Ardeny
Ardeny # KGL S NT2499 3
villa de Ardeny 1448 Dunf. Reg. no. 424 (p. 308) [vills of Finmont (Fynmont) KGL and Ardeny, part of the shire of Goatmilk (Gaytmylk)]
? G àrd or àird + ?
It would seem to contain G ?rd or ?ird ‘high’ or ‘height’, but until other forms of this name can be identified, this must remain doubtful. Its only occurrence is as the last item in a list of vills or touns in the shire of Goatmilk (Gaytmylk) mentioned in an agreement between the burgesses of Dunfermline and Kirkcaldy. The relevant sections can be roughly translated (from Latin) as follows: “we (that is the abbot and convent of Dunfermline) assign and annex our vills of (villas nostras de) Stenton (Stanton’), Finglassie (Finglassy), Inchdairnie (Inchederny), Caskieberran (Caskybarian), Goatmilk (Gaytmylk), Kinglassie (Kynglassy), Finmont (Fynmont) and Ardeny with pertinents to our said burgh of Dunfermline and to the provost (preposito) and baillies and to the community of the same; and the vills (villas) of Pitteuchar (Petyhochir’), Pitlochie (Petlochy), and our holding of Cluny (tenendie nostre de Clunyis)[180] with pertinents to our aforesaid burgh of Kirkcaldy (Kircaldy) and similarly to its baillies and to the community of the same.”
With the exception of Ardeny, all the above places are well-attested, and have survived as farms into the modern era. All are in KGL. It is therefore curious that there is no other record of Ardeny. The ms (NLS MS.Adv.34.1.3a, fos. 69v–70r) has been checked (for all the above readings). The 1448 agreement is in a small but clear mid-fifteenth-century hand, and the reading Ardeny (the last word on fo. 69v) is not in doubt.
This place-name appeared in printed volume 1