Scottish Placenames (Waverley Scottish Classics) by Mackay George

Author:Mackay, George [Mackay, George]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Waverley Books
Published: 2013-02-11T00:00:00+00:00

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Jarlshof (Shetland) ‘Earl’s Court’. Jarl (Old Norse) ‘earl’; hof (Old Norse) ‘court’. The name of this important archaeological site at the southern tip of Shetland’s mainland was devised by Sir Walter Scott in 1816. Its original name is not recorded.

Jedburgh (Scottish Borders) ‘Town by the Jed Water’. The first element of the name of this Borders town, with its famous ruined abbey, is that of its river, the Jed, probably derived from a version of gweden (Brythonic) ‘winding’ or ‘twisting’ (as of a river meander). The second element has its origins as burh (Old English) ‘town’. Prior to its establishment as a burgh, the settlement name was Jed-worth, signifying ‘enclosure by the Jed Water’ and still found in Bonjedward, a three-language hybrid of Bonn (Scottish Gaelic) ‘foot’; jed and worth (Old English) ‘enclosure’. Jedworth is also preserved in the form ‘Jeddart’. Records confirm Gedwearde circa 800, Geddewrde in 1100, Gedword in 1130, Jaddeuurd circa 1145 and Jeddeburgh in 1160.

Jemimaville (Highland) A ‘new’ 18th or early 19th-century village, named after the wife of the laird, Sir George Munro, circa 1830. The ‘-ville’ termination is an effort towards something more sophisticated than the old ‘-ton’.

John o’ Groats (Highland) Wrongly supposed by many to be the most northerly place in mainland Britain (actually Dunnet Head). It was named after John de Groot, a Dutchman who came to live in Caithness in the late 15th century under the patronage of King James IV. The final s of the name is a reminder that the original form was ‘John o’ Groat’s House’, still preserved in a nursery rhyme.

Johnstone (Renfrewshire, Dumfries & Galloway) ‘John’s settlement’. John (personal name); tun (Old English) ‘farm’ or ‘settlement’. The names go back to the 13th and 12th centuries respectively.

Joppa (Edinburgh) Biblical names are not uncommon in Scotland from the 16th century on, though usually applied to farms or even fields rather than larger communities. The name of this district of Edinburgh, on the shore of the Firth of Forth, came in the 1780s from that of a farm called after the Biblical Joppa (now Jaffa). The name itself is thought to be derived as yapho (Hebrew)‘beautiful’.

Jordanhill (Edinburgh, Glasgow) For these names and for Edinburgh’s Jordan Burn, a landowner’s religious feeling seems the most likely explanation.

Juniper Green (Edinburgh) A 19th-century name. This south-west residential district of Edinburgh was formerly a small isolated settlement having the name of Curriemuirend, the next place to the west being the village of Currie. First recorded in 1812, the name is probably an accurate description of the locality at the time.

Jura (Argyll & Bute) Apparently ‘Doirad’s island’. Doirad (Scottish Gaelic personal name); ey (Old Norse) ‘island’. The latter Old Norse ending may have substituted the earlier Gaelic form, recorded as Doirad Eilinn in a document of AD 678.

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