Blacketyside
Blacketyside SCO S NO385028 1 373 45m SEF
Blacklyside 1753 Roy sheet 18, 1 [probably an error for Blacktyside]
Blackitty Side 1775 Ainslie/Fife
Blackatie Side 1796 RHP866/1 [part of the estate of Aithernie (Athernie)]
Blecktyside 1798 RHP866/2
Blacketyside 1827 Ainslie/East Fife
Blackity Side 1828 SGF
Blacketyside 1855 OS 6 inch 1st edn
Blacketyside Farm 1889 Blacketyside Plan [John Gilmour]
Blacketyside 1956 OS 1:25,000 (reprinted 1959)
Blacketyside Farm 2001 OS Explorer
? + Sc side
The first element may be related to the Scottish surname Blackett, which itelf derives from a northern English place-name Blackett, originally Black Head (see Black 1946, 79).
OS Pathf. also shows Blacketyside Cottages, which are on the farm of Blacketyside but in LAR.
Blacketyside is quite revealing in terms of the evolution of field-names. RHP866/1, a plan of the ‘Estate of Athernie’, made in 1796, gives all seven fields on Blacketyside (Blackatie Side) (excluding Muirton LAR) names, all of which are completely transparent and very descriptive: Westfield, Townfield, East Field, Braes, Middlefield, South Field and South West Field. About a hundred years later, on the Blacketyside Plan of 1889, all these field-names have evolved into much more individual and less transparent ones, including: East Leckerston and West Leckerston (for which see under Leckerstone # SCO, below), Mourner’s Park, East Horn and West Horn (see under Mounthorn Wood, below), Sucky Knowe (east of the house), Andrew Blyth’s Park, Charlies Park and Purley Hill (between the Letham Burn and the Cupar road, north of West Leckerston). Not a single name from the 1796 plan has survived. In contrast, Mr A. W. Clark, now retired, who farmed Blacketyside in the latter half of the twentieth century, reports that all the 1889 field-names are still in use. The earlier names suggest a newly-created farming unit with names imposed by a surveyor, while the later names reflect much more intimate interaction with the established local toponymy, and with local characters.
The 1889 Plan also shows that by this time Blacketyside had acquired the lands of Muirton LAR (q.v.), which now forms the eastern part of the farm. This explains why the farm is partly in SCO, partly in LAR.
While OS Explorer Blacketyside Farm refers to what is otherwise known as Blacketyside, the most recent OS data (2006 OS 1:10,000 digital) shows Blacketyside Farm at the former site of Muirton LAR (NO388026).
/ˈblakətɪ said/
This place-name appeared in printed volume 2