Sillerhole
Sillerhole SCO S NO382016 1 373 25m
Silliehole 1614 RMS vii no. 1097 [lands of Coldstream (Cauldstreame) SCO and Sillerhole; part of lands and barony of Durie]
Sillieholl 1662 Retours (Fife) no. 920 [Gibson of Durie, in barony of Durie]
Silliehole 1699 Retours (Fife) no. 1425
Silver Hall 1775 Ainslie/Fife
Sellerholl 1798 RHP866/2
Cellarhole early 19 th c. Durie Plan (CMC) [part of the Estate of Durie]
Silver Hole 1855 OS 6 inch 1st edn
Siller Hole 1927 OS 1 inch ‘Popular’ edn
Sc silly + Sc holl
‘Hollow place with poor land’. Now part of the town of Leven, it consisted formerly of the houses of workers at the Durie colliery. In the mid-nineteenth century it was supposed locally that the settlement got its name from Silverhole Den, through which the Scoonie Burn flows, so-called because ‘a quantity of silver was found in it formerly’ (OS Name Book 96, 33). This is clearly a folk-etymology which has probably arisen from the confusion of Sc silly and Sc siller ‘silver’. For a similar confusion or re-interpretation, see Silverton ADN (PNF 1). The holl may in fact be Sillerhole Den itself, the epexegetic den added as the holl- element came to be re-interpreted as SSE hole.
The Sillerhole Den was once the focus of much mining activity, with three coal pits and two ochre pits in the vicinity, commercial ochre production having begun c.1830. Sillerhole Den, which was also known locally as Spinkie Den (Sc spinkie ‘primrose’), is now Letham Glen Public Park, named after the former land-owner John Letham, who gifted the land to Leven Town Council for the purposes of making a public park, opened as such in 1925.[298]
This place-name appeared in printed volume 2