Pitottar
Pitottar # ANR S NO530046 1 40m
Petother 1195 x 1199 RRS ii no. 376 [granted to the church of the Isle of May]
Peto<t>yr’ 1323 Dunf. Reg. no. 364 [Dunf. Reg. has Petocyr’; settlement anent teinds; for context, see Tarbreakes SMS, below]
Pettotyr 1452 x 1480 RMS ii no. 1444 [Pittenweem Priory land]
Pettotyr 1480 APS ii, 195
Pettottir 1523 St A. Formulare no. 42 [see Grangemuir ANR, above]
Petottir 1526 RMS iii no. 388 [one of lands of monastery of Pittenweem alias the Isle of May]
Pettotar 1541 RMS iii no. 2292 [confirmed to monastery of Pittenweem]
Pittoter 1559 x 1587 RMS v no. 1175 [one of lands of Pittenweem Priory]
Pittoter 1591 NAS C.2.38 part i, no. 142 [the arable lands of Pitottar are described as the western limit of the muir of Grangemuir; this passage is not in the published version of the charter (RMS v no. 1938), where the muir is said to lie ‘intra bondas specificatas’; see Grangemuir ANR for full details]
Pittetie 1604 Retours (Fife) no. 143 [the context indicates that Pitottar is the name represented by this strange form: with the service of the tenants of Pittenweem, on the north side of the river, i.e. Grangemuir (Easter and Wester) ANR, Lochend # ANR, Falside CBE and Lingo CBE. The editor may have confused Pitottar with Piteadie KGH]
Pittotar 1647 Retours (Fife) no. 728 [parts and pendicles of the lordship or barony of Pittenweem (Pettenweyme) called Pitottar]
Pittoter 1667 RMS xi no. 1121 [‘the moor lying between the lands of Grangemuire E’er on the east, Pittoter on the west, Fawsyde (Falside CBE) on the north, and arable lands of Grange on the south’]
Pittoter 1668 Retours (Fife) no. 1025 [in barony of Pittenweem]
Pittotter 1775 Ainslie/Fife
Pitottar 1855 OS 6 inch 1st edn
Pittoter 1870 Elie Disposition fo 50v. [Pittoter and Hole]
G pett + ? G foithir or ? G othar
G foithir ‘(terraced) slope’ (see Watson 1926, 509–12) seems unlikely, as there is nothing in the topography around Pitottar corresponding to such a feature. However, foithir may also be a G adaptation of a Pictish word *uotir ‘territory’, perhaps some kind of administrative unit (see Taylor 2000, 205; and foithir in Elements Glossary, PNF 5), found in e.g. Fettercairn and Dunottar KCD.
Another possibility for the second element is G othar (m.), marked by Dwelly as obsolete, (OIr othar, o-stem, m. originally neut.?), meaning ‘work, labour’, which seems to occur in the Irish place-name (now obsolete?) Dún Da n-Othar (‘fort of two labours’), quoted by Pokorny ZCP xiv (1923), 270–1; it can also mean ‘wage, recompense, due’ (DIL and Dwelly).
A ruined house stands at this site, at the western end of Hamilton Wood (visited 12 May 2006). Substantial parts of the walls remain to near roof height, along with some remnants of its boundary wall.
This place-name appeared in printed volume 3