Hill Of Beath
Hill Of Beath BEA DFL S NT150900 1 384 145m
Bonaleis-Becht 1557 x 1585 RMS v no. 898
Baith-under-the-hill 1563 RMS iv no. 1476
Bonaylay Brae 1557 x 1585 Dunf. Reg. p. 488 [Brae is for Beath; feued to William Bonally (Bonaylay)]
Baith-Bonalay 1580 RMS iv no. 2959 [feued to John Durie by commendator of Dunfermline Abbey]
Baith under the hill 1626 Retours (Fife) no. 382 [to Robert Mudie portioner of Masterton (Maistertoun) DFL half the vill and lands of Baith under the hill alias Swyntounis-Baith in the parish of Dunfermline]
Baithe under the hill 1627 Retours (Fife) no. 386 [to James Dewar of Baithe-Banaley, half the vill and lands of Baithe under the hill called Baithe-Banaley in the parish of Dunfermline]
(James Dewar of) Baithe-Banaley 1627 Retours (Fife) no. 386
Bonally Beth 1642 Gordon MS Fife
Beth hill 1642 Gordon MS Fife [for the relief feature the Hill of Beath]
Hills of Bath 1654 Blaeu (Pont) West Fife [for the relief feature the Hill of Beath]
Bonalle Beth 1654 Blaeu (Gordon) Fife
Baith under the Hill 1671 Retours (Fife) no. 1089 [to James Dewar of Bonaleyesbaithe half the vill and lands of Baith-Bonaley commonly called Baith under the Hill in the parish of Dunfermline (although since 1643, in the parish of Beath: see BEA Introduction)]
(James Dewar of) Bonaleyesbaithe 1671 Retours (Fife) no. 1089
Hillbeath Ainslie/Fife 1775 [beside Swintonbeath]
Hill of Beath 1828 SGF [beside Swintonsbeath]
Hill of Beath 1856 OS 6 inch 1st edn. [beside Swinton’s Beath]
en Hill of Beath
Today The Hill of Beath (always with the definite article) refers to the conspicuous hill (240 m) beside the M90 north-east of Dunfermline, while the settlement at the east end of that hill is called Hill of Beath (no definite article). On Gordon MS Fife (1642) the hill is called Beth hill (not named on Blaeu (Gordon) Fife), the settlement is called Bonally Beth; on Blaeu (Pont) West Fife (1654) the hill is Hills of Bath; on Moll/Fife (1745) the hill is Hills of Bath, the settlement Bonalle Beth, while on SGF (1828), the hill is called Beath Hill, and the settlement Hill of Beath. The older name of the settlement was *Beath under the Hill. It was divided into two parts, one called *Bonally-Beath, which seems to have become known simply as Hill of Beath etc. by the eighteenth century; the other was Swinton’s Beath (q.v.), which kept its own identity until the nineteenth century. On SGF (1828) and OS 6 inch 1st edn. (1856), Swinton’s Beath and Hill of Beath are shown as neighbouring settlements on the south-eastern slope of The Hill of Beath, quite separate from the modern village of Hill of Beath, which lies almost 1 km to the east, and which supplies the above NGR. It can therefore be concluded that Bonally-Beath lay at NT141901. The modern village of Hill of Beath is first shown on the OS 1 inch 2nd edn. of 1899.
In 1533 David Bonnaly along with Mark Swynton raised an action in the regality court of Dunfermline against Master Andrew Stewart (Andro Stwart) and Thomas Keir (Thom Keyr) regarding the possession of ‘ane moss’. Given that all these surnames appear as Beath proprietorial names, we can safely assume that the moss in question was somewhere in Beath near the estates containing these surnames, i.e near the Hill of Beath (Dunf. Reg. Ct. Bk. 99). We can also assume that the Bonally family was in half the lands of *Beath under the Hill by this time.[69]
This place-name appeared in printed volume 1