helygen (Breeze 2002, 110). Watson’s suggestion that it derives from the NBr equivalent of Welsh tref yr graig ‘farm of the rock’ (1926, 360) can safely be rejected.
[Breeze, Andrew, 2002, `Brittonic place-names from south-west Scotland, Part 3: Vindogara, Elvan Water, ‘Mondedamdereg’ [sic, for ‘Monedamdereg’], Troquhain and Tarelgin’, Transactions of the Dumfriesshire and Galloway Natural History and Antiquarian Society 76, 107-12.]
RN
Tarelgin Plantation
Ochiltree (OCH)
Classification: Vegetation
Grid reference: NS464195
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 133m
Elements: en Tarelgin + SSE plantation
Description:
A plantation of trees south of Tarelgin, no longer extant.
Taringzean Castle
Old Cumnock (OCU)
Classification: Antiquity
Grid reference: NS555204
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 117m
Elements: Br trev + Br ir + Br *rin + SSE castle
Description:
The name as it currently stands consists of an existing name Taringzean + the SSE element castle, but the existing name is being analysed here, for simplicity.
Some of the early forms strongly suggest that this name is one of several in the region to contain the Northern Brittonic word trev 'farm, settlement', here followed by the NBr definite article (ir or er, elided into the first element), and a specific which is more difficult to be certain of. Watson's suggestion (1926, 360) that it was the equivalent of Welsh ffynnon 'source, spring' cannot work, and in any case is unsuited to the location. James (2014, 28: [James, Alan G., 2014, ‘Cumbric trev in Kyle, Carrick, Galloway and Dumfriesshire’, Transactions of the Dumfriesshire and Galloway Natural History and Antiquarian Society 88, 21-42.] ) briefly discusses this name, and also rightly rejects the saint's name Ringan, a later medieval Scots form of the name Ninian, despite the similarity of that name as it appear in other place-names.
We are best looking to Welsh for possible explanations for this element. Perhaps the strongest possiblity, adopted in the analysis here, is that it contains the plural of a NBr word *rin (as *rinion), meaning primarily 'point, tip, spur', but perhaps 'headland, promotory'. The Welsh word rhyn 'stiff, rigid', does not have the first meaning ('point, tip, spur'), but this is the primary meaning of its Irish cognate rind (https://dil.ie/35318 ), and so it may be that this meaning was present in Northern Brittonic. Equally, the Welsh word does not attain the meaning 'cape, headland' until the 17th century, but it is present in the word penrhyn, which is attested much earlier and has this meaning. All in all, an analysis of Traringzean as *trev ir rinion "farm of the points or headlands" seems a strong possibility.
It is worth noting the Welsh word rhynion 'groats, hulled oats, coarse (oat)meal'; it is less clear why one woud have a farm named after the processed version of a crop in this way, though it should remain a possibility.
This element does appear to be present in a number of Welsh place-names, though none with conclusive analysis to date. The 12th-century Book of Llandaf contains early medieval property records, one of which records a boundary feature Pullou Rinion; Jon Coe was uncertain how to interpret this word in his analysis of these palce-names (Jonathon Coe 2001, The Place-Names of the Book of Llandaf, unpub. PhD thesis, University of Aberystwyth, p. 724-5), though he notes the word rhynion 'hulled oats', as well as the word rhyn. It also appears to have been present in the names Gwaen-rhynion on Anglesey (SH320925) and a lost Dole yr Rhynion near Llanidloes (SN894855) (Information from http://www.e-gymraeg.co.uk/enwaulleoedd/amr/cronfa.aspx, with thanks to Dr David Parsons). Which of the options above apply here is uncertain.
/təˈrɪŋən/ or /ˈtrɪŋən/
RN
Taringzean Holm
Old Cumnock (OCU)
Classification: Field
Grid reference: NS553206
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 101m
Elements: en Taringzean + Sc holm
Taringzean Wood
Old Cumnock (OCU)
Classification: Vegetation
Grid reference: NS554202
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 129m
Elements: en Taringzean + SSE wood
Description:
A strip of woodland which takes its name from nearly Taringzean Castle. It has been cut through by the Auchinleck by-pass.
Tarrioch
Auchinleck (AUK)
Classification: Settlement
Grid reference: NS639269
Certainty: 2
Altitude: 189m
Elements: G tòrr + G riabhach
Description:
Gaelic name would be *(An) Tòrr Riabhach
The settlements, in bends in the River Ayr (for which see Nether Tarrioch and Upper Tarrioch) have been named from some landscape feature corresponding to the Gaelic name. The best candidate for this is the landscape feature now known as Witch Knowe: it suits the term tòrr, and lies in the midst of the holms possessing the series of names formed from Tarrioch, at NS638270. Tòrr was in use locally, and is known to be rendered in Scots orthography as tar(r), cf. Tarbolton.
The early forms and the references to ‘the Twa Tirrochis’ undoubtedly refer to Upper and Nether Tarrioch (q.v.), already noted on Blaeu as O[ver] Terrioch and N[ether] Terrioch. Some of the forms of the name might better suit an analysis as *tìr riabhach, ‘speckled / brindled land’ ,which might also fit the stretch of Airds Moss here, but it would then be hard to explain so many forms in Torr- and Tarr-. It may be that some generic substitution or variation was in operation.
Tarrioch Braes
Auchinleck (AUK)
Classification: Relief
Grid reference: NS691200
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 381m
Elements: en Tarrioch + SSE brae
Description:
Note these are at a very considerable distance from the lands of Tarrioch (q.v.), and seem unlikely to be connected. The first element could still be a transferred name (though it is hard to see the motivation), or it could be a second example of the same name.
RN
Tarrioch Burn
Auchinleck (AUK), Muirkirk (MUK), Sorn (SRN)
Classification: Water
Grid reference: NS624269
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 187m
Elements: en Tarrioch + Sc burn
Description:
This forms the parish boundary between Auchinleck and Sorn, as well as the western boundary of the lands of Tarrioch.
Templand Mains
Auchinleck (AUK)
Classification: Settlement
Grid reference: NS573206
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 126m
Elements: Sc temple + Sc land + Sc mains
Description:
Land owned by the Knights Hospitallers of St John, formerly by the Templars. There are four place-names in the parish containing the element temple, and more research is required to work out the relationship between them. The element mains, which first appears in the 19th century, was probably added to distinguish it from Templand, now Templandshaw, about 4.5km to the north-east.
Templand Wood
Auchinleck (AUK)
Classification: Vegetation
Grid reference: NS568206
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 134m
Elements: en Templand + SSE wood
Templandshaw
Auchinleck (AUK)
Classification: Settlement
Grid reference: NS596249
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 197m
Elements: en Templand + Sc shaw
Description:
Land owned by the Knights Hospitallers of St John, formerly by the Templars. There are three place-names in the parish containing the element temple, and more research is required to work out the relationship between them. Sc shaw 'a (small) wood' was probably added to distinguish this Templand from Templand Mains some 4.5km to the south-west. That there was a shaw here as early as around 1600 is indicated by the name Scha boig ('shaw bog') immediately to the north of Temple land on Bleau's map of Kyle (based on Pont's survey of the 1590s).
The assumption made here is that the two Templands refer to one land-holding in two parts.
Templandshaw Loch
Auchinleck (AUK), Sorn (SRN)
Classification: Water
Grid reference: NS590246
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 185m
Elements: en Templandshaw + SSE loch
Temple
Auchinleck (AUK)
Classification: Settlement
Grid reference: NS539213
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 117m
Elements: Sc temple
Description:
Land owned by the Knights Hospitallers of St John, formerly by the Templars. There are four place-names in the parish with temple, and the forms of each are still to be assigned: Templand Mains, Temple and Templeton.
Templeton
Auchinleck (AUK)
Classification: Settlement
Grid reference: NS544224
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 150m
Elements: en Templeton or pn Templeton
Description:
This appears to be a relatively modern set of buildings on its appearance in the OS 6 inch 1st edn. At that point it was described in the OSNB as ‘Three dwellinghouses on the Turnpike Road between Auchinleck and Mauchline’. The name was then extended to include other houses on the road, cf. Templeton Place. It has more recently given its name to the Templeton Roundabout.
While it is possible that some connection to the Templars lies under the name, as at Temple and Templand, it seems more likely that the houses were named for one of the places called Templeton elsewhere in Scotland, or potentially from someone’s surname: note for instance, James Templeton, carpet manufacturer of Ayr, was owner of a number of local properties in the 19th century (e.g. The Rigg q.v.). The Boswells had numerous Templeton tenants and neighbours (see The Correspondence, index).
It is one of four place-names in the parish with the element temple, and the relationship between them has still to be researched. These are: Templand Mains, Templandshaw, Temple and Templeton.
Templeton Place
Auchinleck (AUK)
Classification: Settlement
Grid reference: NS544224
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 154m
Elements: en Templeton + SSE place
Description:
The earlier name applied to ‘A row of Cottages … adjoining Templeton’, according to the OSNB. The whole row of houses including Templeton (q.v.) seems to have taken on the name ‘Templeton Place’ by the time of the OS 6 inch 2nd edition, though the name is written against this site.
RN
The Avenue
Auchinleck (AUK)
Classification: Other
Grid reference: NS542216
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 138m
Elements: SSE the + SSE avenue
Description:
Situated on Dumfries House Estate, the OS Name Book describes this as: 'An occupation road so called extending from Pennyland to Barony Road' (OS1/3/3/77). It is shown but not named on neither the OS 6 inch 1st edn map nor the OS 25 inch 1st edn map.
The Avenue
Old Cumnock (OCU)
Classification: Other
Grid reference: NS553204
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 110m
Elements: SSE the + SSE avenue
Description:
The OS Name Book records that: 'The name applies to a carriage drive from Bridgend to Dumfries House' (OS1/3/52/5). The third definition in the OED states that an avenue is 'The chief approach to a country-house, usually bordered by trees; hence, any broad roadway bordered or marked by trees or other objects at regular intervals. Sometimes used of the trees alone, with tacit disregard of the road they overshadow.'
According to Simpson & Brown (2008, 108), 'In spite of its name "The Avenue" was tree-lined for only part of its length, where it passed through Harperbank Plantation and Shaw Wood.'
The Bank
Auchinleck (AUK)
Classification: Relief
Grid reference: NS650194
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 231m
Elements: SSE the + SSE bank
Description:
This refers to high ground above the Glenmuir Water near Dalblair. It may possibly have acquired its name on a map owing to having acquired a plantation of trees at the time of the OS 6 inch 2nd edn.
The Bungalow
Auchinleck (AUK)
Classification: Settlement
Grid reference: NS561220
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 178m
Elements: SSE the + SSE bungalow
The Cottage
Old Cumnock (OCU)
Classification: Settlement
Grid reference: NS541200
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 120m
Elements: SSE the + SSE cottage
The Drum
Auchinleck (AUK)
Classification: Relief
Grid reference: NS635218
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 289m
Elements: SSE the + Sc drum
Description:
The word drum in Scots can mean ‘A long narrow ridge or knoll, “applied to little hills, which rise as backs or ridges above the level of the adjacent ground”’ (see SND drum 3 https://dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/drum_n3), which applies well to this feature. The Scots word drum derives from Gaelic druim, with much the same meaning, but here it is most likely the Scots word being employed.
RN
The Ds
Old Cumnock (OCU)
Classification: Vegetation
Grid reference: NS548204
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 117m
Elements: SSE the + SSE D
Description:
Lying to the south of The Avenue and west of Rose Burn on Dumfries House Estate, there are only a few trees left of this plantation, which took the form of an elliptical shape divided into two halves. The OS Name Book explains that the name was given according to this original shape: 'Two small clumps of forest trees shaped like letter D and named accordingly' (OS1/3/52/5). The first of the three authorities for the entry gives the spelling The D's; there is no contradictory spelling beside the names of the other two authorities. The name appears on maps as late as the 1:10000 map of 1991.
The Ds lay on what is shown as a west-east alignment from the Pennyfadeoch Ds to the site of Taringzean Castle on Roy's mid-eighteenth-century map (Simpson & Brown 2008, 31). The Ds are not shown on this map, however. The Pennyfadeoch Ds are coloured red but are not named by Roy.
The Dungeon
New Cumnock (NCU)
Classification: Relief
Grid reference: NS600096
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 290m
Elements: SSE the + SSE dungeon
Description:
It is most likely that this name derives from ‘dungeon’ in the transferred sense of a deep, dark place. It is described in the OS Name Book as: ‘A Glen on Connel Burn About 1/4 of a mile South of Laglaff’ (OS1/3/49/162).
The Green
Old Cumnock (OCU)
Classification: Field
Grid reference: NS567200
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 111m
Elements: SSE the + SSE green
The Knipe
New Cumnock (NCU)
Classification: Relief
Grid reference: NS653108
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 519m
Elements: Sc the + Sc knipe or Sc knap or Sc kneep
Description:
Sc *knipe appears to be a very localised word for a rounded hillock of some sort. It is written with an asterisk in front because it is not found in any dictionary. It occurs only in the New Cumnock area and in a few parishes in northern Dumfriesshire. Robert Guthrie has a very detailed discussion of this element with a useful distribution map of its twelve or so occurrences (the Knipe, Knipe hill – NEW CUMNOCK HISTORY). There are two places in Cumbria (Westmorland) in North-West England called Knipe, namely the farms of High and Low Knipe and Knipe Tarn, which contain the Old Norse gnipa ‘jutting crag, rocky summit’ (Whaley A Dictionary of Lake-District Place-Names, 2006, 200). It is quite possible that this was borrowed into the Scots of south-west Scotland. If so, then the meaning has been unrounded somewhat, losing its craggy, jagged edges.
Alternatively it may be a local dialect form of Sc knap ‘(3) a small hill, hillock, knoll, mound, a rise in the ground’, recorded in eastern Scotland from Fife to Orkney (SND).
A third possibility is that is derives from Sc kneep or knipe meaning simply ‘a lump’ (SND). However, if this is the case, it is difficult to explain why it is not more widespread as a place-name element throughout Scotland.
As the OS Name Book states, The Knipe is a ridge of elevated moorland, bounding the parish of New Cumnock on the east (OS1/3/49/131). There are good pictures of it on the above-mentioned website. There Guthrie points out that ‘in numerous other OS Name Book entries pertaining to burns rising in the hill it is referred to as the Knipe Rig, the Knipe Ridge or the Knipes, where the latter form is the one commonly used in the parish today’. This could mean that the eponymous knipes are the small, rounded hills on the long ridge.
The Lawn
Auchinleck (AUK)
Classification: Field
Grid reference: NS505230
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 125m
Elements: SSE the + SSE lawn
Description:
The feature in question stretches to the west of Auchinleck House.
The Linn
New Cumnock (NCU)
Classification: Settlement
Grid reference: NS549136
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 272m
Elements: SSE the + en Linn (Burn)
Description:
This house takes its name from the linn (‘waterfall’) which has given its name to the Linn Burn (NS555133).
It is described in the OS Name Book simply as: ‘A cottage house on Dalgig farm’ (OS1/3/49/31).
The Maguire Arboretum
Auchinleck (AUK)
Classification: Other, Vegetation
Grid reference: NS532208
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 93m
Elements: SSE the + pn Maguire + SSE arboretum
Description:
Planted in late 2013, this 10-acre arboretum is located in Dumfries House Estate. It was funded by the Maguire Family Trust and officially opened on 2 July 2014. The trust takes its name from the late Brian Maguire and the arboretum's walkways are named after his daughters, Ailsa, Rosemary and Victoria (Dumfries House website).
RN
The Rigg
Auchinleck (AUK)
Classification: Settlement
Grid reference: NS560211
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 153m
Elements: SSE the + Sc rig
Description:
This farm likely predates 1700, and so the name has been assigned to Scots rather than SSE. The definite article appears attached to the farm as early as 1967. The name now attaches to a housing development to the south of Auchinleck in the vicinity of the original farmstead.
The Schoolhouse
Dalmellington (DAL)
Classification: Settlement
Grid reference: NS428104
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 254m
Thirdpart
Auchinleck (AUK)
Classification: Settlement
Grid reference: NS525214
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 104m
Elements: Sc third + Sc pairt
Description:
A third part of a larger, older unit of land. In this case it might even be a third part of the lands of Auchinleck.
The Correspondence, App. 1 (pp. 219-20), notes: ‘Thirdpart - sometimes known as Roadinghead of Thirdpart was let to John Reid in 1782 and 1791. In 1791 it was let for three years for grazing horses and black cattle to David Murdoch who was then in the village and would later rent Dalsalloch West. Its house was occupied by Catherine McFarlane, widow of James Johnson, in 1792 and 1795. It was afterwards let to William Smith in 1795 and 1798.’
There are further details in this place in Ploughing up Our Past: https://farminginthecumnockarea.blogspot.com/search/label/Thirdpart
Thirdpart Mount
Auchinleck (AUK)
Classification: Relief, Vegetation
Grid reference: NS526221
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 141m
Elements: en Thirdpart + SSE mount
Description:
See Mount (q.v.) for a suggestion that this might earlier have been called Mount Hully or Mount James.
Thomarston
Old Cumnock (OCU)
Classification: Settlement
Grid reference: NS589200
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 177m
Elements: pn Thomas + SSE town
Description:
‘A farm owned or tenanted by a man or a family called Thomas’? The r before the s of Thomas is puzzling. However, in the personal name section of The Oxford Names Companion (1998, 610) there is an English form Thomerson ‘son of Thomas’.
Thorter Burn
Auchinleck (AUK)
Classification: Water
Grid reference: NS706203
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 341m
Elements: Sc thorter + Sc burn
Description:
The SND defines the adjective thorter as having the meanings ‘Running across or placed at a right or oblique angle to something else, slanted, asquint, awry.’
Threeshire Hill
Auchinleck (AUK), Crawfordjohn (CRJ), Kirkconnel (KCL)
Classification: Relief
Grid reference: NS745207
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 454m
Elements: SSE three + SSE shire + SSE hill
Description:
This hill lies at the point where the boundaries of the counties of Ayrshire, Lanarkshire and Dumrfriesshire meet. Hence the name.
Threeshire Stone
Auchinleck (AUK), Crawfordjohn (CRJ), Kirkconnel (KCL)
Classification: Other
Grid reference: NS745207
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 454m
Elements: SSE three + SSE shire + SSE stone
Description:
As the OSNB notes: ‘This Stone marks the spot where the Shires of Lanark, Ayr, and Dumfries meet’.
There are a number of other monuments and sites of this sort in Britain, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Shire_Stone
Tobergill
Ochiltree (OCH)
Classification: Settlement
Grid reference: NS425188
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 80m
Elements: G tobar + G geal
Description:
'White, clear or bright well'.
The Gaelic word tobar, here, is unusual in place-names in SW Scotland, where a different word for well, tiobar, descended from OG tiopra, is more common. The latter is seen in the nearby settlement of Chipperlaigin in Stair parish. The second element, geal, has perhaps been influenced by the Scots word gill ‘small stream’.
The OS Name Book makes no mention of a well, describing it simply as: 'A small farm steading consisting of dwelling & outhouses one storey all thatched & in bad repair. Alexander Oswald Esqr. proprietor' (OS1/3/51/2/9).
The settlement of homes on Roy's map is located around here.
Tod Hill
New Cumnock (NCU)
Classification: Relief
Grid reference: NS535139
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 360m
Elements: Sc tod + Sc hill
Description:
‘A hill associated with foxes’.
Tongue Glen
Dalmellington (DAL)
Classification: Relief
Grid reference: NS476080
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 299m
Town's Common
Dalmellington (DAL)
Classification: Vegetation
Grid reference: NS484053
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 227m
Townhead
Auchinleck (AUK)
Classification: Settlement
Grid reference: NS518226
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 129m
Elements: Sc toun + Sc heid
Description:
The name means, essentially, ‘farm end’. According to the Appendix to the Correspondence of James Boswell with James Bruce and Andrew Gibb, p. 214, ‘Townhead which included Burnhouse, Midhouse, Mosspark and Little Whirr, was let to George Paton in 1782 and 1794.’
Townhead
Old Cumnock (OCU)
Classification: Other
Grid reference: NS570201
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 114m
Elements: SSE town + SSE head
Description:
‘Head or top of the town’ (of Cumnock). It is now called Townhead Street.
‘Once known as the High Street, Townhead Street means quite simply “head or top of the town”. In the olden days it was the main centre in Cumnock for cotton weaving – the houses were single-storey, thatched with two main rooms, one of which held the handloom.’ Places – Streets – Cumnock History Group
Trabboch Burn
Ochiltree (OCH), Stair (STA)
Classification: Water
Grid reference: NS460228
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 69m
Elements: en Trabboch + SSE burn
Description:
The burn is named from the settlement of Trabboch, best represented by Trabboch Mains and the ruined Trabboch Castle (dating to the 14th century): all of these in the parish of Stair, and hence not part of this survey. However, the lands of Trabboch were originally part of Ochiltree, before reorganisation in 1891, so it is perhaps worth commenting on this interesting name here.
It is worth noting that Trabboch joins a fair number of other names in the area containing the Brittonic element trev ‘farm settlement’ (in the parish of Ochiltree, this includes Treesmax and Ochiltree itself). The second element of Trabboch is uncertain. A word related to Welsh bedw ‘birch’, but influenced by its Gaelic equivalent beithe/beitheach, has been suggested (James, BLITON, under *bedu; also James 2014, 27). This is partly because the earliest forms, of the 14th century, as they have been edited, show a mixture of endings (Tirbeith, Trabeache, Trebath, Trebach, RMS i, app. 2 333). Given some of the unreliable transcriptions in this source, it is not clear how much weight to put on the ending, as opposed to what comes through in later sources: ER iv: Trebach (1434: p. 555); ER vi: Trebach (1456: p. 175); Trebeach (1456, p. 236, etc.); RMS iii: Tryboch (1527: no. 524); Trabeauch (1533: no.1277; 1537: no. 1697; etc.). Some of these forms would also be consonant with the second element being G beitheach, though we might expect to see more sign of the -th-; for comparison, see the discussion under Beoch, New Cumnock.
We might suggest some other possibilities. These include the NBr equivalent of Welsh bwch ‘buck, he-goat, roebuck’, which was boch in Old Cornish; bocc in Early Gaelic, so perhaps *trev (ïr) boch ‘goat settlement’, ‘buck farm’. The earliest attestation, however, seems to be as Trebach, backed up by some 15th century forms. This suggests a further possibility: *trev (ïr) bach from a cognate of Welsh bach in the sense of ‘nook, angle, bend’. This would perfectly suit the situation of Trabboch in an angle or bend of the Trabboch Burn, and might explain many of the forms as we have them.
Treeshill
Auchinleck (AUK)
Classification: Settlement
Grid reference: NS525228
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 145m
Elements: en Trees + SSE hill
Description:
As is evident from the form on Blaeu, this settlement was originally called Trees. The Appendix to the Correspondence of James Boswell with James Bruce and Andrew Gibb, p. 214, notes: Treeshill , 'Trees new farm' formed from parts of Knowe and Townhead, 1773.’ They further note Mount James as being located near Treeshill (see under Mount for discussion).
While the original name, Trees may have been a perfectly transparent name referring to the presence of trees, the presence in the area of a number of names deriving from NBr trev ‘farm, settlement’, means we cannot rule out a name of this sort underlying it (cf. Treesmax, OCH). There was another Trees in OCU.
Treeshill Mount
Auchinleck (AUK)
Classification: Vegetation
Grid reference: NS526228
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 146m
Elements: en Treeshill + SSE mount
Description:
The OSNB describes this as: ‘A small eminence on which is a circular plantation principally fir trees adjoining Treeshill’. See Mount (q.v.) for discussion of various ‘mount’ names in this vicinity.
Treeshill Plantation
Auchinleck (AUK)
Classification: Vegetation
Grid reference: NS529228
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 132m
Elements: en Treeshill + SSE plantation
Description:
OSNB notes: ‘This name applies to a narrow belt of plantation principally fir commencing about 7 chains West of Treeshill passing through Treeshill Mount in an Easterly direction for about 10 chains Thence in a northerly direction to the Dippol Burn.’
Treesmax
Ochiltree (OCH)
Classification: Settlement
Grid reference: NS460185
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 124m
Elements: Br trev +
Description:
While the first element is clearly Br *trev 'a farm, a settlement', the second part of the name is more difficult, in part because of the very different renditions we have of it, and hence uncertainty about whether the original had –in- or -m- . On the basis of the later development of the name, it is likely that the forms in Treyvinax are transcription errors of some sort for *Treyvmax. The final -x / -cks may well come from a Scots plural -s, common when describing farms with multiple parts to them. So we are on this basis likely to be looking for a NBr name which was originally *trev (ïr) mac or *trev (ïr) mach. There is no word which suits the former, but mach in Welsh is a well-known legal term, denoting a certain type of surety: ‘(enforcing or paying) surety, one who accepts responsibility for the fulfilment of a contract, guarantor for debt’ according to GPC. While this would be an unusual place-name element, it makes sense of the forms we have, and one can imagine a meaning for it, for instance ‘the farm or settlement belonging to someone who acted as a surety’.
Another possibility would be the personal name Maccus, which becomes a name in the 10th century, particularly among the Irish Sea-based Scandinavian communities. It is well attested in 12th century Scotland. The name is preserved in the Berwickshire place-name Longformaccus (for which see “Place-name record 1071: 'Longformacus'." Recovering the Earliest English Language in Scotland: evidence from place-names. Glasgow: University of Glasgow, 2025. Web. 29 July 2025. https://berwickshire-placenames.glasgow.ac.uk/map/aca46ba980351) and also the Roxburghshire place-names Maxwell and Maxpoffle where, as would be the case here, Maccus has been reduced to Max. For a full discussion of this personal name, arguing that it derives ultimately from Gaelic, see David Thornton 1997 (‘Hey, Mac! The name Maccus, tenth to fifteenth centuries’, Nomina 20, 67-98). While trev + personal name is uncommon among the Ayrshire names, there are likely examples of it elsewhere, e.g. Tralallan in Kirkcudbrightshire. Some of the trev names in this part of Ayrshire are likely in any case to date from the 10th century or later, so a name incorporating Maccus would be possible.
Note, however, that Alan James (BLITON, s.n.; James 2014, 27-8), has followed the lead of the transcriptions in -in-, suggesting the final element to be * ǭch, cf W awch, ‘edge, point, sharpness’. (Note: in James 2014, he incorrectly says this is in ‘Drongan parish’, as opposed to Ochiltree.) It really does look like these are mistranscriptions, however, and so this derivation should probably be rejected.
RN
Treesmax Bridge
Ochiltree (OCH)
Classification: Other
Grid reference: NS457182
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 114m
Elements: en Treesmax + SSE bridge
Description:
A road bridge to the south-west of Treesmax, from which it takes its name.
Troston Knowe
Dalmellington (DAL)
Classification: Relief
Grid reference: NS512019
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 302m
Trough Burn
New Cumnock (NCU)
Classification: Water
Grid reference: NS572096
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 278m
Elements: SSE trough + SSE burn
Description:
‘A burn associated with a trough or troughs for animals’?; ‘a burn which has pools easily accessible for animals to drink from?’.
It is described in the OS Name Book simply as: ‘A Stream having its source between Chang Hill & Benty Cowan Hill and running from thence into Dalleagles Burn’ (OS1/3/49/144).
Trough Burn
Dalmellington (DAL)
Classification: Water
Grid reference: NS496042
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 233m
Truff Hill
Dalmellington (DAL)
Classification: Settlement
Grid reference: NS430090
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 164m
Turner's Cleuch
Old Cumnock (OCU)
Classification: Relief
Grid reference: NS654183
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 273m
Elements: pn Turner + Sc cleugh
Description:
‘A cleuch or gully associated with a person called Turner’. The OS Name Book gives no explanation of the name, writing simply: ‘Two steep broken banks with a stream flowing at the bottom forming a very conspicuous feature on the banks of the Guelt Water.
The name applies 10 chains South of the old tract of the Guelt Water’ (OS1/3/52/101).