Pitlochie

Pitlochie KGL S NT234972 1 385 130m NEF

(land of) Petclochin 1204 x 1228 Dunf. Reg. no. 146
Petbockin 1235 Dunf. Reg. no. 179 [rubric; for *Petclockin]
Pethbokin 1235 Dunf. Reg. no. 179 [for *Pethclokin]
vill<a> de Petlochy 1448 Dunf. Reg. no. 424 (p. 308) [see Ardeny # KGL above]
Pitlawquhy 1561 Dunf. Reg. p. 428
Johannis Betoun de Pitlochy 1577 x 1579 RMS iv no. 2849 [apud Pitlochy]
terras de Pitlochie 1626 RMS viii no. 981 [the lands of Pitlochie with the manor (cum manerie) in regality of Dunfermline, shire of Kinglassie]
Pittlochy 1654 Blaeu (Pont) West Fife
Pittlochy 1654 Blaeu (Gordon) Fife
E. Pitlochie 1753 Roy sheet 17, 5 [shown as a small settlement on the edge of a much larger West Pitlochy]
West Pitlochy 1753 Roy sheet 17, 5
Pitlochy 1775 Ainslie/Fife [‘Capt. Douglas’]
Pitlochy 1828 SGF

G pett + G clach + – in

‘Estate of the place of the stone’, G clach, gen. sing. cloiche. The stone in question is the free-standing carved stone cross, still on its original base, known as the Dogton Cross, c.300 m south-east of the present farm-house of Pitlochie. It is now much mutilated, only the cross-shaft remaining. On one face of the shaft is a horseman armed with a spear (ECMS iii, 364–5, RCAHMS Fife, 176 no. 354). The dating of the Cross is relevant to a discussion of the place-name, since the former gives us an earliest possible date for the formation of the latter. Such early carved stones are, however, notoriously difficult to date accurately, but a date in the ninth or tenth century is most likely.

OS Name Book 9, 24 states that ‘there is a pond in the neighbourhood from which most probably it has taken its name’, but the early forms clearly indicate a derivation from Gaelic clach, rather than loch.

Pitlochie is first mentioned in the early thirteenth century when Earl Malcolm of Fife quitclaims it to Dunfermline Abbey (Dunf. Reg. no. 146). Then in 1235 Constantine II of Lochore quitclaims all right which he had in the lands of Kinglassie and Pethbokin to Dunfermline Abbey (Dunf. Reg. no. 179). This strong Kinglassie connection, coupled with the fact that Pethbokin occurs only here, and the possibility of a misreading or miscopying of b for cl, strongly suggests that Pethbokin is indeed Pitlochie. Note that Dunf. Reg. index mistakenly identifies Pethbokin with Pitbauchlie DFL.

Pitlochie SLO shares the same etymology, as well as the same later development.

/pɪtˈlɔxɪ/

This place-name appeared in printed volume 1