Earnside
Earnside ABE A NO2518 2
in quarrario meo de Hyrneside 1199 x 1214 Lind. Cart. no. 7 [Earl David of Huntingdon grants to the monks of Lindores Abbey the right to take stone from his quarry of Earnside, for building their church and other buildings they might need; the date is calculated from the fact that this grant is not mentioned in the great foundation charter 1198 x 1199; and as David describes himself as the brother of the king of Scots, it must be before the death of William in 1214]
subtus Yrenside 1304 CDS iv, 477 [see discussion]
cum custodia silve regie de Irneside 1451 (May) RMS ii no. 445 [see also Lind. Lib. p. 19; king grants to Lindores Abbey lands of Parkhill ABE ‘with the guardianship of the royal wood of Earnside in the said lands (of Parkhill), and the profits which belong to the guardianship’ (in terris predictis et proficuis ad ejusdem custodiam pertinentibus)]
silva de Irneside 1451 (October) RMS ii no. 500 [king grants to Sir Wm Monypeny lands of Parkhill ABE with wood of Earnside in exchange for lands of Larbertsheils (Lethbertschelis) STL, formerly granted by king to said Wm]
Blak Irnsyde 1471 x 1478 Wallace x, 90 (vol. ii, 3) [‘In Abyrnethy (he) tuk lugyng that fyrst nycht./ Apon the morn with xv hundreth men / Till Blak Irnsyde his gydys couth thaim ken’]
Irneside 1504 TA ii, 425 [‘for drawing of the schip tymmir in Irneside to the water, and for schipping of it’]
silvam de Irnside 1527 RMS iii no. 421 [and lands of Parkhill ABE feued by king to Janet Berclay in life rent, and to her son John Inche and his heirs]
Irnesideslak 1541 RMS iii no. 2460 [with Sc slack ‘hollow or low pass’]
Ironsydewood 1590 x 1599 Pont MS 54B
Yronsydwood c.1636 x 1652 Gordon MS 54A
Ironsyde wood 1642 Gordon MS Fife [or possibly -woods]
Irnesydeslake 1646 RMS ix no. 1691
Ironsyd wood 1654 Blaeu (Pont) East Fife
Yronsyd Wood 1654 Blaeu (Gordon) Fife
(pasture in) Earnsyid Slack 1674 Retours (Fife) no. 1134
(pasture in) Earnesyde Slack 1675 Retours (Fife) no. 1143
Ironside Slack 1808 Sasines no. 8054 [written erroneously as Ironside, Slack]
Black Earnside 1855 OS 6 inch 1st edn [‘Site of Battle of Black Earnside AD 1300’]
Sc hyrne or Sc iron + Sc side
‘Corner or angle (hill-)side’, if the first element contains an OSc word related to OE hyrne ‘corner’; otherwise ‘iron (hill-)side’ i.e. hill-side where iron-bearing rocks are found. The early forms suggest the former, but early spellings of hyrn etc. for Sc iron do occur (see DOST under irne).
This wood, a royal hunting forest, stretched along the side of what is now Park Hill and Silver Hill. The quarry of Ironside, mentioned c.1200, is at NO255186, and is now disused. See Lind. Cart. p. 237.
It was the site of the last recorded military action of William Wallace: in September 1304 Thomas of Umfraville ‘died during a raid or foray made on William Wallace below Earnside’ (CDS iv, 477) (mortu<us> apud fugam factam super William le Waleys subtus Yrenside).
By the late seventeenth century the first element had become assimilated to Earn, with ‘Site of Battle of Black Earnside’ marked on the OS 6 inch 1st edn below Silver Hill.[27] This change came about through the general proximity of the well-known river Earn, although Ironside lies some 5 km east of the point where the Earn enters the Tay by Abernethy. The battle is also commemorated in the local place-name OS Pathf. Wallace’s Bridge ABE (NO258192).
The earliest charter issued in favour of Inchcolm Priory (1162 × 1169 Inchcolm Chrs. no. 1) states that Gregory bishop of Dunkeld grants to the canons on Inchcolm the teind of all his cain ‘on this side of’ (citra) Irenside’. This is more likely to refer to Ironside Hill above Tealing ANG.[28]
This place-name appeared in printed volume 4