Woodriffe
Woodriffe NBH ABE S NO227177 1 362 75m
terram nostram que dicitur Vodrufe 1457 Lind. Lib. no. 2 [Lindores Abbey land; see NBH Intro., Gaelic and Scots for marches]
the statutes of the Wedurouf 1463 Laing 1876, 161 [from the Newburgh Burgh Court Book]
in the Wydrouf 1463 Laing 1876, 161 [from the Newburgh Burgh Court Book]
Wodrufehill c.1480 Laing 1876, 416 [‘Wodrufehill; threpland ii chalder, x bollis ordei (barley)’]
the Wodruif c.1560 s Assumption, 32 [‘the Wodruif with the Hill and Thraiplandis’]
the Wodrufhill c.1560 s Assumption, 34 [‘the Wodrufhill and Treplandis’]
the Wodrwff Hill c.1560 s Assumption, 36 [‘and Thraiplandis’]
Woidraiff 1592 RMS v no. 2227 [see Threipland # NBH]
Woodroff 1600 RMS vi no. 1032 [see ABE Intro., Monastic Lands]
Woodryiff 1606 Laing Chrs. no. 1500 [half of lands of Woodriffe lying in the furrow rig (fur-rigge) amongst the 32 parts of Woodriffe (Wodryiff)]
Wodryiff 1606 Laing Chrs. no. 1500 [see preceding entry]
Woodrooff 1652 RMS x no. 35
Woodruiff 1657 Retours (Fife) no. 876
Woodriff 1845 NSA ix, 63
Woodriffe 1969 x 1996 OS 1:10,000 1st metric edn
Sc wude + Sc ruif
‘Wood shelter (for animals), wood enclosure’; Sc ruf(e), ruif(f)., apart from its basic meaning ‘roof’, it can mean ‘shelter for sheep’ (DOST), whence later Sc roo ‘an enclosure in a grass field in which cattle are penned during the night’ (SND). Sc wude probably refers to woodland rather than to wood as a material. In the charter of 1457, discussed in detail in NBH Intro., Gaelic and Scots, part of the bounds of the land of Woodriffe is ‘by the western side of the wall of the wood’ (per latus occidentale muri Silve). It is even possible that murus silve is an attempt at translating Woodriffe into Latin. However, it is more likely that it translates Sc wude dyke, which appears (Englished as ‘wood dyke’) as the southern limit of an acre of the *Greenlaw (the Greinlaw) in the territory of Newburgh in 1652 (RMS x no. 35).
There is also a settlement at NO230177 called Banklands (1888 × 1914 on OS 6 inch 1st revision), which may also refer to the embankment or murus of this parked woodland, if such it was.
Woodriffe occurs often in association with Threipland # NBH q.v. The woodland which generated this name must have existed before the mid-fifteenth century, when the name first appears. From the name alone we cannot know when the eponymous woodland was cleared, but the lands described in the Lindores Abbey Rental as ‘Acres under the wood’ (Akeris vnder the wod), listed immediately before Woodriffe Hill and Threipland #, indicate that it was still there c.1480 (Laing’s date for this rental: Laing 1876, 416). For other woodland in medieval ABE, see Woodhead ABE, above.
The second element may also occur in the strange Newburgh street-name Reef Mog.
This place-name appeared in printed volume 4