Balass
Balass CUP TVX S NO392143 1 362 30m
Balhas c.1280 Barrow 1973 no. 8 [o.c.; see discussion, below]
Gilbertus de Balhas c.1280 Barrow 1973 no. 8 [o.c.; see discussion, below]
Gilbertus de Ballas 1288 St A. Lib. 339 [see next entry]
super terram meam de Ballas 1288 St A. Lib. 340 [Gilbert of Balass allows St Andrews Priory to build a mill pond for its mill of Dairsie ‘on my land of Balass on the other side of the river of Eden’ (ex altera parte fluuii de Edyn)]
tenemento de Balhas c.1290 Barrow 1974 no. 11 [o.c.]
Ballase 1452 x 1480 RMS ii no. 1444 [St Andrews Church land]
the landis of Ballas 1517 Fife Ct. Bk. 82
the landis of Ballasse 1522 Fife Ct. Bk. 267
Ballas 1600 PSAS 47, 199 [the common road from Bridge of Eden to Balass and St Michael’s Kirk is on the south side of St Catherine’s Haugh CUP]
Ballass 1753 Roy sheet 18, 1
Bullass Mill 1775 Ainslie/Fife [on the River Eden, north of Balass which appears to be marked but not named]
Balas 1840 Leighton 1840 ii, 41 [Alexander Bogie Esquire]
Ballass 1856 OS 6 inch 1st edn
G baile + ? G eas
‘Waterfall or rapids farm’. If this derivation is correct, then it probably refers to some feature on the River Eden, on whose south bank the lands of Balass lie.
Balass formed part of the lands of the bishop of St Andrews, who held the eastern part of the territory of Tarvit ‘from early times’ (Barrow 1974, 38). In c.1280 it was held of the bishop’s tenant, Walter de Percehay, by Gilbert of Balass (see CUP, TVX Intro., Tenurial History, above, for more details).
OS Pathf. also shows Balass Den at NO387144, and Balass Strip (a narrow plantation of trees) whose northernmost point lies 250m south-west of Balass.
/bəˈlas/
This place-name appeared in printed volume 4