Dalginch
Dalginch KWY MAI S NO312023 1 373 115m SOF
Nes de Dalginge c.1160 x 1172 N. Berwick Cart. no. 3 [‘c.1170’ Barrow 1980, 194; w. to a charter of Earl Duncan II of Fife]
apud Delke< >he ?1165 x 1214 NAS PA5/1, fo 61r [‘Berne MS’, the earliest MS (late 13th-c.) of the passage in Leges Scocie cited below; the letters nc are lost due to damage at the edge of the MS; said to be an assize of William I]
apud Dalgynche ?1165 x 1214 NLS MS. 21246, fo 145r [‘Bute Manuscript’ (14th c.) of Leges Scocie, though here included among statuta Regis Alexandri (‘acts of King Alexander’), following the section Leges Regis Willelmi]
apud Dalginsch ?1165 x 1214 NLS Adv. MS. 25.5.10, fo 130v [‘Cromarty Mauscript’ (?14th c.) of Leges Scocie]
apud Dalgynch 1214 x 1249 NLS MS. 21246, fo 33r [‘Bute Manuscript’ (14th c.) of Regiam Maiestatem]
apud Dalginche 1214 x 1249 NLS Adv. MS. 25.5.10, fo 41r [‘Cromarty Manscript’ (?14th c.) of Regiam Maiestatem]
apud Dalgynche 1214 x 1249 NLS Adv. MS. 25.4.129, fo 23r [MS dated 1439; in Regiam Maiestatem]
Dalgingh c.1288 x 1296 SHS Misc iv, 322 [William Vallance (de Valoniis), son and heir of the late lord William Vallance, knight, lord of Dalginch in Fife, grants to John of Liddel (de Ledale) all his lands of Panlathy (Panlathy), Balbinnie (Balbany) and Pitcundrum (Petcouray for Petconray), all in Arbirlot ANG]
Dalgynche 1435 NAS GD15/390 [lady Christian Vallance (de Valoniis) grants all her lands to her son, Henry, who in return grants to his mother and her husband Dalginch (Dalgynche) and Brunton (the Burntoun) MAI, for a rent of 32 merks]
(si acres of part of) Dalginch 1491 NAS GD26/3/796 [transumpt of 1649]
(lordship of) Dalginch 1511 RMS ii no. 3642 [see KWY Introduction, Lands, for definition of these lands]
Dalginch 1512 RMS ii no. 3738 [see KWY Introduction, Lands]
(lordship of) Dalginche 1512 RMS ii no. 3738 [see KWY Introduction, Lands]
(meadow of) Dalginch 1512 RMS ii no. 3738 [see KWY Introduction, Lands]
Dalginche 1555 NAS RH2/1/23/3 [John Wardlaw and Elizabeth Beaton (Betoun) ‘franctenementaris of Brontoun (Brunton MAI) and Dalginche’]
Dalginche c.1560 s Purves 155 [‘Brunton & Dalginche’; ?12]
Dalginche 1562 RMS iv no. 1415 [Andrew Wardlaw, lands of Brunton (Brountoun) MAI, Dalginch, ‘with the loch of Balfarg’ (cum lacu de Balquharge) MAI etc., in the barony of Wester Lochoreshire]
in dominio de Dalginsh 1579 Retours (Fife) no. 1454 [‘in the lands of Treaton KWY and Wester Newton MAI (terris de Tratone et Wester Newtone) in the lordship of Dalginch’]
Dallginche 1587 Assumption 15 [teind sheaves of Brunton (Brountoun) and Dalginch; St Andrews Priory]
Dalginche 1605 RMS vi no. 1658 [Andrew Wardlaw, lands of Brunton (Bruntoun), Dalginch, with the loch of Balfarg (Balfarg) MAI]
(in the lordship of) Dalginche 1621 RMS viii no. 195 [to James archbishop of Glasgow, lands of Brunton and Dalginch (Dalginche), which Andrew Wardlaw of Torry (Torrie) TOB and Patrick Wardlaw of Brunton (Bruntoun) resigned, also the Brunton Moss (lie Bruntoun-Mos), lands of Treaton (Trittoun) KWY with marshes, Easter and Wester Newton (Eister et Wester Newtoun) MAI, Over and Nether Markinch (Over et Nether Markinche), lands of Bighty (Bichtie) and Pitenchagal (Pittenhaggillis) MAI in the lordship of Dalginch]
(the barony of) Dalginsh 1653 Retours (Fife) no. 805 [John Pitcairn]
in dominio de Dalginsch 1665 Retours (Fife) no. 978 [see Brunton MAI]
Dalginch 1681 Retours (Fife) no. 1196 [James Turnor, in the lands and barony of Brunton (Brunton) MAI and Dalginch, ‘in MAI and KWY respectively’ (infra parochias de Markinch et Kennoway respective)]
Dallginsh Law 1725 Geog. Coll. i, 301 [‘where the Shiriff Court was kept of old’]
Dulgin law 1753 Roy sheet 18, 1 [not clear whether this refers to the hill or the settlement marked on it, or both]
Delginch Milne 1768 RHP23533 [at site of OS 6 inch 1st edn Brunton Mill (1856) at NO311018]
Commonty of Delginch 1802 RHP23536
Dalginch 1828 SGF
Dalginch 1845 NSA ix, 378 [General Balfour of Balbirnie, proprietor of Lalathan KWY and Dalginch; note (ibid. p. 380) that Dalginch is described as an ‘annexation quoad sacra to Markinch’]
Dalginch Law 1845 NSA ix, 663 [the east end of Markinch Hill [106] is ‘separated from Dalginch Law by a deep and narrow ravine, through which the Balbirnie Burn flows’ (i.e. the upper reaches of OS Pathf. Back Burn and Markinch Burn)]
Dalginch 1856 OS 6 inch 1st edn [beside it, attached to modern farm cottages to east of farm-house, is Bowes]
G dealg + G innis
‘Thorn inch (island, raised land in bog, land beside a river)’. For the possible identification of the inch in question, see below. Obviously an important place of early legal assembly, as indicated by the above references to it in Leges Scocie and Regiam Maiestatem (for discussion see MAI Introduction, Early Importance: Secular), it lay very near what was probably the border between Fife and Fothrif. For other inches as places where courts met, see Threapinch SCO; and for assembly places associated with thorns, compare Coldrain, Fossoway KNR (formerly Tullibole FIF) (Barrow 1981, 15).
The lands of Dalginch were extensive, including at least North Dalginch (by Star) on the north, Brunton on the south-west, and stretching as far as the Back or Markinch Burn on the south (see Markinch Plan/1765, which shows Minister’s Meadows to the west). If so, then the eponymous innis (‘inch, island or low land by a river’) may have been the low but conspicuous ridge where the cemetery now is, on the west side of the burn at Northall. That the inch in question referred to a raised piece of ground surrounded by bog and/or flowing water rather than to a low-lying flood-plain or water-meadow (its other meaning) is strongly suggested by its early function as a place of legal assembly. The Dalginch shown on OS Pathf. at the NGR given above, on its high and exposed hillside, must reflect a removal of the name more than 1 km to the north-east from its original position.
The Laird of Balfour, in his description of Markinch in 1725, writes the following: ‘East from the Town and Kirk of Markinch, about a quarter of a mile, stands the house of Bruntoun now belonging to ... Robertsone, and benorth the house of Bruntoun there is a hill called Dallginsh Law, where the Sheriff Court was kept of old, and benorth that hill is a large moss called Bruntoun Moss, where oak trees of a very surprizing bigness are yearly houed out’ (Geog. Coll. i, 301). By ‘benorth’ he probably meant north-east, since Cuinin Hill lies north of Brunton, while the hill on which OS Pathf. Dalginch sits lies to the north-east. This might help to explain the move of the name from the banks of the Markinch Burn to the site of OS Pathf. Dalginch. We might surmise that the Law or hill was named *Dalginch Law because of its proximity to the important place of legal assembly, Dalginch. When a farm was established on the hill, it was later called Dalginch because it was on *Dalginch Law, not because it was at the site of the original assembly place. The Laird of Balfour has also been misled by the later place-name, Dallginsh Law, into identifying the hill as the site of the assembly.
Roy’s map of the mid-eighteenth century shows a substantial cluster of enclosed lands, with a building in the south-west corner, situated at or near the site of Northhall, on the east side of the burn, west of and downhill from Brunton, which he names as such. This cluster with building may well represent the older Dalginch. It seems that the relative status of Dalginch and Brunton had by this time come to be reversed, with Brunton, originally a sub-division of Dalginch, becoming the chief place of the lands of Brunton and Dalginch. This would explain why Brunton is named on Roy’s map, while Dalginch is not. Roy shows at or near the site of OS Pathf. Dalginch a settlement called Bews (later Bowes, q.v. above), standing on the south side of the hill Dulgin Law (for Dalginch Law).
An estate plan of 1768 (RHP23533) proves conclusively that Dalginch in its present position is a new creation, since it shows in that part of the estate only two settlements, Breas (i.e Braes) and Bowhouse (for which see Bowes # KWY), each with substantial lands within a larger estate which stretched from Star Moss to Treaton Moss. This estate was owned by Arnot of Dalginch, and was designated Bowhouse. Other significant landholdings on the estate include Broomfold, Delginch Milne Lands and Delginch Moss. It calls Dalginch Law Bowhouse Law, and shows Kinning Hill (Cuinin Hill KWY/MAI, for which see Section 1) and a well called Samforr Well. Delginch Milne appears on OS 6 inch 1st edn as Brunton Mill, and has now disappeared (see Brunton MAI, below, for more details).
/dalg ɪntʃ/
This place-name appeared in printed volume 2