Fife Place-name Data

Drumdreel

Drumdreel SLO S NO205089 1 373 100m

    Drundol 1242 x 1244 NLS Adv. MS 34.5.3, fo 4v [14th c. copy; printed as such, Balm. Lib. no. 10; see SLO Intro., Earls and Monks]
    Dr&# 363 ;dole 1243 x 1254 NLS Adv. MS 34.5.3, fo 22v [14th c. copy; printed Balm. Lib. no. 58, as Drundole, though it could equally well be Drumdole]
    Drumdele 1506 Dunk. Rent. 195 [teind meal to Dunkeld Cathedral]
    Drumdeyll 1511 Dunk. Rent. 219
    Drumdewill 1515 Dunk. Rent. 233
    Drumdeill 1603 Retours (Fife) no. 129 [in barony of Pitgorno SLO]
    Dreiddeill 1603 RMS vi no. 1411 [in barony of Pitgorno SLO, q.v.]
    Drwmdaill 1624 Retours (Fife) no. 341 [in barony of Pitgorno]
    Drumdeill 1634 RMS ix no. 33 [Michael Balfour of Denmylne ABE, toun and lands of Drumdreel in lordship of Balmerino and parish of Strathmiglo]
    Drumdeill 1637 RMS ix no. 727
    Drumdole 1642 Gordon MS Fife
    Drumdol 1654 Blaeu (Gordon) Fife
    Drumdile 1654 Retours (Fife) ii no. 1591
    the lands of Drumdaill 1657 Retours (Fife) no. 877 [‘with commone pasturage in the Lowmonds’]
    Drumdoill 1657 Retours (Fife) no. 877
    Drumdreill 1668 Retours (Fife) no. 1040
    Drumdeill 1674 Retours (Fife) no. 1134
    Drumdeill 1675 Retours (Fife) no. 1143
    Drumdriel 1775 Ainslie/Fife
    Drumdriell 1823 Small 1823, 38 [‘a large cairn stood on the farm of Drumdriell, a little south of where the old tower of Croyston <Corston SLO> now stands’]
    Drumdreel 1828 SGF
    Drumdreil 1840 Leighton 1840 ii, 191
    Drumdreel 1856 OS 6 inch 1st edn [also Drumdreel Wood]

G druim + G daol

‘(Beetle)-black ridge’; G daol ‘beetle’, through its characteristic black colour, is used in the place-nomenclature of both Scotland and Ireland to mean ‘very dark’ or ‘black’ (see Watson 1926, 448). Drumdil, Nigg ROS contains the same elements as Drumdreel (Watson 1904, 51). While most of the examples quoted by Watson relate to water, it is probable that Drumdreel was so called because of its position on a low ridge in the northern shadow of the Lomonds.

The earliest form Drundol is best seen as the result of incorrect expansion by the fourteenth-century copyist of a suspension mark (as seen in Drūdole), which can represent either n or m.

The second r in the modern form, which starts to appear in the late seventeenth century, is clearly instrusive, caused by the initial dr, and this development was probably encouraged by the fact that *Drumdeel would suggest to Scots-speakers an association with the devil (Sc deil).

OS Pathf. shows Drumdreel Wood, Drumdreel Farm Cottages, Drumdreel Quarry.

/drʌmˈdril/

This place-name appeared in printed volume 4