Fliskmillan
Fliskmillan FLK S NO300212 351 95m NEF
Fliskmyllane 1506 RMS ii no. 2942 [Boswell; in barony of Ballinbreich]
Fliskmillane 1587 Retours (Fife) no. 1481 [Carmichael; 50 merks from lands of Fliskmillan in barony of Ballinbreich]
Fliskmillen 1590 x 1599 Pont MS 54B
Fliskmylane 1613 Retours (Fife) no. 1547 [John earl of Rothes]
Fliskmillane 1642 Retours (Fife) no. 618 [John earl of Rothes]
Fliskmillen 1642 Gordon MS Fife
Fliskmillen 1654 Blaeu (Pont) East Fife
Flisk Millen 1654 Blaeu (Gordon) Fife
Fliss-mylne 1700 St A. Tests. 31
Fliskmillaine 1682 Retours (Fife) no. 1205 [Margaret countess of Haddington]
Fliskmilan 1827 Ainslie [not on Ainslie/Fife, but Colliston at or near the site]
Flisk Mill 1828 SGF
Fliskmiln 1855 OS 6 inch 1st edn [and Fliskmiln Hill]
Fliskmillan 1927 OS 1 inch ‘Popular’ edn [and Fliskmillan Hill]
en Flisk + ? pn Maolan
‘That part of Flisk held by Maolan’? Maolan, OG Maelán, a diminutive of Maol, from G maol ‘bald, tonsured’ (found in Balmule ABO, PNF 1; also possibly in Balmullo LEU, below), gives rise to the surname MacMillan and Millan (see Black 1946, 543–4, 600). Since these lands formed part of the large territory attached to the church of Abernethy, the eponymous Maolan was probably a member of the ecclesiastical community there. Alternatively, although less likely, it may represent Sc miln ‘mill’, with an epenthetic vowel between l and n, not unknown in Older Scots (see DOST under miln), but otherwise unattested in Fife place-names. Nineteenth-century forms such as Flisk Mill and Fliskmiln are therefore best seen as late re-interpretations of the name, which, significantly, have not survived. Also no mill is mentioned in connection with these lands.
In 1506, when the lands of Fliskmillan are first mentioned, they are being granted by the king to Alexander Boswell of Glassmount KGH. They are described as having an annual extent of 33 merks 10 s., but already a fraction of the lands had been given to David Beaton (Betoun) of Creich, to be more accurate an eighth of the lands plus a thirty-fifth of the remaining seven eighths. At the same time Boswell is granted the eighteen-shillings-lands of Logie FLK, (18 solidatas terrarum de Logy) (RMS ii no. 2942).
Ainslie’s Colliston at or near Fliskmillan is puzzling, and may be related to Kairnston 1703 Adair/Sea-Coast (Tay) (see FLK Intro.).
/flɪskˈmɪlən/
This place-name appeared in printed volume 4