Mandrethin
Mandrethin # KWY O NO348024 3
spelunca Mandrethin 1164 x 1178 St A. Lib. 259 [grant to St Andrews Priory by Merleswain son of Colban; also the following charter, grant of the same lands by Merleswain son of Merleswain; see Kennoway Introduction for context]
speluncca Mandrethin 1189 x 1195 RRS ii no. 333 [= St A. Lib. 231; William I confirms Merleswain’s grant]
spelunca Mandrethin 1228 St A. Lib. 235 [confirmation of Merleswain’s charter by Alexander II]
It is impossible to do more than speculate about the meaning of Mandrethin, the name of a cave, cavern or den (Latin spelunca). The first element may be from Pictish *main (c.f. Welsh maen) ‘stone’, while the final element appears to be the locational suffix –in. Alternatively, it may be a personal name, to be interpreted as ‘the cave of or associated with a person called Mandrethin’.
Barrow (RRS ii p. 339) suggests that ‘the valley from the cave (of) Mandrethin as far as the western limit of that valley’ (uallem a speluncca Mandrethin usque ad metam occidentalem ipsius uallis) may be Meggie Den. OS Pathf. shows the Meggie Den Burn flowing through it, forming here the parish boundary of KWY and SCO. However, the den (vallis) is more likely to be the Kennoway Den with its various caves, for which see *Pittendweem KWY.
This place-name appeared in printed volume 2