Finglassie

Finglassie KGL S NT261992 2 80m

Finglassy 1448 Dunf. Reg. no. 424 [one of the vills in the shire of Goatmilk (Gaytmylk)]
(lands of) Finglassie 1636 Retours (Fife) no. 538
Finglassie 1654 Blaeu (Gordon) Fife
Find Glassae 1753 Roy sheet 18, 1
W. Finglassy 1753 Roy sheet 17, 5
Finglassie 1775 Ainslie/Fife
East Finglassie 1828 SGF
West Finglassie 1828 SGF
East Finglassie 1856 OS 6 inch 1st edn.
West Finglassie 1856 OS 6 inch 1st edn.
East Finglassie 1956 OS 2.5 inch
Wester Finglassie 1956 OS 2.5 inch

G fionn + G glais + ? - in

? ‘Place by the white burn’. OS Pathf. East Finglassie and West Finglassie refer to an industrial estate on the southern edge of Glenrothes New Town. The above NGR is of the farm-steading of East Finglassie (OS 1856, 1956), inferring from maps such as Roy (1753) that East Finglassie is the original centre of the estate, since Roy shows Find Glassae and W. Finglassy, while Ainslie/Fife (1775) shows only Finglassie, also probably on the site of OS Pathf. East Finglassie.

Pre-urban OS maps clearly show two burns which meet immediately north-west of East Finglassie. This burn then flows past the farm-steading to join the Lochty Burn about 1 km to the south, at NT263984. It is not certain whether it is the smaller burn or the Lochty itself, which forms the southern march of the lands of Finglassie, which is referred to in the name, although the likelihood is that it is the former. Older OS Maps also show two wells and a spring on Finglassie lands, one at East Finglassie farm-steading itself.

The burn may be described as white in contrast to water in the west of the parish with a reddish colour from naturally occurring iron ore, which has given rise to names such as Redwells KGL and Strathruddie ADN.

See Kinglassie KGL for further discussion of this name in the context of Kinglassie and Finglassin’s Well.

/ˈfɪngləsɪ/ is the older pronunciation, and reflects the stress-pattern of the underlying G name; however, often nowadays /fɪnˈglasɪ/ is heard, probably by analogy with Kinglassie.

This place-name appeared in printed volume 1