| Place-name: | Lingie Hill |
| Suggested Meaning: | heathery hill |
| 1. Scots or SSE ling ‘heather’ + SSE hill ‘hill’ | |
| 2. Scots E ling ‘sedge, rush’+ SSE hill ‘hill’ | |
| Blaeu Coila (1654): | N/A |
| OS Name Books (1855-57): | Lingie Hill |
| Location: | Ordnance Survey (1896) |
| Early Forms |
| N/A |
Lingie Hill
Lingie hill sits between Black Water to the west, which forms the boundary with the parish of Ochiltree and the Beoch Lane, which receives a number of tributaries that rise on the hill. Today most of the hill is covered in forestry which also covers the slopes of Reeve Knowe and Green Knowe.
The entry in the Ayrshire Ordnance Survey Names Book (1855-57) for Ling Hill reads –
An eminence on wh [which] is a Trig [Trigonometrical] Station.
Although there is a reference to a Trig Station (1034.4 ft.) unfortunately there is no suggestion of the origin of the name of this eminence. There are a number of entries in the Dictionaries of the Scots Language for ‘ling‘ with two of particular interest given belows [1].
N.B. in both cases the form lingie is considered to be the adjective form of ling.
1. Scots ling ‘heather’ adj. lingie ‘heathery’
LING, n.
1. As in Eng., the common heather, Calluna vulgaris (I.Sc. 1866 Edm. Gl.). Gen.Sc. It is however uncertain whether this usage is native (exc. in I.Sc.) or derived ultimately from botanical writings and it is not always possible to distinguish the meanings in the quots
Kcb. 1894 Crockett Lilac Sunbonnet i.:
Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd
The ling was climbing the slopes of the Crae Hill above — a pale lavender near the loch-side, deepening to crimson on the dryer slopes.
The quotation from Samuel R. Crockett’s ‘The Lilac Sunbonnet‘ refers to Crae Hill which has entries in the Ordnance Survey Name Books of three parishes in Kirkcudbrightshire. The entry for the parish of Balmaghie which notes that the surface of Crae Hill ‘consists of rocky heathy pasture‘. Although it doesn’t directly refer to ling it does refer to heath in the adjective form heathy. If only Crockett had written about ‘the lingy, lingie slopes of the Crae Hill‘!
The NatureScot web-site identifies three categories of ‘heather’ [2] –
‘Heather’ can refer to any of the three small, woody heathland plants, each adding their own tints to this palette. Cross-leaved heath is pale and salmon-coloured. Bell heather has a hotter pink. And ling – the commonest small shrub on Scottish moors – is pale purple-pink. It’s ling or ‘common heather’, more than others, which is the plant most people know simply as ‘heather’.
Scotland’s Nature, Species of the month – heather
This moorland shrub was put to good to uses when dried e.g. brooms, brushes; comfortable and fragrant mattresses and thatching for rooves of farm buildings, often mixed with straw. The OS Name Book entry for Wanlockhead, Dumfriesshire notes ‘A considerable village of rural appearance. the houses, the greater number of them are thatched with ling with some slated‘ [Scotland’s Places]. More exotic uses, included the production of heather ale and latterly heather honey [4].
2. Scots ling ‘sedge, coarse grass, rush’ adj. lingie ‘rushy’
LING, n.
2. One or other of the sedges, the hare-tail cotton-grass, Eriophorum vaginatum (Bwk. 1853 G. Johnston Botany E. Borders 204; Fif., Lth. 1926 Wilson Cent. Scot. 253) or the deer’s-hair moss, Scirpus caespitosus; “a kind of coarse grass, or rather a species of rush which grows on heaths and mountains” (s.Sc. 1802 J. Sibbald Chron. Sc. Poet. Gl.). “Shepherds often confound this plant and Eriophorum vaginatum in their remarks on their merits” (Johnston).
Ayr. 1790 A. Tait Poems 191:
Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd
Heather, bent, ling and a’ there grow.
Alexander Tait was a contemporary of Robert Burns and lived at Tarbolton for some time. In 1790 he released his collection of ‘Poems and Songs’. The quote refers to heather; bent (typically refers to coarse grass found in hillsides) and ling which Tait while living in Ayrshire appears to exclude from the heather family?
Lingy Knowe
There is a Lingy Knowe in Lanarkshire, lying either side of the parish boundary between Carnwarth and Dunsyre, and it shares a common entry in Lanarkshire Ordnance Survey Names Book (1858-61) , Vol. 12 and Vol. 24 which reads –
A small hill covered with Heath and “Ling” the latter is the local name for a species of Heath which bears some resemblance to Broom and from which the name is derived.
Here like Lingie Hill, the ling in Lingy Knowe appears in the adjective form, in this case lingy. Although it is considered as a species of heath it does not comply with the palette of colours given in the NatureScot extract above and instead it is compared to Broom, a distinctly yellow heathland shrub. Nevertheless common heather (Calluna vulgaris) and broom have something in common in that both were cut and tied together to make brushes and brooms and indeed Calluna is derived from the Greek verb kalluno ‘to sweep’ [3].
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
| References |
| [1] Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. |Ling |
| [2] NatureScot: Scotland’s Nature, Species of the Month – Heather |
| [3] Scotland’s Wildlife Trust| Heather, Calluna Vulgaris |
| Maps |
| Reproduced with the Permission of National Library of Scotland |
| https://maps.nls.uk/ |
| Map 1: Ordnance Survey Maps – Six-inch 1st edition, Scotland, 1843-1882 (1857)| Lingie Hill |
| Ordnance Survey Name Books |
| By Permission of Scotland’s Places |
| scotlandsplaces.gov.uk |
| Ayrshire OS Name Books (1855-57) Vol. 49| Lingie Hill |
| Kirkcudbrightshire OS Name Books (1848-51) Vol. 81 | Crae Hill |
| Dumfriesshire OS Name Books (1848-58) Vol. 44 Wanlockhead |
| Lanarkshire OS Name Books (1858-61) Vol. 12 | Lingy Knowe |
| Lanarkshire OS Name Books (1858-61) Vol. 24 | Lingy Knowe |