Balgove
Balgove BMO S NO376232 1 351 110m NOF
Bangoiff 1574 x 1603 Campbell 1899, 617
Bangoiff 1598 RMS vi no. 702 [extending to 13 arable acres]
Bangoiff 1596 Campbell 1899, 621
Bangour 1603 RMS vi no. 1411 [barony of Balmerino; ed. adds ‘(Bangove?)’]
Bangaff 1603 RMS vi no. 1411 [barony of Balmerino]
Bangour 1614 RMS vii no. 1115
Bangove 1630 Campbell 1899, 626
Bangoif 1634 RMS ix no. 47
Ballingoiff 1634 RMS ix no. 47
Bangoiff 1634 RMS ix no. 47
Bangove 1694 Campbell 1899, 632 [John Huison in Bangove]
Bengove 1775 Ainslie/Fife
Balgove 1828 SGF
Balgove 1855 OS 6 inch 1st edn
G baile + G an + G gobha
‘Farm of the smith’, with the nom. gobha analogically extended to the gen. sing., as is found today in many Irish dialects. The same form is found in Balgove SSL. The more regular gen. sing. gobhann is seen in Balgonie ADN and MAI.
On all early maps from Ainslie/Fife to the OS 1 inch 1st edn, Balgove is marked at NO376232. Its core was probably the piece of land which had been in dispute between Sir John Hay of Naughton and Balmerino Abbey, a dispute which was resolved in the abbey’s favour 1328 × 1332 (Balm. Lib. no. 51). It formed part of the abbey’s lands in 1598 (RMS vi no. 702). According to Campbell, Balgove had been inhabited in the early nineteenth century, but was deserted by his day (1899, 641).
The lands of Balgove now form part of the Naughton Estate, while Balgove on OS Pathf. is the name of the south-western part of The Gauldry (reflected in the modern street-names Balgove Road and Balgove Avenue). The fields immediately to the west of the old settlement of Balgove are still called ‘North Mongove’ and ‘South Mongove’.[64] This would seem to preserve an earlier mòine gobha ‘the moss of a smith’, or ‘the moss attached to the settlement of Balgove’.
The above NGR is for the settlement of Balgove on OS 6 inch 1st edn (1855), though OS Pathf. shows Balgove in The Gauldry c.500 m to the north-west.
This place-name appeared in printed volume 4