Lindores
Lindores ABE S NO263167 1 75m
Lundors 1178 x 1182 RRS ii no. 205 [mid-13th c. copy; = Lind. Cart. no. 1; King William grants to his brother David the earldom of Lennox, Lindores etc]
Guidonem electum in abbatem ecclesie Sancti Andree de Lundores 1189 x 1194 Lind. Cart. App. I (p. 284) [o.c.; ‘Guy abbot-elect of the church of St Andrew of Lindores’; abbey]
abbas Sancti Andree de Lundores 1189 x 1194 Lind. Cart. App. I (p. 284) [o.c.; ‘abbot of St Andrew of Lindores’; abbey]
ecclesie Sancte Marie et Sancti Andree de Lundors 1190 x 1195 RRS ii no. 363 [= Lind. Cart. no. 138; King William confirms lands ‘to the church of St Mary and St Andrew of Lindores, and the abbacy which my brother Earl David founded there’ (et abbacie quam comes Dauid frater meus ibi fundavit); abbey]
abbaciam apud Lundors 1198 x 1199 Stringer 1985 no. 44 [= Lind. Cart. no. 2; Earl David founds ‘an abbey at Lindores’; abbey][35]
abbacie de Lundors 1198 x 1199 Stringer 1985 no. 44 [= Lind. Cart. no. 2; grant ‘to the abbey of Lindores’; abbey]
ecclesiam de Lundors 1198 x 1199 Stringer 1985 no. 44 [= Lind. Cart. no. 2; ‘the church of Lindores’ granted to the abbey, along with the land belonging to the church ... as it has been held by Master Thomas]
(the earl’s o en and kye ... of) Lundors 1198 x 1199 Stringer 1985 no. 44 [= Lind. Cart. no. 2]
(mill of the vill of) Lundors 1198 x 1199 Stringer 1985 no. 44 [= Lind. Cart. no. 2; probably Craig Mill ABE]
ecclesi<a> de Lundoris 1202 Lind. Cart. no. 107 [rubric]
ecclesiam de Lundors 1202 Lind. Cart. no. 107 [the church of Lindores and its right of rector (personatus)]
Brian de Lundors c.1210 x c.1210 x 1220 St A. Lib. 270 [w.]
in territorio de Lundors c.1220 St A. Lib. 273 [Henry of Winton grants to St Andrews Priory those two bovates of land which Agnes his mother held in the territory of Lindores]
ecclesia de Lundors 1245 x 1255 St A. Lib. 34 [24 merks]
ecclesia de Lundors’ vel Ebedy 1245 x 1255 Dunf. Reg. no. 313 [‘the church of Lindores or Abdie’]
(monastery of) Londors’ 1245 x 1255 St A. Lib. 39 [abbey]
castri nostri de Lundors 1249 Lind. Cart. no. 62 [chapel of William of Brechin’s castle of Lindores, subject to the parish kirk of Abdie]
(church of) Lundors c.1250 St A. Lib. 35
(abbot and convent of) Lundores 1257 Lind. Cart. no. 111 [rubric; abbey]
molendinum scyre de Lundors 1261 Lind. Cart. no. 114 [‘the mill of the shire of Lindores’; probably Denmylne ABE; see Bonytoun # ABE]
ballivi sui, vel firmarii, seu firmariorum suorum de Lundors 1261 Lind. Cart. no. 114 114 [William of Brechin released from suit and multure to Lindores Abbey mill (Craig Mill ABE) for annual payment made by hands ‘of his bailiff, farmer or farmers [36] of Lindores’; see also Bonytoun # ABE; abbey and shire]
Londorris 1380 CPL Clement VII of Avignon, 24 [William of Angus, monk of Lindores, to be sent to university; abbey]
Simon de Lendores 1400 SHS Misc. iv, 323 [a cleric of St Andrews diocese, notarising the transumpt of a charter of c.1288 x 1296]
Symo<n> de Lundoris 1412 ER i, 135
Auldlundoris 1451 ER v, 470 [and brewland, eastern orchard and western orchard of Auldlundoris]
Aldelundoris 1453 ER v, 534
Aldlundoris 1454 ER v, 680
besyd Lundoris 1471 x 1478 Wallace vol. i, 10 [‘the ferrye our thai past.’]
in abbathia de Landirez 1478 Worcestre, Itineraries, 8 [‘St David lies buried in the abbey of Lindores beside the Newburgh in Scotland’ (Sanctus David iacet sepultus /p. 8/ in abbathia de Landirez prope le Neubour in Scocia)][37]
Ald-Lundoris 1511 RMS ii no. 3673
Freland of Lundoris 1516 Fife Ct. Bk. 30 [see Freeland # ABE above]
Lundoris 1519 Fife Ct. Bk. 142 [David Barclay (Berclay) of Collairnie (Culerny) DBG is bailiff of the abbot and convent; abbey]
vill<a> de Auld Lundoris 1541 RMS iii no. 2460 [thirled to Denmylne mill]
LVNDORS 1590 x 1599 Pont MS 54B
Old Lundors 1590 x 1599 Pont MS 54B
Lundoiris 1600 RMS vi no. 1032 [to Patrick Leslie, son of the commendator of Lindores; lordship and barony of Lindores (Lundoiris), ordaining that ‘the mansion and abbey-place of Lindores (mansionem et abbatie locum de Lundoiris) be the principal messuage; abbey]
Auld Lundoiris 1600 RMS vi no. 1032 [in barony of Grange of Lindores]
Weltoune of Auld Lundoris 1619 St A. Tests. 5 [Sc wall toun ‘farm or settlement at a well or wells’]
Old Lundoris 1654 Blaeu (Pont) East Fife [= Lindores village]
Lundoris 1654 Blaeu (Pont) East Fife [the abbey, shown lying west of the burgh of Newbrugh]
Old Lendors 1654 Blaeu (Gordon) Fife [= Lindores village]
Lundoris 1654 Blaeu (Gordon) Fife [= abbey]
Auld Lindores 1657 Retours (Fife) no. 877
Lindores 1753 Roy sheet 18, 2 [= Lindores village]
Kirk of Lindores 1753 Roy sheet 18, 2 [= Abdie Kirk]
Abbey 1828 SGF
Lindores 1828 SGF [= Lindores village]
Lindores Abbey 1855 OS 6 inch 1st edn
? G lann + ? G doras
‘Church at the pass’? The first element may be G lann ‘enclosure, field; building within an enclosure, especially a church’, and the second element G doras (OIr dorus) ‘door’, in the sense of ‘pass’, with reference to the important pass through the Ochils on which it lies, from Collessie in the south-east by way of Woodmill, then north-west through the Den of Lindores to the Tay (the route followed by both road and railway to this day). The church in question would be the parish kirk which later became known as Abdie, the ruins of which still stand on the north-west shore of Lindores Loch. This is the etymology I proposed in Taylor 1998, 16–20. However, it cannot be ruled out that the first element is a reflex of G linn or Pictish *linn ‘pool, loch’, referring to Lindores Loch, which would give the plausible meaning ‘loch on/at/of the pass’. The persistent and early u for i may perhaps be explained by the fact that it occurs in an unstressed syllable.
Several writers have suggested that the second element is G dobhar ‘water’, or a Pictish cognate. This is extremely unlikely as early forms of Lindores contain no trace of the medial labial consonant or semi-vowel, even in twelfth-century forms. Early forms of Fife place-names which certainly do contain a dobhar-related element represent this sound in some way or other: see Aberdour ABO (Abirdoure 1179, Aberdouer 1325, Abbirdowir 1342 etc.) (PNF 1) and Durie SCO (Dovari 1304, Doueri 1324, Dovery 1407 etc.) (PNF 2). For a late folk-etymology of Lindores, see Bowstard Loch ABE, above.
Lindores as a settlement-name now applies to the small village of Lindores near the north-west end of Lindores Loch, and the NGR given above is for Lindores House, lying at the west end of the village. The affix auld ‘old’, which first appears in the mid-fifteenth century, may have been to contrast it with *New Lindores (Newland Doors 1775 Ainslie/Fife), a farm on the slopes of Lindores Hill north-west of the village, called on later maps variously Mains (1828 SGF), Mains of Lindores (1856 OS 1 inch 1st edn) and now called Braeside Mains. However, it may equally well have been to contrast it with the site of Lindores Abbey, c. 2.5 km to the north-west, which appears simply as LVNDORS 1590s Pont MS 54B and as Lundoris 1654 Blaeu (Gordon) Fife and (Pont) East Fife.
Several early forms above are marked ‘abbey’, and refer not to the secular settlement or parish, but to the monastery, which now lies within NBH.
/lɪnˈdorz/ or /lɪn dorz/
This place-name appeared in printed volume 4