Grangemuir

Grangemuir ANR S NO539041 2 30m

Grande-Mure 1452 x 1480 RMS ii no. 1444 [for Grange-Mure; one of the lands belonging to Pittenweem Priory]
Granghemure 1523 St A. Formulare no. 42 [see discussion below]
lacus de Granghemure 1523 St A. Formulare no. 42 [see discussion below]
Grange-mure 1526 RMS iii no. 388 [one of the lands of Pittenweem Priory]
Grangemuris Eister et Wester 1559 x 1587 RMS v no. 1175 [amongst Pittenweem Priory lands]
Petro Borthuik in Grangmure 1583 x 1593 RMS v no. 2324 [Peter Borthwick in Grangemuir]
(an eighth of the vill, lands and muir of) Graingmure 1591 RMS v no. 1938 [also ‘an acre called *Goose Acre’ (acram vocatam Goisaiker) etc.; much local detail; see ANR Introduction; ‘in the lordship of Pittenweem’ (in dominio de Pittinweme)]
the Fitchehill de Graingmure 1591 RMS v no. 1938 [see ANR Introduction]
Grangemures 1604 Retours (Fife) no. 143 [the plural form probably signifies the two estates, Easter and Wester]
terras de Grangmure-Eister 1609 RMS vii no. 11 [amongst lands formerly belonging to Pittenweem Priory, lands of Grangemuir-Easter and Green Dykes (Greindykes) PIT ‘with enclosures and meadows’ (cum wardis et pratis)]
Graingmure 1634 Retours (Fife) no. 505 [the eastern part of the lands and toun of Grangemuir, with three acres of land and the meadow called *Skinner Meadow (Skinner-medow)]
Grangmuir 1642 Gordon MS Fife
Grangmwir 1647 Retours (Fife) no. 728 [‘the lands called Lochend, alias an eighth part of the lands of Grangemuir’ (terris nuncupatis Lochend, alias octava pars terrarum de Grangmwir)]
? Craig 1654 Blaeu (Pont) East Fife [for Pont’s original *Grange or *Graing?]
E. Grangemuir 1654 Blaeu (Gordon) Fife
W. Grangemuir 1654 Blaeu (Gordon) Fife
(the eighth part of) Graingmure 1661 RMS xi no. 131 [the lands called Lochend (Lochead) alias the eighth part of Grangemuir (Graingmure); see Lochend # ANR]
Grangmoores Easter et Wester 1668 Retours (Fife) no. 1025 [in barony of Pittenweem, lying north of its river]
Graingemoore 1672 Retours (Fife) no. 1111 [Andrew Hamilton (Hamiltoun) son of William Hamilton of Grangemuir, in ‘2 acres of arable land near the burgh of Anstruther Wester’ (2 acris terrae arabilis prope burgum de Anstruther-Westir)]
Grangemure-Eister 1672 Retours (Fife) no. 1112 [the lands of Grangemuir Easter, ‘designated in ancient infeftments as the eastern half of the lands of Grangemuir’ (in antiquis infeofamentis orientalem dimidietatem terrarum de Grangemure designatis)]
Grangemuir 1753 Roy sheet 19, 5
E. Grange 1753 Roy sheet 19, 5
E Grangemoor 1775 Ainslie/Fife
Mid Grangemoor 1775 Ainslie/Fife
W Grangemoor 1775 Ainslie/Fife [on site of OS Explorer Grangemuir House]
Grangemuir 1828 SGF [and Grangemuir F<ar>m]
Grangemuir 1855 OS 6 inch 1st edn [= OS Pathf. Easter Grangemuir]
Grangemuir House 1855 OS 6 inch 1st edn

Sc grange + Sc muir

‘Muir or rough grazing by or with a grange (monastic farm)’. The first element (grange) might be functioning as a place-name (i.e. ‘muir of a place called Grange’). The monastery in question is May Priory, later known as Pittenweem Priory. On Ainslie/Fife (1775) the lands of Grangemuir are divided into three parts.

The extent of the muir (mora) in question is described in detail in a charter dated 1591, the published edition of which (RMS v no. 1938) does not include this passage: it lies ‘between the Easter Grangemuir on the east side, the arable lands of Pitottar # ANR on the west side, the lands of Falside CBE on the north, and the arable lands of the said lands of Grangemuir on the south.’[9]

The resolution of a dispute concerning part of the muir appears in 1523. The land in question is called ‘a part of the debatable muir commonly called Grangemuir’ (pecia more debatabilis vulgariter le Granghemure nuncupate). A dispute had arisen between Robert Forman, commendator of Pittenweem, on the one hand and George Strang of Balcaskie CBE and the portioners of Balcaskie and Ovenstone CBE on the other. The dispute was resolved by a perambulation recorded in the following terms: ‘as the mill lade descends from the mill of Ovenstone and comes to the end of the cultivated land of the said George Strang, from there it flows east on the eastern side of the Grangemuir loch, and from the said eastern side of the said loch as far as the newly built byre below Pitottar ANR aligned north to south,[10] and going from the eastern side of the said byre below Pitottar in a straight line towards the byre of the said George Strang of Balcaskie, commonly called The *Mirybutts (Merybuttis),[11] towards the north-west, and from the said *Mirybutts, on the other side, keeping going on down as far as the edge of the cultivated land belonging to the said George, as far as the said mill lade flowing down from the said mill of Ovenstone CBE to the north’ (St A. Formulare i no. 42).[12]

The description of 1591 and the perambulation of 1523 suggest that the original centre of the estate was what later became Wester Grangemuir, close to OS Pathf. Grangemuir House; hence the NGR given.

The peat-moss which lay close to Grangemuir House was drained in the 1820s (NSA ix, 616–17) and is now arable land.

/grenӡ mjur/

This place-name appeared in printed volume 3