Blair
Blair # BGY S NT1596 2
Blair 1654 Blaeu (Gordon) Fife
Blair Colvin 1753 Roy sheet 17, 5 [probably for Colville, granted the lands of Blaircushnie in 1618; see Blaircushnie BGY below]
Cotts of Blair 1753 Roy sheet 17, 5 [to north-east of Blair Colvin]
E Blair 1775 Ainslie/Fife
East Blair 1827 Ainslie/West Fife
E. Blair 1828 SGF
G blàr
‘Open, level land, muir’. It would appear that Blair was the name of extensive lands which straddled the Cleish and Ballingry boundary, later the county boundary between FIF and KNR, but completely within FIF up until 1685, when the parish of Cleish became part of KNR. It seems also to have included the northern part of BEA (formerly DFL). It has generated the following names: in Cleish parish, Blairadam, known simply as Blair until the purchase of the estate by the architect William Adam in the early eighteenth century (Lang 1951, 31), Blairfordel, Blairforge, Blair Hill Wood and North Blair (all on OS Pathf.), also Blaircrambeth # (or Blair of Crambeth #) near Dowhill, formerly Crambeth; in BGY, Blair Mill and Blaircushnie # or East Blair (now Benarty House NT156965); and in BEA Blairenbathie, and probably Blairathie #. All these lands are contiguous, which justifies seeing them as some kind of early unit. Might we be seeing here an underlying Blair Fife or Blair Fothrif, on a par with Blair Gowrie and Blair Atholl PER?
This place-name appeared in printed volume 1