Black Hill
Black Hill FAL R NO227076 1 373 230m NOF
the Blakhill 1602 RMS vi no. 1349 [‘the right of commonty in the part of the Lomonds of Falkland called the Black Hill’ (jus commonie in parte lie Lowmonthis de Falkland nuncupata the Blakhill)]
the Black Hill 1757 Falkland Plan/1757 [described as ‘short heathy pasture’]
the Black Hill 1790s OSA, 353
Black Hill 1856 OS 6 inch 1st edn
Sc black + Sc hill
This name refers to a steep slope on the northern side of the Lomond Hills, overlooking the Arraty Burn and Chancefield. Note its proximity to other places containing colour adjectives, viz Redhill # FAL, Bluebrae FAL and Green Hill FAL (q.v.), with which last it is probably contrastively named. The Rev. Andrew Brown minister of Falkland comments on Black Hill: ‘[It] is totally covered with a short heath, interspersed here and there with abrupt and rugged masses of freestone rock. It is well named the Black Hill ... the face of the hill, which is called the Stony Fold, is covered with loose heaps of blue moor-stone’ (OSA, 353). This is echoed in the OS Name Book’s explanation of the name (27, 50), that it ‘was termed the Black Hill from its dark and dreary appearance’.
This place-name appeared in printed volume 2