| Place-name: | Creel Ford |
| Suggested Meaning: | ford where carts carrying creels crossed |
| element | Scots creel ‘basket’ |
| element | SSE ford ‘crossing at a shallow place in a river’ |
| Blaeu Coila (1654): | N/A |
| OS Name Books (1855-57): | Creel Ford |
| Location: | Ordnance Survey (1895) |
Creel Ford
Scots creel ‘basket’ + SSE ford ‘crossing at a shallow place in a river’
The Creel Ford is a crossing on the Water of Deugh on the boundary between New Cumnock, Ayrshire and Carsphairn, Kirkcudbrightshire.
The entry in the Ayrshire Ordnance Survey Name Book (1855-57) for Creel Ford reads-
An angle in Deugh Water fordable for Carts. There is no road to it.
The entry also gives definitions of creel from Jamieson ( John Jamieson’s ‘Dictionary of the Scottish Language’), namely creel, creil, ‘ozier, basket’ [1].
Perhaps the baskets were used for the carrying of peats, which compares well with one of the entries in Dictionary of Scots Language [2] –
CREEL, Creil. The creels or baskets, in which they [peats] and other articles are carried on horseback, being common in all hilly countries, where there are no roads for carts.
However, the two entries in Kirkcudbrightshire Name Books for Creel Ford add a bit of mystery and colour to this crossing on Water of Deugh.
Volume 2
Situation] About 1¼ miles NW [North West] of Dun Hill: A ford in the Water of Deugh and situated a little North of Hen Craig, it is said that Smugglers wont to carry their Contraband goods with Creels across here, hence the name.
Volume 35
A Ford in the Water of Deugh traditionally handed down to have been frequently crossed by Smugglers in their day, who carried the evaded goods in a kind of baskets called Creels, hence arose the name.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
| References |
| [1] John Jamieson, Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language (1805,1832) Dr. Jeffrey Triggs, Online Edition |
| [2] Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. | creel |
| Maps |
| Reproduced with the Permission of National Library of Scotland |
| https://maps.nls.uk/ |
| Map 1 : Ordnance Survey, One-inch to the mile maps of Scotland, 2nd Edition – 1885-1900 (1895) |Creel Ford |
| Map 2: Ordnance Survey Maps – Six-inch 1st edition, Scotland, 1843-1882 (1850-57)|Creel Ford |
| Ordnance Survey Name Books |
| By Permission of Scotland’s Places |
| scotlandsplaces.gov.uk |
| Ayrshire OS Name Books (1855-57) Vol. 49| Creel Ford |
| Kirkcudbrightshire OS Name Books (1848-58) Vol. 2| Creel Ford |
| Kirkcudbrightshire OS Name Books (1848-51) Vol. 35 |Creel Ford |
NEW CUMNOCK HISTORY 