| Place-name: | Ashmark |
| Suggested Meaning: | ‘merkland of the ash wood’ |
| 1st element: | Scots esche ‘ash tree, ash wood‘ |
| 2nd element: | Scots mark ‘mark, unit of measurement’ |
| Blaeu Coila (1654): | Efhmarck |
| OS Names (1855-57): | Ashmark |
| Valuation Roll 1855: | No Entry |
| Valuation Roll 1940: | Ashmark |
| Location: | OS Map Six-inch Scotland 1892-1960 |
| Other Early Forms: |
Eschetpark (1564), Eschemerk (1575, 1618), Eschemerke (1583) Eshmark (1642), Ashmarke (1684) |
Ashmark
Scots esche ‘ash tree, ash wood’ Scots mark ‘mark, markland’
The Ordnance Survey Name Book (1855-57) entry for Ashmark reads –
A good farm house with a — sheep farm attached. Occupied by James Sloan, the property of — Buchannan Esq.
Niel Snodgrass Buchannan Esq. was the owner of what was known as the Knockshinnoch Estate which included the properties of Ashmark, Carcow, Knockshinnoch and Laight.
1st element | Scots esche- ‘ash tree, ash wood”
The early forms Eschetpark*, Eschemerk, Eschemerke and Eshmark are all associated with the records of the Campbell family that held these lands in the 16th/17th century [1].
* [the ‘tp’ of Eschetpark may be a misreading of ‘m’]
The first element is Scots esche ‘ash tree, ash wood’ [2]. There is a local tradition that ‘really old farms always had six ash-trees around the yard, this was to shape bows and arrows to guard against thieves’. [3]
2nd element |Scots mark ‘mark, merkland’
A common place-name element signifying a unit of land-measurement merkland “a piece of land assessed as having an annual rental value of one mark at the time of assessment” where a mark was worth 13s. 4d Scots [4].
Ashmark Hill
Ashmark hill lies to the south of the farm.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
| References |
| [1] Source: Stuart Clarkson, Guelph, Ontario correspondence |
| [2] Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004 | esche |
| [3] George Sanderson | New Cumnock Far and Away |
| [4] Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004 | mark |
| Maps |
| Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland |
| https://maps.nls.uk/ |
| Images used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) licence. |
| Map 1: Blaeu, Joan, 1596-1673 (1654) Coila Provincia, [or], The province of Kyle / auct. Timoth. Pont.| Eshmarck |
| Map 2: Ordnance Survey Maps – 25 inch 1st edition, Scotland, 1855-1882 (1858) | Ashmark |
| Map 3 : Ordnance Survey, One-inch to the mile maps of Scotland, 2nd Edition – 1885-1900 (1896) | Ashmark and Ashmark Hill Images used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) licence. |
| Ordnance Survey Name Books |
| scotlandsplaces.gov.uk |
| Ayrshire OS Name Book (1855-57) Vol. 49 | Ashmark |
| Ayrshire OS Name Book (1855-57) Vol. 49 | Ashmark Hill |
NEW CUMNOCK HISTORY 