Skellies Plantation
Skellies Plantation ABO V NT1884 1 394
The Scallies 1758 RHP37878
Skelly’s Park 1811 Moray/1811
Skellies Plantation OS 6 inch 1st edn
? Sc skellie
This may be a rare in-land occurrence of Sc skelly ‘a skerry, a ridge of rock on the seashore, usually covered at high water’ (DOST), referring to the exposed ridge of basalt at the top of the hill on which the plantation now stands, and which, before the trees grew up, must have been a conspicuous feature in the locality. Alternatively, it may be a reduced form of Sc skelloch ‘the charlock or wild mustard’ (‘frequently in plural’) (CSD), also scalie (SND1 from DSL). It first appears (as The Scallies) in 1758 as the name of an area of arable (?) in the northern part of Barnhill Farm, roughly where Skellies Plantation is today.
RHP1022 (c.1750), which shows Morton lands in ABO, also has a place The Scally head, described as ‘Craig and heath’, to the south of which is Scally head Land, between Humbie Burn and Humbie farmstead, today covered by Humbie Wood. The place designated The Scally head is a low ridge with outcrops of rocks.
This place-name appeared in printed volume 1