Steelend

Steelend SLN S NT055932 1 384 240m SOF

(half the lands of) Steilend 1572 Pitfirrane Writs no. 171
Steilend 1572 Pitfirrane Writs no. 175 [in the parish of Saline (Sawling)]
Steilend 1627 Retours (Fife) no. 395 [lands of Killernie (Kynnernie) with their pendicle of Steilend]
Stalend 1654 Blaeu (Gordon) Fife
Stealend 1669 Retours (Fife) no. 1051 [James Stewart, lands of Killernie and Bandrum with the pendicle called Steelend (Stealend)]
Steilend 1671 Retours (Fife) no. 1104 [Charles Halkett, the northern half of the lands of Steelend (Steilend) or Hillend]
Stal<> end 1753 Roy sheet 17, 5 [possibly read Stale end]
Steelend 1775 Ainslie/Fife
Steelend 1801 Sasines no. 6021 [‘Balgonar, comp. Balgonar, Sheardrum, Steelend, Loups, and Mill of Balgonar or Lethrie’]
Eastland 1828 SGF [with Westerland close by at NT053933, which later becomes North Steelend]
Stilend 1853 x 1856 OS Name Book 126, 4 [variant spelling]
Steelend 1855 OS 6 inch 1st edn.
North Steelend 1855 OS 6 inch 1st edn.
Steelend 1899 OS 1 inch 2nd edn.
North Steelend 1899 OS 1 inch 2nd edn.

Sc steel + Sc end

‘End of a hill-spur or ridge’. Sc steel is defined by CSD as a steep bank, especially a spur on a hill ridge. Might this be Lurgyhury (containing G lurg ‘shank, shank-shaped piece of land, shank-shaped ridge’) of Dunf. Reg. no. 333? If so, steel and lurg may refer to the same feature.

OS Pathf. shows two places called Steelend in SLN: one at the NGR noted above, now a roofless ruin of a substantial farm, and the other almost 2 km to the south-west, a small former coal-mining village of substantial inter-war council houses, built after 1927, since it does not appear on OS 1 inch ‘Popular’ edition of that year. It is marked but not named on OS 1 inch 7th series (1960).

The former represents the original and principal place of Steelend, its situation well fitting the description contained in its name. OS 6 inch 1st edn. (1855) marks it as Steelend, with North Steelend a few hundred metres to the west. Running south-west from North Steelend to the valley below appear tracks for coal cars, to the Saline Valley Colliery (OS 1 inch, 1899), where a disused tip and shafts can still be seen at the site of what is called Steelend Mines on OS 6 inch (1855). The present village of Steelend was named after these mines.

The older, original Steelend is known locally as High Steelend or Upper Steelend, to distinguish it from the village, referred to simply as Steelend.

OS 6 inch (1855) also shows Steelend Row, probably workers’ housing, at NT050924.

In the north-east corner of modern Steelend village, on the Saline Burn, Ainslie/Fife (1775) shows Coaly ford, which appears on SGF (1828) as Collyford, and on OS 6 inch 1st edn. (1855) as Coalyford. It contains Sc coaly, and refers to the high coal-content of the Saline Burn, which drains the whole area of the former Steelend coal mines.

/stil ɛnd/

This place-name appeared in printed volume 1