Kinnaird

Kinnaird ABE S NO272174 1 362 85m EAF

    Kynnaird c.1190 x 1214 Lind. Cart., p. 274 [17th c. copy; see discussion]
    de multura de Kynard 1282 Lind. Cart. no. 125 [rubric]
    Kynhard 1282 Lind. Cart. no. 125 [part of this charter (fo 86v) is given in facsimile in Lind. Cart. between pp. 160 and 161]
    Kynhard 1460 Laing 1876, 159 [John Anderson (Andryson) inhabitant of Kinnaird; from the Newburgh Burgh Court Book 1457–1480]
    Kynenerdi c.1480 Laing 1876, 416
    Johnne Stirling in Kynhard 1518 Fife Ct. Bk. 121
    toun of Kynnard c.1560 s Assumption, 32
    baroun of Kynnard 1590 RPC iv, 785
    Kinard 1590 x 1599 Pont MS 54B
    cum aridis multuris de Kynnaird 1600 RMS vi no. 1032 [Denmylne Mill ‘with the dry multures of Kinnaird’; see ABE Intro., Monastic Lands]
    aridam multuram de Kynnaird 1617 RMS vii no. 1721
    Kynard 1654 Blaeu (Pont) East Fife
    Kinaird 1654 Blaeu (Gordon) Fife
    Robert Balfour of Kinneird 1657 Retours (Fife) no. 877
    Kinnaird 1855 OS 6 inch 1st edn

G ceann + ? G an + G àrd or àird

‘End or head of (the) height’ (G ceann àird(e), ceann an àird, ceann na h- àirde). It is unclear whether the definite article formed part of the original place-name. Kinnaird lies on the south-eastern slope of the massif (àird) consisting of Kinnaird Hill, Lindores Hill, Park Hill and Silver Hill (maximum height 178 m).

    The early forms from 1282 given above occur in the context of a dispute between Lindores Abbey and Elcho Priory anent the multure of the land of Kinnaird. There is no contemporary record of how the Cistercian nuns of Elcho came to hold Kinnaird, but according to a seventeenth-century local source, David earl of Huntingdon had granted Kinnaird to Gilbert earl of Strathearn, whose son gave the property to Elcho in the reign of Alexander II (1214–49).[33]

    The cause of the dispute in 1282 was the fact that the nuns had for the previous thirty four years withdrawn their men, who owed suit to the monks’ mill i.e. who were obliged to grind their grain at the monks’ mill,[34] thus defrauding the monks of their lawful income. This income had been assured to the monks of Lindores by the gift by David earl of Huntingdon of the mill of Lindores with all its suit and multures, including the suit of Kinnaird. The nuns agreed that their men should pay multure at the mill of Lindores until such time as they had built their own mill within their own land, which Lindores gives them full permission (plenariam licenciam) to do. They would then pay to Lindores three merks annually to free them from their obligation of suit and multure at the monks’ mill (Lind. Cart. no. 125). This payment is later referred to as the ‘dry multures of Kinnaird’ mentioned in the charter of 1600 (RMS vi no. 1032) in relation to the mill of Denmylne ABE (see early forms; and ABE Intro., Monastic Lands).

/kɪˈnerd/

This place-name appeared in printed volume 4