Skeddoway
Skeddoway KDT DSX S NT259981 1 385 65m NOF
Richard de Scadaghy 1296 Inst. Pub. 145 [does homage to Edward I along with others from the county of Fife]
Skathachy 1390 x 1406 RMS i app. 2 no. 1734 B [17th c. index]
Scathochy 1390 x 1406 RMS i app. 2 no. 1742 B [to John Wemyss: Pittencreiff (Pettincreif) DFL Skeddoway (Scathochy) KDT, Wormiston (Wolmestoun) CRA, Braidleas (Burdles) CRA and Crail (Craill)]
Sca&# 658 ;ochy 1457 Dunf. Reg. no. 452
Ale . Alirdes de Skathwy 1505 RMS ii no. 2820 [Allardyce]
David Allerdes (of) Strathoquhy 1506 Dunf. Reg. no. 499 [Allardyce]
Scathowye 1516 Fife Ct. Bk. 51 [Allardyce]
Scaithowye 1516 Fife Ct. Bk. 51 [Allardyce]
Scathoquhy 1517 Fife Ct. Bk. 80 [lying in the barony of Dysart: tenant to give 6s. 8d. annually to the chaplain of St Serf’s Cave]
Skedoway 1654 Blaeu (Gordon) Fife
Scadaway 1753 Roy sheet 17, 5
W. Scadaway 1753 Roy sheet 17, 5
Mickle Scadoway 1775 Ainslie/Fife [also Scadoway Cotts]
Scotscadoway 1775 Ainslie/Fife
Skeddoway 1828 SGF
Skeddoway 1856 OS 6 inch 1st edn.
Old Skeddoway 1856 OS 6 inch 1st edn.
This is a difficult name. The underlying word could derive either from G sg?th ‘shelter, shade, protection’ or *sgath ‘cut’, perhaps in the sense of ground cleared by cutting. The final element –way has developed as though it were G magh ‘plain, level ground’, which would fit well as a description of the open, level ground of Skeddoway rising only very slightly between the Lochty Burn to the north and the River Ore to the south. However, the earliest forms in –achy and –ochy could equally well be derived from adjectival or locational endings.
Somewhat confusingly OS Pathf. attaches the names Strathore House and (in slightly smaller type-face) Skeddoway to the same complex of buildings, at the above NGR, and this has been repeated on OS Explorer 367 (2001). The application of the name Strathore House to the Skeddoway farm-house was in fact the result of joint ownership of Skeddoway and Strathore in the earlier part of the twentieth century, and the name Strathore House is no longer in use, the farm and the house being known only as Skeddoway.[205]
OS 6 inch (1856) shows Old Skeddoway at NT263979; it also appears as such on OS 1 inch 7th series, but as a ruin. It is today simply some scattered piles of stones in a small wood of mature deciduous trees. It would seem that this was Scotscadoway on Ainslie/Fife (1775), while the same map refers to the site of the present-day farm-steading as Mickle Scadoway.
/ˈskɛdəwe/
This place-name appeared in printed volume 1