Longhouse Burn

Place-name:	Longhouse
Suggested Meaning:	SSE long + SSE house ‘description of a farmhouse’
Place-Name	Longhouse Burn
Suggested Meaning:	Place-Name: Longhouse + Scots burn ‘stream’
Blaeu Coila (1654):	N/A
OS Name Books (1855-57):	Longhouse Burn
Location:	Ordnance Survey (1896)

Early Forms

N/A

Longhouse Burn

Place-Name: Longhouse + Scots burn ‘stream’

The entry for Longhouse Burn in the Ayrshire Ordnance Survey Name Books (1855-57) reads as follows –

A small burn partly formed by an overflow of water from Duncan’s burn at about 30 chains north of Nethertown farm house.

The photograph below perfectly illustrates the description of Longhouse Burn in the OS Name Books as ‘a small burn partly formed by an overflow of water from Duncan’s burn‘.

Longhouse Burn can often dry up and its course identified by the rushes at its side.

Of course, although the second element of Longhouse Burn is the Scots burn ‘stream’ [1] the origin of the first element Longhouse is not so clear.

Longhouse

The place-name Longhouse suggests a term used to describe the form of a farm building and indeed the National Trust for Scotland have in their possession Moirlanich Longhouse in Killin, Perthshire described as a ‘Beautifully conserved cottage giving unique insight into rural family life in 19th-century Scotland‘ [2].

There are four occurrences of the place-name element Longhouse in the Ayrshire Ordnance Survey Name Books – one in the parish of Craigie, one in the parish of Galston and two in the neighbouring parish of Old Cumnock.

Although there is no farm building carrying the name Longhouse in the parish of New Cumnock the farmhouse of Nethertown [3] certainly could, in form at least, be considered as a longhouse. Sadly, very little remains of Nethertown farm. Returning to Map 1 above, Nethertown has already given its name to Nethertown Burn which rises in the parish of Kirkconnel, Dumfriesshire and enters the parish of New Cumnock at Nethertown farm before progressing to join the River Nith.

There is no sign of a ruined farmhouse of any shape or form the along the stretch of Longhouse Burn but the burn passes only 250 yards to the west of the ruins of Nethertown farm as it makes its way to join the River Nith. It is therefore proposed that Longhouse Burn also takes its name from Nethertown farm, albeit through the form of the farm building rather than by its name!

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

References

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

[2] National Trust for Scotland | Moirlanich Longhouse

[3] New Cumnock Place-Names | Nethertown

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)|Longhouse Burn

Map 2: Ordnance Survey Maps – 25 inch 1st edition, Scotland, 1855-1882 (1856) |Longhouses, Old Cumnock

Map 3: Ordnance Survey Maps – 25 inch 1st edition, Scotland, 1855-1882 (1856) |Longhouse Burn and Nethertown

Ordnance Survey Name Books

By Permission of Scotland’s Places

scotlandsplaces.gov.uk

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