Craigencalt
Craigencalt KGH S NT259875 1 395 SOF
Cragyncat 1358 ER i 564 [in constabulary of Kinghorn]
Craggincat 1457 Dunf. Reg. no. 452 [perambulation of marches; see KGH Introduction]
terras de Cragincat 1458 RMS ii no. 638 [linked with the lands of Boglily KGH, part of the barony of Glassmount KGH]
Cragingalt 1548 RMS iv no. 247 [belonging to David Boswell of Balmuto (Balmowtho) KGH]
Cragingat 1576 RMS iv no. 2530
Cragncatt L<och> 1642 Gordon MS Fife
Craigncatt 1654 Blaeu (Pont) West Fife [beside Mill]
Cragncat L<och> 1654 Blaeu (Gordon) Fife
Kirncat 1775 Ainslie/Fife [at OS Pathf. Grange Cottages]
Kirncatmill 1775 Ainslie/Fife
Craigencat Mill 1828 SGF
Craigencat 1856 OS 6 inch 1st edn.
G creag + G an + G cat
‘Rock or crag of the wild cats or wild cat’ (G creag nan cat or creag a’ chait). The intrusive l in the modern (OS Pathf.) spelling of Craigencalt, recorded occasionally from the mid-sixteenth century, is best explained as arising from a variant pronunciation in which the vowel of the final syllable had been lengthened. The grapheme al was a standard way of representing Sc aw (/?ù/) at this time. This long vowel can still be heard in one of the local pronunciations. The occasional g for c, also recorded from the mid-sixteenth century onwards, is best seen as assimilation of c to preceding g of Cra(i)g-, rather than an earlier survival of G nasalisation of c in the gen. pl. (nan gat).
On Blaeu (Gordon) Fife (and Gordon MS Fife) Cragncat(t) gives its name to the loch now known as Kinghorn Loch, on the north shore of which OS Pathf. Craigencalt now stands, and where Gordon shows a mill. Ainslie/Fife (1775) does not name the loch. SGF (1828) calls it Kinghorn Loch, and has Craigencat Mill on the north side of the loch at NT259875, where OS Pathf. now shows Craigencalt. Ainslie/Fife, SGF and OS 6 inch 1st edn. (1856) all show a farm, Kirncat/Craigencat, about a mile to the north-east, at OS Pathf. Grange Cottages (NT269883). In 2004 residents at Grange Cottages still remembered that the two-storey building there used to be called Craigencalt Farm.
The question as to which of the two sites is the original Craigencalt is difficult. Both sites, the one which is now Grange Cottages, and the lochside one, are situated beside features which could be described as crags, a striking basaltic outcrop to the east of Grange Cottages and an even more impressive crag immediately to the north of modern Craigencalt by the loch.[165] The buildings at modern Craigencalt include a substantial mill, and an impressive farm-house, and might be the original centre of the estate, of which modern Grange Cottages were an outlying part. On the other hand, the site at Grange Cottages, first certainly called Craigencalt on an estate plan by Thomas Winter entitled ‘the barony of Craigencat’,[166] may have been the original centre, and modern Craigencalt a later re-centring of the estate on the economically important mill. Modern Craigencalt and Grange Cottages are now on separate farms.
/ˈkregən kɔlt/, locally /ˈkregən kɔ:t/ and /ˈkregən kat/. The stress pattern varies between this and /ˈkregənˈkɔlt/ etc.
This place-name appeared in printed volume 1