Fife Place-name Data :: Kingscairn

Kingscairn

Kingscairn # CRA S NO534096 2

Jonet Pete in the Kingiscarne 1515 Fife Ct. Bk. 13
the gound of Kingiscarne 1515 Fife Ct. Bk. 13
landis of Kingiscarne 1515 Fife Ct. Bk. 14 [held in tack of David Spence of Wormiston (Wilmerstoune) CRA]
The Kingis Carne c.1560 s Assumption, 177 [1 boll of meal, to Haddington Priory]
Kingis-Carne 1571 RMS iv no. 1978 [to Patrick Lord Lindsay of Byres the lands of Wormiston (Wolmerstoun), Kingscairn, *Braidleas (Breidles) CRA]
Kingiscarne 1594 RMS vi no. 100 [‘... Wormestoun, Braidlayis and Kingiscarne ...’]
lie steid nuncupat. Kingis-cairne 1610 RMS vii no. 404 [‘the steading called Kingscairn’; see discussion below]
predio vocato Kingiscairne 1642 RMS ix no. 1141 [‘a farm called Kingscairn’; see discussion below]
Kings-cairne 1673 Retours (Fife) no. 1126 [‘a piece of land called Kingscairn in the muir called Crailmoor # CRA, extending to 40 acres of arable land’ (pecia terrae vocata Kings-cairne in mora vocata Crailles Muire, extendente ad 40 acras arabilis terrae)]
Kingscairn 1795 Sasines no. 4258 [excepted from the barony of Airdrie CRA, along with Castlefield and Sypsies (Sipses) CRA]

Sc king + Sc cairn

‘King’s cairn’, in the sense of a cairn marking the limit of royal demesne. The cairn was close to Kingscairn Mill (see below), hence the NGR given. This is the place at which the Dunino Burn becomes the DNO/CRA boundary, which was also the north-western limit of the royal territory of Kingsmuir, q.v.

Some doubt might be cast on this location by its repeated association with Wormiston CRA in the sixteenth century, toward the eastern end of the parish. If the 1594 RMS entry above is read as a geographical cluster, then we might expect to find Kingiscarne on the north or north-west of the burgh of Crail, close to Wormiston and Braidleas #, with which it is associated in some of the early references. On the other hand, we cannot assume that names which cluster in charters represent places which are clustered on the ground. The above-noted RMS entry for 1610 refers to a confirmation by James VI of the sale by James Spence of Wormiston (Wolmerstoun) with the consent of Robert Lumsden of Airdrie (Ardrie) to Jeremy Lindsay of Dunino of the office of Keeper of the Kingsmuir of Crail (the Kingis-mure of Craill). With that office go various lands in Kingsmuir, but the charter reserves (i.e. keeps out of the contract) ‘the steading called Kingscairn, with 40 acres of arable land on the western side of the said muir’ (lie steid nuncupat. the Kingis-cairne cum 40 acris arabilibus ex occidentali parte dicte more), with a toft and pasture, and a mill built on it, previously sold by the said Robert Lumsden to William Turnbull of Pittencrieff.[109] This alone locates Kingcairn unambiguously at the west end of the muir, and so at the west end of the parish, near the known site of Kingscairn Mill (1855). Note also that the Sasine of 1795 excepts Kingscairn from the barony of Airdrie, which is much closer to the north-west of CRA parish, where Kingscairn Mill was situated. Therefore the sixteenth-century connection of Kingscairn with Wormiston and Braidleas must have been tenurial rather than geographical.