Remilton
Remilton ABE S NO249179 1 35m
Rimiltoun 1590 x 1599 Pont MS 54B
Riniltoun 1654 Blaeu (Pont) East Fife
Reemulton 1828 SGF
Reelpinton 1855 OS 6 inch 1st edn
Reelpington 1898 OS 1 inch 2nd edn
Remilton 1888 x 1914 OS 6 inch 1st revision
Remalton 1926 R. R. B. Watson 1926, 149 [‘a few cottar houses called’]
Remilton 1900 x 1949 OS 6 inch 2nd revision
? + Sc toun
While the generic element is clearly Sc toun ‘farm, settlement’, the specific element is problematic, but may derive from Sc rye-miln ‘rye-mill, mill specialising in rye’. Whatever its derivation, it shares it with several other Fife place-names, such as Remiltoun TOB (PNF 1, q.v. for full discussion) and Remilton MML, below.
When the early forms are compared with those on the first OS maps, it is clear that the surveyors were seriously misled by a local folk-etymology of this name. Their notes made in 1854 (OS Name Book 49, 5) show that the two informants questioned about this name both give Reelpinton, and although the surveyors note the form Reemulton from Johnston’s County Map, Reelpinton is the form they recommend.[40] The notes read ‘Three detached rows of dwellings of one storie high each in good repair and situated on the farm Parkhill. They are occupied by Masons hence the name.’ This piece of folk-etymology derives from the fact that in Scots reel is a mason’s hammer, and pin a small wedging stone used by masons (CSD) (see also Taylor and Wentworth 2001,61).
/ˈrɛmɪltən/[41]
This place-name appeared in printed volume 4