Ravens Craig
Ravens Craig KDT DSX S NT292925 1 385 25m
(castle of) Rawinniscrag 1470 RMS ii no. 996 [to William Sinclair, earl of Caithness the lands of Wilston DSX, Carberry DSX and Dubbo # DSX, described as lying next to the castle of Ravenscraig]
barony of Ravinniscrag 1503 RSS i no. 1003 [Sinclairs feu amongst others ‘aucht (8) merkis worth of land of Walstoun (Wilston) liand in the barony of Ravinniscrag ... to Johne of Wynd, burges of Disert (Dysart)’]
Ravinscraig 1517 Purves 155 [Ravinscraig, Wilstoun and Carnbarry (Carberry)]
(lands and barony of) Ravinscraig 1615 RMS vii no. 1174 [George Hamilton]
(lands of) Ravynniscrag 1546 RMS iii no. 3275
(lands and barony of) Ravinscraig 1613 Retours (Fife) no. 1551 [Sinclair]
Ravens ... ugh 1642 Gordon MS Fife
Reumsheuch 1654 Blaeu (Pont)West Fife
Ravensheugh 1654 Blaeu (Gordon) Fife
(lands and barony of) Ravenscraig 1699 Retours (Fife) no. 1431 [lands of Boreland (Boirlands), Balbeggie (Balbeagie), Ore Mills (Orsmilns), Carberrie, Wilston (Wolstoune) and Woolstoune waird]
Ravenscraig 1775 Ainslie/Fife [‘Castle in Ruins’]
Ravensheugh 1790s OSA, 510 [with footnote, ‘or Ravenscraig’]
Sc raven + Sc craig
‘Raven’s rock or crag’. Sc heugh ‘height, steeply rising ground’, used instead of craig on the Gordon and Blaeu maps, and given as an alternative by OSA, must reflect a genuine local variant of the name Ravenscraig, the original name of the castle. The castle itself was built as a royal castle for Mary of Gueldres, queen of James II, and was begun in 1460, the year of the king’s death. It was one of the earliest castles in Britain to be designed to be defended by and from artillery. In 1470 James III granted it to William, Lord Sinclair, in exchange for the lands of the earldom of Orkney (Walker and Ritchie 1987, 105).
There was another Scottish castle called Ravenscraig, in Peterhead parish ABD, perched on a rock above the river Ugie. In 1491 royal licence was given to Gilbert Keith and Janet Grahame his spouse to build a castle on the crag, referred to as the crag commonly called the Ravenscraig (rupis vulgariter nuncupate le Ravinniscrag) (RMS ii no. 2030).
/ˈrevənzˌkreg/
This place-name appeared in printed volume 1