Coupla, Couplagate, Couplaligate

Place-Names:	Big Coupla, Little Coupla
Elements	Standard Scottish Engliss SSE big and SSE little +Place-Name: Coupla
Suggested Meaning:	big and little used to differentiate between two hills sharing the same name. In this case in terms of height or area.
Place-name :	Coupla
Elements	Scots coup + Scots law, la
Suggested Meaning:	bargaining hill
Element:	1.1 Scots coup ‘dump, coal waste’ 1.2 Scots coup ‘a height for emptying coal into carts’ 1.3 Scots coup ‘a break in coal strata’ 1.4 Scots coup ‘exchange, barter’
Element:	2. Scots law, la ‘hill’;’
Place-name :	Couplagate, Couplaligate
Suggested Meaning	self-closing gate at Coupla
Element:	Place-name: Coupla
Element:	Scots liggat ‘self-closing gate’
Blaeu Coila (1654):	N/A
OS Name Books (1855-57):	Big Coupla, Little Coupla, Couplagate
Location:	Ordnance Survey (1895)

Earlier Reference

Couplaligate (1804-1840), Couplagate (1850-59, 1895), Coupla Leggate (1889), Couplaleggate (1908). Coupla (1900)

Big Coupla and Little Coupla

The Ordnance Survey Name Book (1855-57) entries for Big Coupla and Little Coupla give little other than their position some 20 chains (a quarter mile) from the nearby Polquhirter Cottages.

Big Coupla: A hill about 20 ch. [chains] S.W. [South West] of Polquhirter cottages

Little Coupla: A small hill about 20 ch. [chains] E [East] of Polquhirter cottages

Although the hills form part of the lands of West Polquhirter, two of the ‘Authorities for Spelling‘ of the names were Dr. Thomas Hunter, tenant of East Polquhirter and George Caldwell, farmer at nearby Cairnhill. At that time West, East and High Polquhirter were owned by Miss Guthrie of The Mount, Kilmarnock, whom through marriage would later become Lady Oranmore.

It is difficult to resist thinking that the name Coupla suggests we are looking at ‘a couple of hills‘ – or as Jack and Victor from ‘Still Game’ might say – ‘a coupla hills‘.

Element: SSE big ‘bigger of the two’ and SSE little ‘smaller of the two’

The place-name elements big and little are used to differentiate between the two hills that share the same name Coupla. In this case big and little may be referring to the higher and lower hills respectively or more likely a reference to the area of the hills. Although the names Big Coupla and Little Coupla continue to appear on the Ordnance Survey maps going forward the prefixes big and little are not used locally and the area is known as The Coupla.

Rab Wilson, the acclaimed Scots poet was born and grew up at Polquhirter Cottage and still lives nearby. He recalls his family and the workers at Polquhirter always referred to The Coupla although the hill referred to as Little Coupla was known as Fraser’s Hill, which was great for sledging! New Cumnockian Rena Lees recalls that in rh 1950’s a Liz Fraser had a shop, a wee wooden structure from which all sorts of things were sold, on the right hand side of the road, as it headed down the hill towards Polqhuirter – clearly the origin of the relatively recent name Fraser’s Hill.

Element: Scots coup

The Ordnance Survey Name Book (1855-57) entry for Couplagate includes the note –

‘Coup, signifies to Tumble and is a word commonly used in this parish‘.

Although coup remains a commonly used word in the parish as an alternative to tumble it seems in this sense an unlikely contender as the root of the place-name Coupla. However, there are other contenders to be found in the Dictionaries of the Scots Language worthy of consideration.

Element: (a) Scots coup ‘a place for emptying rubbish, a dump’ [1]

This too, is a commonly used word in the parish both as a noun and verb, where better to coup your rubbish than the coup? The entry in the dictionary makes reference to ‘A Glossary of Scotch Mining Terms (1866)’ compiled by James Barrowman which in turn includes the entry [2]-

COUP, A bank, or face of a bing, where debris is tipped.

In Map 1 above, a ‘Coal and Schist Pit‘ is shown in the vicinity of Big Coupla while there is an ‘Old Coal Pit‘ near Little Coupla. Were these hills identified by the coups of coal-waste?

Element: (b) Scots coup ‘emptying into carts‘ [3]

Remaining with the coal-mining theme, about 4 miles to the north-east of Big and Little Coupla , just over the county boundary in the parish of Kirkconnel is a small eminence known as ‘The Coup’. It sits at the side of the roadway from the limekilns in parishes of New Cumnock and Old Cumnock into Kirkconnel village.

The Dumfriesshire Ordnance Survey Name Book (1848-58) entry for The Coup reads –

A small height which was used formerly for couping coals into carts, It still retains that name.

Note: Coup is a term applied when there is a sudden break off in the strata – probably referring here to the substrata of Coal or other mineral.

• Were Big Coupla and Little Coupla hills where the coals from the nearby pits were couped into carts?

As well as the description of the local meaning behind the name ‘The Coup’ a note has been added, in different hand-writing, suggesting an alternative meaning, presumably the one given by John Jamieson in his Scottish Dictionary, which in turn was quoted from a Statistical Account (see below).

Element: (c) Scots coup ‘A sudden break in a stratum of coal.’ [4]

The Statistical Account in question was that of Campsie, Stirlingshire [5] the following extract of which appears in the Dictionaries of the Scots Language.

The coal in this district is full of irregularities, stiled by the workmen coups, and hitches, and dykes. . . . These coups and hitches . . . are found where the strata above and below the coal suddenly approach, or retreat from each other, by this means couping the coal out of its regular bed.

Dictionaries of the Scots Language.

This definition of coup does not appear in the aforementioned ‘A Glossary of Scotch Mining Terms (1866)’ and perhaps it is specific to the Stirlingshire area.

Element: (d) Scots coup ‘bargaining, to exchange, barter’ [6]

Moving away from a coal-mining theme to something possibly more agricultural in nature.

Coup, Cowp 1. To barter exchange. 2. “To expose to sale.” 3. To traffic, deal; to buy and sell, esp. in connection with horses; “used …… only of an inferior kind of trade”

Dictionaries of the Scots Language.

Closer to home, Sir Herbert Maxwell in ‘Place-Names of Galloway’ [7] identified Scots coup ‘barter, exchange’ as a place name element in both Copin Knowe ‘bargaining hillock‘, Minigaff, Kirkcudbrightshire and Coupland ‘exchanged or bartered land‘, Kirkpartick Durham, Dumfriesshire.

• Did the Coupla hills at the road-side on the outskirts of the village make a suitable location for bargaining hills, including perhaps horse-trading?

Element: Scots law, la ‘hill‘

If the place-name Coupla does indeed include the first element coup the only contender that comes to mind for the second element of the name is Scots la, a variant of the more common Scots law [8] –

LAW, LA 1. A rounded hill gen. of a somewhat conical shape and freq. isolated or conspicuous among others, e.g. Dundee Law, Largo Law, Berwick Law, Broad Law.

Dictionaries of the Scots Language.

Of course -la ‘hill’ is consistent with the OS Name Book Entry in that both Big Coupla and Little Coupla are referred to a hill and litte hill respectively. Although from some perspectives they both could be described as ‘rounded hills‘ they certainly don’t fall into the category of the Laws named above. Nevertheless, there are some other examples of laws in Ayrshire where the hills are less conspicuous. For example at Dalry there is a pair of ‘big & little‘ neighbours, namely Meikle Green Law and Little Green Law; both eminences on Green Hill.

Peter Drummond in ‘Scottish Hill Names’ also identified a law in Stewarton where the minister, writing in the Statistical Account [9,10], had considered the presence of law to indicate ‘… that they had been used in the past as sites where feudal lords dispensed justice, gallows included. These ministers had lived too far from the south-east where its plain hill-meaning would have been obvious‘.

Although both the Big and Little Coupla fall into category of the Ayrshire laws in terms of topograpy it should be noted that locally –la is pronounced –lah and not – law. [N.B. I have yet to find another law hill in the variant form la].

Coupla Cairn

There is another coupla place-name in the parish of New Cumnock, that of Coupla Cairn some 4 miles to the south on Auchincally Hill. Although it appears on the 1857-60 Ordnance Survey map (1857-60), there does not seem to be a corresponding entry in the Ordnance Survey Namebook (1855-57). In the case of Coupla Cairm most of the Scots coup elements discussed above can discounted with the exception perhaps (d) Scots coup ‘exchanged or bartered lands’? Could it be a corruption of cupola ‘a rounded dome’ in reference to the shape of the cairn perhaps?

Other Couplaws

Cowply (1822), Couplay (1858), Cowplaw (1898) [Avondale, Lanarkshire] : Couplaw farm appears on the Ordnance Survey map 1898 (Map 4) 1.5 miles west of the town of Strathaven while the farm of Hook Law sits nearby. It is interesting to note the presence of a quarry adjacent to Couplaw, perhaps suggesting couping or coups. The earlier form Cowply appears in John Thomson’s map of North Lanarkshire, 1822 (Map 5) while the form Couplay is found in the OS Name Book Lanarkshire (1858-1861).

Cowplow (1816), Couplaw (1864) [Stonehouse, Lanarkshire]: Couplaw farm appears on the Ordnance Survey map 1864 (Map 6) 2.5 miles south of the town of Stonehouse and in the OS Name Book Lanarkshire (1858-61). The entry in the Stonehouse Place-Names website is given below, and like its Avondale neighbour it is also near a quarry [11].

In 1816 there existed a house by the name of Cowplow which had a lime quarry near by. Coup; (Scots) 1. a rubbish tip, fall 2. buy or exchange 3. Plough up (the green strip between furrows)
law; conical hill, isolated, an artificial mound

StonehouseOnline.org.uk

Cowplie (1685), Cowplaw (1752-55) [Eaglesham, Renfrewshire]: In Covenanting times, Robert Lockhart and Gabriel Thomson, known as the Eaglesham Martyrs, were shot by dragoons on 1st May 1685 at Cowplie not far from Hol-Hall Farmstead at the foot of Melowther Hill, about three miles to the south-west of Eaglesham and the name appears on Roy’s Military Survey 1752-55 (Map 7) as Cowplaw [12]. The name also appears later in the 1803 Correction Land Tax Roll Rolls of Eaglesham as ‘Cowplaw Four pounds nine shillings and three pence‘ [Scotland’s People]. The place is now lost.

It should be noted that all the above are names relate to farm steadings none of which are located near a named -law hill.

Couplagate, Couplaligate, Couplaleggate

Couplagate

At the time of the compilation of the Ordnance Survey Namebook Ayrshire (1855-57) New Cumnock was regarded as comprising five villages, namely – Pathhead, Mansfield, Castle, Afton Bridgend and Couplagate.

The Ordnance Survey Name Book (1855-57) entry for Couplagate reads –

This small village lies on the New Cumnock and Dumfries Road. And on the east side of Afton Bridgend. And although they appear to be one village they are named seperately. “Couplagate” extends east from the R.P. Meeting House and Afton Bridgend from the same House, west to Afton Bridge.

N.B. The R.P. Meeting House was the Reformed Presbyterian Meeting House which was later replaced by the Reformed Presbyterian Church. Today it is the site of Bridgend Gospel Hall.

The ‘Various Modes of Spelling’ and ‘The Authorities for Spelling’ were –

• Couplagate: Mr. Johnston, School Master, New Cumnock & Kirk Records
• Couplalegate: Dr. Hunter, Polquhirter & Valuation Roll
• Coupla-ligate: Voters Roll’

Despite that three of the five authorities giving forms of the name ending with –legate / -ligate rather than the form ending with -gate won the day.

Couplaligate

The earliest form of the name thus far encountered is Couplaligate which is found in the Old Parish Records of Births / Baptisms in the parish of New Cumnock [Scotland’s People], while the earliest reference to Couplaligate is 23 May 1804. It is this form of the name that appears in the vast majority of the baptism records over the period (1804-1845) while there are a few entries of the form Couplalegate and Coupleyligate. [N.B. this goes against the observation in the OS Name Book that Couplagate was ‘Mode of Spelling’ founding Kirk Records]

Some of the early entries are given below –

23 May 1804 Ann (born 16th.) L.D. to William McLoud and Jannet McTurk in Couplaligate

07 Jul 1805 Ann (born 6th.) L.D. to James Anton and Margaret McTurk in Couplaligate

16 Feb 1806 Jean (born 14th.) L.D. to William McLoud and Jannet McTurk in Couplaligate

18 Jul 1806 Christian (born 17th. ) L.D. to Alexander Corson and Jennet Coultard in Couplaligate

07 Jan 1808 Jenny (born 28th Dec. 1807) L.D. to James Anton and Margaret McTurk in Couplaligate

06 May 1810 Andrew (born 22nd. April) L.S. to James Anton and Margaret McTurk in Couplaligate

It was 1845 before the name appears as Coplagate in the Old Parish Records –

Agnes Miller, lawful daughter of Mungo Douglas and Flora Miller in Coplagate born upon the 10th September 1845.

Couplaleggate

Staying with this Douglas family, the Census Records of 1841,1851 recorded neither Couplaligate nor Couplagate as place of residence but records the street name as Afton Bridgend. In July 1889, Mungo Douglas, carter, died aged 89 years old and his death certificate records his place of death as Coupla Leggate (perhaps he carted coals from the Couplas). His wife Flora Douglas, nee Miller, died in December 1900, aged 89 years old and her place of death was recorded as Coupla.

It seems the area known as Couplagate / Couplaligate were assigned to Afton Bridgend in records such as Census Records and Valuations Rolls.

As an aside, Flora’s passing made the newspapers – the Dundee Evening Telegraph no less! [13]. The paper printed regular articles on ‘Links with Burns’ and the Reverend William Scott of the United Free Church, New Cumnock had submitted the following details of Flora’s link with the nation’s Bard.

Mrs. Douglas was the oldest inhabitant in New Cumnock at the time of her death and was the daughter of William Miller, whom in early life was ploughman on the lands of Laight which was home to John Logan of Knockshinnoch & Laight, an acquaintance of Robert Burns. The Rev. Scott continued –

To pay his respects to Logan , Burns sometimes broke his journey at New Cumnock and having his pony at the inn walked the half-mile to Laight house, passing the cottage of Mrs Douglas’s father – which, not unlikely was “the cot where Mary resides” and “idealised and immortalised by the poet in “Flow Gently Sweet Afton”.

Dundee Evening Telegraph 15 Dec 1900

Of course, Burns’ articles were always popular and often generated debate particularly on the topic – Who was the Mary that was ‘asleep by thy murmuring stream’ ?

However, the Reverend’s personal notes on Mrs. Flora Douglas are worthy of noting –

She was a fine type of the old Scotchwoman – cheery, diligent, thrifty, God-fearing ; patiently waiting her home-going. Though born in times of European stress, and living through a very busy century, she seldom spoke of these things confining herself pretty much to her household duties.

Dundee Evening Telegraph 15 Dec 1900

Although the Ordnance Survey Six-Inch 2nd Edition (Surveyed 1895, Published 1897) continued to record the name as Couplagate (see Map 9 above) the later edition (Revised 1908, Published 1911) revised the name to Couplaleggate (see Map 10 below). This brings it into line with the majority view of the ‘Authorities for Spelling’ in the Ordnance Survey Name Book (1855-57) in that the second element of the name is – ligate, -leggate rather than -gate.

Place name Coupla + Scots liggat, ligat ‘self-closing gate’

The Dictionaries of the Scots Language entries for liggat read as follows –

from up to 1700 [14]–

(Liggat,) Ligat, Liggett, -itt, n. A self-closing gate, to prevent cattle from straying.

A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)

from 1700 onwards [15] –

LIGGAT, n. Also ligget(t), lig(g)ate. A small wooden gate, usu. self-closing, a swing-gate, freq. one shutting off pasture from arable land. Also attrib. and in place-names.

Scottish National Dictionary (1700 – )

There are several examples of the place-name liggat in Galloway and Sir Herbert Maxwell in ‘The Place-Names of Galloway’ draws comparison with Lowland Scots liggat and Anglo Saxon lea geat ‘a field gate’. He also provides this almost poetic quote from John Jamieson, Scots Dictionary [16].

Liggat, a gate so hung that it may shut of itself

John Jamieson , A DICTIONARY OF THE SCOTTISH LANGUAGE.

So where was the liggat located?

McEwanlea

The clue may reside in the naming of a much later housing development in the area. As New Cumnock continued to expand many new houses were built by Ayr County Council from the 1930’s onwards including 20 homes at the junction of the minor road (later known as Lime Road) with Couplaleggate. which were assigned the address of McEwanlea. The name comprises the elements the Personal name: McEwan and Scots lea ‘grass field’ [17] and was possibly from the local name of the field on which the houses were built. The field may have contained a paddock of grazing land, cordoned off from arable land and accessed by a liggat.

• See also Map 8 (OS 1854) above which aapears to show 4. enclosure at the junction of the roas

There was also another liggate in the parish of New Cumnock at what is now known as Legate on the New Cumnock – Dalmellington road in the east of the parish. This liggate pre-dated the one at Coupla with the earliest reference found the Old Parish Records of 1704 [18]. It is perhaps through the presence of this earlier liggate that the later one was pre-fixed with Coupla in order to differentiate between the two of them.

The street name Afton Bridgend now stretched from the Toll on the west of Afton Bridge the full length of the road to the entry to the town on the east. Similarly the houses at McEwanlea took on the address of Lime Road, the original roadway from Couplaleggate to the limekilns at High Park. A host of new houses were built on the east side of Lime Road comprising several streets (Cairnhill Place, Hamilton Drive, Stellhead Drive and Glenafton Drive) which long with those houses at the top of the east end of Afton Bridgend, were and are collectivley known as The Coupla .

The OS Map (1957) shows the extent of the housing that has encroached on the hill called Big Coupla. This hill was originally a place where coal waste was couped, or coal was couped into carts for the coal pits in the vicinity or perhaps it was a couping or bargaining hill where goods or horses were bought and sold. A liggat, self-closing gate stood on these lands, possibly at the junction of what is now Lime Road and the New Cumnock to Dumfries Road. Houses were built close by and then westwards along the road to meet with those houses that were extending eastwards from the Afton Bridge. Here it is worth recalling the comments in the OS Name Book – although they appear to be one village they are named seperately – Couplagate and Afton Bridgend. The original liggat is long gone along with whatever those activities that put the coup in Coupla and it took a new meaning – it was home.

The Coupla today

Photo 1: The original east end of the ‘village of Couplagate/Couplaleggate’ at the junction of what is now known as Lime Road. Stormbeg , the house on the left is located on the corner of what would have possibly been the field (McEwanlea) where the liggate ‘self-closing gate’ was located. Stormbeg was home to the Munn family since ~ 1915 for a time giving rise to the local name of ‘Munn’s Corner‘ for the junction. Polmarlach, the house on the right probably takes its name from Polmarlach Burn, that flows into the River Nith, just over the boundary in the parish of Kirkconnel. Despite this being known as the Coupla, the formal street name is Afton Bridgend!

Photos 2 & 3: Taken from the junction at Lime Road showing the original extent of the ”village of Couplagate/Couplaleggate’ from Lime Road to the Bridgend Gospel Hall with the Afton Bridge beyond.

Photo 4: A relatively recent housing development saw a junction built to a small cul-de-sac of houses with the address of Coupla Gate – a missed opportunity to restore Coupa Liggat!!

Photo 5: A view from Coupla Gate to Polmarlach from Dalhanna Drive.

Photo 6: Cairnhill Place built in the late 1930’s stretching east along Afton Bridgend from the junction with Lime Road

Photo 7: Showing the houses built on the Big Coupla

Acknowledgments

Many thanks to Rab Wilson for his thoughs on Big Coupla and Little Coupla and to Rena Lees for her comments on the houses at Coupla.

In memory of my late step-father James Morrison, born at No. 18 McEwanlea in September 1936.

References

[1] Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd | coup

[2] James Barrowman, A Glossary of Scotch Mining Terms (1866)’ | 2. coup

[3] Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. 2. coup

[4] Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd.| 4. coup

[5] Rev. Mr. James Lapslie, Statistical Account | Campsie, County of Stirling, OSA, Vol. XV, 1795

[6] Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. | 1. coup

[7] Sir Herbert Maxwell, Place-Names of Galloway | Copine Knowe, Coupland

[8] Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. | law, la

[9] Peter Drummond ‘Scottish Hill Names’ |law

[10] Rev. Mr. Thomas Maxwell, Statistical Account | Stewarton, County of Ayrshire, OSA, Vol. IX, 1793

[11] StonehouseOnline.org.uk, Place-Names | Couplaw

[12] Mark Jardine, ‘Jardine’s Book of Martyrs’ | Eaglesham

[13] British Newspaper Archive |Dundee Evening Telegraph 15 Decemeber 1900

[14] Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. (A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue )| liggat

[15] Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. (Scottish National Dictionary )| liggat

[16] Sir Herbert Maxwell ‘The Place-Names of Galloway’ | Fumart Liggat, Liggatcheek

[17] Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd.| lea

[18] New Cumnock Place-Names | Legate

Maps

Reproduced with the Permission of National Library of Scotland

https://maps.nls.uk/

Images used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) licence.

Map 1: Ordnance Survey Maps – Six-inch 1st edition, Scotland, 1843-1882 (1857) |Big Coupla and Little Coupla

Map 2: Ordnance Survey Maps – Six-inch 2nd and later editions, Scotland, 1892-1960 (1898) |The Coup, Kirkconnel

Map 3: Ordnance Survey Maps – Six-inch 1st edition, Scotland, 1843-1882 (1857) | Coupla Cairn

Map 4: Ordnance Survey Maps – Six-inch 2nd and later editions, Scotland, 1892-1960 (1896) | Couplaw, Avondale

Map 5: Maps by John Thomson , Northern Part of Lanarkshire. Southern Part.(1822)| Couply, Avondale

Map 6: Ordnance Survey Maps – Six-inch 1st edition, Scotland, 1843-1882 (1858) | Couplaw, Stonehouse

Map 7: Roy Military Survey of Scotland, 1747-1755 | Cowplaw, Eaglesham

Map 8: Ordnance Survey Maps – Six-inch 1st edition, Scotland, 1843-1882 (1857) |Couplagate

Map 9: Ordnance Survey Maps – 25 inch 2nd and later editions, Scotland, 1892-1949 (1908) |Couplaleggate

Map 10: Ordnance Survey, One-inch to the mile maps of Scotland, 2nd Edition – 1885-1900 (1895) | Legate Use of these digitised maps for non-commercial purposes is permitted under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC-BY-NC-SA) licence

Map 11: Ordnance Survey National Grid maps, 1944-1971 (1957) |The Coupla

Ordnance Survey Name Books and Land Tax Rolls

By Permission of Scotland’s Places

scotlandsplaces.gov.uk

OS Name Books Ayrshire (1855-57) Vol. 49 |Little Coupla

OS Name Books Ayrshire (1855-57) Vol. 49 |Big Coupla

OS Name Books Ayrshire (1855-57) Vol. 49 |Couplagate

OS Name Books Dumfriesshire (1848-58) Vol. 30 |The Coup , Kirkconnel

Renfrewshire Land Tax Rolls Alterations 1735 -1750, Eaglesham parish | Cowplaw

Scotland’s People

https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk

Old Parish Records, Births, Marriages, Deaths, Census Records, Valuations Rolls, Wills & Testaments