Cockairnie

Cockairnie DGY S NT168852 1 394 40m SOF

Kinkarnather 1162 x 1169 Inchcolm Chrs. no. 1 [15th c. copy]
ambas Kincarnas Inferiorem scilicet et Superiorem 1179 Inchcolm Chrs. no. 2 [15th c. copy; ‘both Cockairnies Nether, that is, and Upper’]
(one merk from) Kyncarnyne Waldevi 1179 Inchcolm Chrs. no. 2 [15th c. copy]
terram de Kincarneder c.1199 Inchcolm Chrs. no. 7 [15th c. copy; ‘the land of Nether Cockairnie which Other held’ (terram de Kincarneder quam Other tenuit)]
Kyncarny 1359 ER i p. 560
Kincarny 1511 RMS ii no. 3558 [part of the barony of Inverkeithing]
Kincarny 1539 RMS iii no. 1934
Cowcarny 1574 Inchcolm Chrs. p. 219
Cowcairny 1606 RMS vi no. 1704 [ms has ‘between the lands of Cockairnie and Couston’ (inter terras de Cowcairny et Cowstoun), but this does not appear in the published version of the charter]
Cockairnie 1775 Ainslie/Fife [occupied by Robert Moubray Esq. shown to the north-west of the loch]

G ceann + G càrn + G – in

‘At the end or head of a cairn, heap of stones’ or ‘head or end of the place of cairns’. G c?rn in Lowland Scottish place-names usually refers to a burial cairn. In a Highland context it usually refers to a high, rounded hill. The final two syllables of the earliest recorded form of this name, (n)ather, in Kinkarnather, are said to represent G ìochdar, OIr íchtar ‘lower (part)’, rather than its Sc synonym nether (Inchcolm Chrs. no. 1 and p. 250). Nevertheless, it does seem to show influence from nether. This may be a result of the early Scots-speaking presence in this area (for which see DGY Introduction), or it may be due to a later copyist, since this charter exists only in a fifteenth-century copy.

More certain evidence for this Germanic presence in the Inverkeithing area comes from the early tenurial history of Cockairnie itself. Kinkarnather or *Nether Cockairnie formed one of the lands originally held by the bishops of Dunkeld in safe-keeping for the priory of Inchcolm, at the behest of David I, ‘until there should be canons on the island of Inchcolm’ (Inchcolm Chrs. no. 1). In the papal confirmation charter to Inchcolm of 1179 this particular grant has been expanded to include *Upper Cockairnie (‘ambas Kincarnas inferiorem scilicet et superiorem’). However, this did not apparently include all the land known as Cockairnie in the late twelfth century, since the same papal bull also confirms to Inchcolm one merk from Kyncarnyne Waldevi or Waldeve’s Cockairnie (Inchcolm Chrs. no. 2). We know from the charter of c.1199 that Waldeve’s Cockairnie was in fact part of Nether Cockairnie (Kincarneder), had been held by a man called Other, presumably a tenant of Waldeve, and was therefore the estate which came to be called Other’s toun, now Otterston DGY (Inchcolm Chrs. no. 7). Otterston was thus a part of Nether Cockairnie, the other part being held directly by Inchcolm. However, Other did not hold all Waldeve’s Nether Cockairnie, since it remained with Waldeve’s successors, the Moubray family, until the late twentieth century, being known simply as Cockairnie. It would in fact seem that Inchcolm got very little of Nether Cockairnie, which is perhaps why they were receiving a money grant from Waldeve’s part of it.

The Waldeve of Waldeve’s Cockairnie was the son of Gospatrick, lord of Inverkeithing and Dalmeny WLO. Lorna Walker would identify this Gospatrick with the son of Waldeve I, lord of Allerdale in Cumbria, son of Earl Gospatrick (I) of Northumbria. The earl, who fled to Scotland in 1072 and died in 1074 or 1075, had three sons: Gospatrick (II) earl of Dunbar, killed at the Battle of the Standard in 1138; Dolfin (Dolgfinnr), expelled from Carlisle in 1092; and Waldeve I lord of Allerdale(2001, 147–8). For more on the name Gospatric(k), see Edmonds 2009.

Gospatrick, and probably Waldeve after him, also had an interest in the ferries which linked Lothian and Fife at the Queensferry straits, and this perhaps also included a ferry between Dalmeny parish and Dalgety (see RRS i no. 126; also p. 68 and note 1). Waldeve had two daughters, Christiana and Galiena, the latter of whom married Philip de Moubray, who succeeded to his father-in-law’s estates (Dunf. Reg. no. 165, and Inchcolm Chrs. no. 7 and notes). According to Stephen (1938, 49–50) this Waldeve was related to Earl Waldeve of Dunbar, although this must remain informed speculation. It is highly probably that Other was one of his men, holding at least part of Waldeve’s Cockairnie during Waldeve’s life-time. Given the proximity of Couston (Kol’s toun) ABO, which is adjacent to Otterston, and given the Anglo-Scandinavian name Kol which it contains, we can perhaps assume that Kol, too, was one of Waldeve’s men, and that Couston originally formed part of Waldeve’s Cockairnie. The fact that Couston ABO is not now in the same parish as those parts of the lands which we know to have comprised Cockairnie DGY may be explained by an unrecorded parish boundary change in the later medieval period.

/kɔˈkernɪ/ or /kəˈkernɪ/

This place-name appeared in printed volume 1