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Airigh

study 1

Airigh

farm names in the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright.

Introduction

In an article written for the Galloway News in 1983, Gaelic poet William Neil estimated that 80%of Galloway's farm names are Gaelic in origin.

From preliminary analysis of 1500 farm namesrecorded between 1623 and 1700 in the Kirkcudbright Sheriff Court Deeds this would seem a goodestimate. Of the remaining 20%, the majority are Scots with very few which can be identified asfarms from the Northumbrian or earlier Brittonic periods. Until recently the huge number of Gaelicfarm and place names could be explained by the settlement of gaelic speakers from Ireland in theRhinns of Galloway from around 500 AD (indicated by the Gaelic place name element

sliabh

).Gaelic then spread east so that Gaelic had already become the main language of Galloway beforeOld English speaking Northumbrians arrived in the later seventh century.It is now thought that the language change occurred swiftly and dramatically after the collapse of Northumbrian power and influence in the late ninth century. Northumbrian power had beendisrupted by the Vikings. The Viking armies which attacked Northumbria spoke Old Norse, whichwas similar to the Old English of the Northumbrians. However the people who brought Gaelic toGalloway were part of a new culture which was mixture of Gaelic and Norse cultures. This newculture emerged after the Viking raiders who had moved down the west coast of Scotland and intoIreland became settlers, farms and traders with Gaelic speaking wives and hence Gaelic speakingchildren. The earlier bands of Vikings may also have included young Gaelic speaking men attractedto the 'warrior- lifestyle'. Even if the language of the ruling elite was Old Norse, Gaelic was theeveryday language of this group – or rather groups – who dominated the lands around the Irish Seaand the west coast of Scotland.Historical records for Galloway and south-west Scotland in the ninth and tenth centuries arelacking, but by the eleventh century there were at least two Norse-Gaelic kingdoms in the region.On his death in 1034, Suibne mac Cinaeda was described in contemporary Irish records as king of the Gall-Ghaidheil. The territory Suibne ruled over was probably centred on the Firth of Clyde anddid not extend into Galloway. Echmarcach, who died in on pilgrimage to Rome in 1065 (havingruled since 1031), was described as

rex inna renn,

king of the Rhinns (of Galloway), a territorywhich included the Machars of Wigtownshire and the Isle of Man.

If the Stewartry of

1Galloway News/ Dumfries and Galloway Standard Farming Review February 19832For the detailed discussion of this background, see Clancy T: 'The Gall-Ghaidheil and Galloway',

Journal of Scottish Name Studies

Vol. 2 (2008)

Airigh

study 2Kirkcudbright had a similar Norse-Gaelic ruler at this time, his name is not known. If there wassuch a ruler, he may have been the forebear of Fergus of Galloway.

The evidence for thissuggestion is based on a cluster of Scandinavian place names around Kirkcudbright (see map 2 below) and a possible Viking grave found near St. Cuthbert's graveyard in Kirkcudbright. Another possible Viking grave was found on Blackerne farm (near Castle Douglas) in 1756.

Somewhat confusingly then, the strongest evidence for Viking influence in the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright are Gaelic place and farm names. But if Gaelic had become became the mainlanguage by the tenth century, does this mean that most of the Stewartry's farms are over 1000 yearsold? This is unlikely. The late seventeenth century population of the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright has been estimated from Hearth Tax records

as being between 15 000 and 16 000 [with a similar number for Wigtownshire and 33 000 for Dumfriesshire] with most of the population living on the1500 farms recorded from the same period. [Kirkcudbright was the only settlement in the Stewartrywhich could be described as a town and had a population of 300 in 1690]. Seven hundred yearsearlier the population must have been much smaller and so there would not have been enough people to occupy the 1200 or so farms with Gaelic names. Most of the Gaelic named farms musthave been established gradually over the period (about 500 years) that Gaelic remained the mainlanguage. Also, some farms with Gaelic names may have been established by Scots speakersnaming the farm from an existing Gaelic place name. It would therefore be very difficult to trace the pattern of ninth to eleventh century settlement of the Stewartry using Gaelic farm names alone.However, there is one Gaelic farm/ place name which can be used to identify early Norse -Gaelicsettlement. In his discussion of the Norse-Gaelic origins of the medieval lordship (originallykingdom) of Galloway established by Fergus, Richard Oram draws attention to the place nameelement

airigh,

whichrepresents the adoption of a Gaelic Irish or Hebridean term by non-Gaelic settlers, and withit the adoption of the dairy-based pastoral economy of the Gaelic west. It has widespreaddistribution throughout Galloway, Mann and the English Lake District, where the commonlink has been identified as Norse and Norse Gaelic settlement after c.900 as part of thediaspora of colonists attendant on the expulsion of the Scandinavians from Dublin.

3Oram R :

The Lordship of Galloway,

(Edinburgh, 2000) Chapters 1 and 24http://canmore.rcahms.gov.uk/en/site/64632/details/blackerne/accessed 17 March 20105Adamson D: 'The Hearth Tax for Dumfriesshire',

Transactions DGNHAS

Series, Vol. 476Oram R :

The Lordship of Galloway,

(Edinburgh, 2000) p.247- 250

Airigh

study 3Map. 1 Distribution of

airigh

place names as shown by Oram in

The Lordship of Galloway.

The exact location of the

airigh

place names is difficult to establish from the above map, but it is possible to identify three farm names in Stewartry of Kirkcudbright which contain the place nameelement

airigh.

1.In Balmaghie parish there is Airie farm NX 63 69, the abandoned (since circa 1850) Upper Airie farm NX 61 69 and Airie Hill NX 62 68 (291m) which is flanked to the west and east by two Airie Burns. Two kilometres to the south east of Airie farm is the settlement of Slogarie NX 64 68 and Slogarie Hill NX 63 67 (256m). Slogarie has been identified bySimon Taylor as a

sliabh

place name.

2.In the neighbouring Kells parish, there is another Airie farm NX 61 78, an Airie Lane(watercourse) also NX 61 78 and the Rig of Airie NX 60 78 as well as the possibly relatedSheil Hill NX 60 79 and Arie Bennan hill NX 58 77.3.In Kelton parish, there is Airieland farm and Airieland Burn NX 75 57 (shown as AirylandGill on Ainslie's map of the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright in 1797), Aireland Moor andSummer Hill, both NX 76 65.4.Finally, in Rerrick parish there is an Airyhill cottage NX 78 47 (possibly former croft) onBarlocco farm.

7Taylor S.: 'Sliabh in Scottish Place-names: its meaning and chronology',

Journal of Scottish Name Studies

Vol.1(2007) p.126

of 00

Airigh Farms in Stewartry

Unfinished study of place name elelment airigh in Stewartry of Kirkcudbright and relation to Gaelic and Norse-Gaelic settlement patterns in from ninth to eleventh centuries.

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