Kilrenny

Kilrenny KRY PS NO575048 1 25m

(church of) Kylrethni 1165 x 1172 Dryb. Lib. no. 16 [16th c. copy; rubric]
(church of) Kylreny 1165 x 1172 Dryb. Lib. no. 16 [16th c. copy]
(church of) Kylrethny 1165 x 1178 RRS ii no. 89 [rubric]
ecclesia de Kilreny 1165 x 1178 RRS ii no. 89 [= Dryb. Lib. no. 17 (16th c. copy); for dating, see KRY Introduction, The Later Medieval Church, note]
ecclesiam de Kilrethny in Scotia 1170 x 1172 Dryb. Lib. no. 253 [16th c. copy; papal confirmation; see KRY Introduction]
ecclesiam de Kilrethny 1184 Dryb. Lib. no. 249 [16th c. copy; papal confirmation]
Kylreny 1214 x 1233 Dryb. Lib. no. 18 [16th c. copy; rubric]
ecclesia de Kilrethny 1214 x 1233 Dryb. Lib. no. 18 [16th c. copy; William earl of Buchan (d. 1233), with the consent of Margaret countess of Buchan (whom he married in 1211), confirms to Dryburgh Abbey the grant of Countess Ada of blessed memory of the church of Kilrenny with all its pertinents ‘for the soul of my lord William king of Scots and for the soul of the said Countess Ada, mother of the said king, and for the salvation (salute) of my soul and of my wife and of my children, and for the souls of my predecessors and successors’; from the wording it would appear that King William is dead; see also KRY Introduction, The Later Medieval Church]
(William chaplain of) Kilredeni 1178 x 1205 St A. Lib. 382
ecclesi<a> de Kelroth’ 1222 St A. Lib. 324 [the fishermen of Kilrenny parish will not pay teinds or church dues to St Andrews, when they land there, but to their mother-church of Kilrenny]
parochia de Kilroth’ 1222 St A. Lib. 324 [the fishermen of St Andrews parish will not pay teinds etc. when they land in Kilrenny parish, but to their mother-church of St Andrews]
ecclesi<a> de Kilrethny 1222 Dryb. Lib. no. 98 [16th c. copy; concerning fishermen of St Andrews and Kilrenny, as in St A. Lib. 324, above]
parochiam de Kilrethny 1225 Dryb. Lib. no. 192 [a burn (the Dreel Burn) is the boundary between the parish of KRY and that of ANR; see KRY Introduction]
(church of) Kilretheny 1243 MS Paris BN latin 1218 [consecrated by Bishop David de Bernham]
ecclesia de Kylrethny c.1250 Dunf. Reg. no. 313
ecclesia de Kilretheni c.1250 St A. Lib. 33
Kylrethny 1266 Dryb. Lib. no. 19 [16th c. copy; a plot (placia) beside the church of Kilrenny, with houses in it]
Kilrethny 1269 Dryb. Lib. no. 40 [16th c. copy; Gamelin, bishop of St Andrews: Dryburgh Abbey to pay the secular vicar who ministers in the church of Kilrenny 10 merks sterling yearly; the vicar will pay to the bishop, for his houses on the bishop’s land, 3 shillings yearly]
ecclesiam de Kilrethny c.1300 Dryb. Lib. no. 291 [16th c. copy; the church of Kilrenny with ‘all its pertinents and rights’ (pertinenciis et rectitudinibus suis), one of properties confirmed by Bp William Lamberton to Dryburgh Abbey]
ecclesia de Kilrethny 1318 Dryb. Lib. no. 293 [16th c. copy]
vicarius de Kilrethny 1318 Dryb. Lib. no. 293 [16th c. copy]
the kyrk of Kylrenny c.1535 Dryb. Lib. p. 332 [16th c. copy]
Kilrynnie 1579 APS iii, 167 [also Kilrynne]
Kylrynnie 1579 APS iii, 168 [also Kylrynny]
villam de Kylrinny 1578 RMS iv no. 2831 [erected as burgh of regality]
in parochia de Kilrynny 1580 x 1592 RMS v no. 2206 [the lands of East Pitcorthie KRY, q.v., ‘in the parish of Kilrenny’]
Kilrenie 1632 Whyte Almanac [a fair in April ‘in Kilrenie the 30 day’]
Kilreny 1632 Whyte Almanac [a fair in October ‘in Kilreny 25 day’]
Kilruny 1635 Retours (Fife) no. 521 [Catharine Cook (Cuik), ‘in the small croft or garden and a doocot in the vill or lands of Kilrenny, with a teind of whatever fish are landed and which belong in any way whatever to the vicarage of Kilrenny’ (in crofta parva seu horta et columbario in villa seu terris de Kilruny, cum decimis piscium quarumcunque advenientium et vicariae de Kilruny quovismodo spectantium)]
Killryny 1642 Gordon MS Fife [name attached to the settlement]
Kill-irenee 1642 Gordon MS Fife [name attached to the church]
Kilrumy 1654 Blaeu (Pont) East Fife
Killrynie 1654 Blaeu (Gordon) Fife [name attached to the settlement]
Killrynie K<irk> 1654 Blaeu (Gordon) Fife [name attached to the church]
Kilrinny 1662 Lamont’s Diary 147
Kilrynnie 1667 Retours (Fife) no. 1008 [Pitkeirie in the parish of Kilrynnie]
Kilerynie 1684 Adair/East Fife
Kilreny 1753 Roy sheet 19, 5
Kilrenny 1775 Ainslie/Fife [And. Johnston Esqr.]

G cill + pn Ethernan

The first element is G cill ‘church’, indicating in Fife an early ecclesiastical foundation, perhaps as early as around AD 700 (see Taylor 1996). That it was an ecclesiastical site by this date is confirmed by the early Christian carved stone known as the Skeith Stone (q.v.). The second element is probably a hypcorism of Ethernan, the saint of the Isle of May, who may be the Ithernan whose death ‘among the Picts’ (apud Pictores) is recorded in the Annals of Ulster under the year 669 (see Yeoman 1998).[201] For a probable rendering of the name Ethernan as Rininus see RRS vi no. 291 (1363), where one silver penny is paid ‘on the feast of St Rininus’ (ad festum sancti Rinini) at the parish church of Anstruther. See KRY Introduction, St Ethernan, for a full discussion of this saint and his cult.

The Rev. Mr William Beat, minister and native of Kilrenny, writing in the Statistical Account of Scotland in the late eighteenth century, records the following curious information about local custom and the dedication of Kilrenny church: ‘The name of the parish seems to be derived from the saint to whom the church was dedicated, viz St Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons, whose fame for piety was at that time great throughout Christendom. What serves to confirm the origin of the name is, that fishermen, who have marked out the steeple of this church for a meath or mark to direct them at sea, call it St Irnie to this day; and the estate which lies close by the church is called Irnie-hill; but by the transposition of the letter i, Rinnie-hill. What adds to the probability of this interpretation, is a tradition still existing here, that the devotees at Anstruther, who could not see the church of Kilrenney till they travelled up the rising ground to what they called the Hill, then pulled off their bonnets, fell on their knees, crossed themselves, and prayed to St Irnie’ (OSA, 475).[202]

That the saint was known locally as ‘Irnie’ or the like in the early modern period is confirmed by the name attached to Kilrenny kirk on the Gordon MS map of Fife, drafted in the 1640s, viz Kill-irenee. This form may have been influenced by the belief that the saint in question was Irenaeus.

The NGR is of the parish kirk, which stands on the east edge of the village of Kilrenny. OS Pathf. also shows Kilrenny Burn, Kilrenny Common (NO574055) and Kilrenny Mill (q.v.).

/kɪlˈrɛnɪ/, also /kɪlˈrɪnɪ/.[203]

This place-name appeared in printed volume 3