| Place-name: | Street |
| Suggested Meaning: | long house, row of cottages |
| element: | SSE street ‘row of cottages’ |
| Place-name: | Craigans |
| Gaelic craig ‘craig, rock’ Gaelic -an ‘small’ | |
| Blaeu Coila (1654): | N/A |
| OS Names (1855-57): | Street |
| Location: | OS Map Six-inch Scotland 1885-1915 |
| Other Early Forms: |
| Craigans of Garclaugh (1813), Craigans (1816), Craigends (1824), Craigend (1852) |
Street
SSE street ‘row of cottages’
The Ordnance Survey Name Book (1855-57) entry for Street reads –
A house the property of Sir James Menteith, called Street because of its length
The ‘Authorities for Spelling’ were William Brown, factor, Nether Linn; William Gibson, Mansfield Cottages and James Houston, junior, Meikle Garclaugh – all tenants of the Sir James Menteith’s Mansfield Estate.
The Census Records of this property causes some confusion with the name change back and forth from Street Cottage to Craigend.
- 1851 Census: Street Cottage x 3
- 1861 Census: Craigend x 3
- 1871 Census: No Record
- 1881 Census: Craigend No. 1, Craigend No. 2, Craigend No.3
- 1891 Census: No Record
- 1901 Census: Street Cottage x 3
- 1911 Census: No Record
- 1921 Census: Street Cottage x 2
The recorded occupations include Limestone Workers, Agricultural Labourers, Farm Overseer, Brick Setter, Coal miner – hewer, Coal miner – drawer, Pointsman railway, Railway surfaceman.
Nothing now remains of Street Cottages with a clump of trees to mark where they once stood.
Craigans
Gaelic creag ‘rock, crag’ Gaelic -an ‘small’
McDerment’s 1852 map of the ‘turnpike and parish roads of New Cumnock‘ shows the place-name Craigend at the location of Street, as shown in the 1856 Ordnance Survey Map above, i.e. south of Glen. Craigend later appears in the 1861 and 1881 Census Records in preference to Street!
The Old Parish Baptism Records reveal the variations of the place-name –
It appears that the Menteath & Spencer and Dempster & Black families were living at Craigends at the same time. Similarly, the 1841 Census Records of Craigends show that the aforementioned Peter Black, limestone worker and Jane Dempster, along with James Ramsie, agricultural labour lived at Craigends alongside neighbours James Chapman, limestone worker and Jane Dalziel and their four children.
The change from the earliest to recent forms of the place-names and their suffixes reads –
Craigans > Craigends > Craigend -ans > -ends > -end
The ‘Place-Names of the Coalfield Communities’ in addressing the place-name Craigens in the parish of Old Cumnock consider its most likely derivation to be [1] –
G creag ‘rock, crag’ with a diminutive ending –an etc., so ‘small crag’. The final s may be the Sc plural ending, indicating some kind of division of lands
Place-Names of the Coalfield Communities: Craigens
The plural form in Craigans of Garclaugh suggests that it is a division of the lands of Garclaugh, which already includes the divisions of Meikle and Little Garclaugh.
Identifying the specific ‘small crag‘ in the landscape of Garclaugh, i.e. Gaelic G. gart ‘an enclosed settlement’ ’G. clach ‘stone or rock’ [2] is difficult is probably nearby the current deserted landscape of Street.
Acknowledgements
| References |
| [1] Place-Names of the Coalfield Communities. 2026. Glasgow: University of Glasgow. https://ayr-placenames.glasgow.ac.uk | Craigens |
| [2] Edward Dwelly , Illustrated Gaelic-English Dictionary | creag |
| [3] Place-Names of New Cumnock | Garclaugh |
| Maps |
| Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland |
| https://maps.nls.uk/ |
| Map 1: Ordnance Survey Maps – Six Inch , 1843-1882 (1857) |Street |
| Map 2: Ordnance Survey Maps – Six Inch , 1855-1882 (1856) | Street |
| Map 3: James Mc. Derment & Sons, Map of the turnpike & parish roads … [for parishes in central Ayrshire] New Cumnock | Craigend |
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