Peppermill Dam
Peppermill Dam TUL W NS950893 1 393 50m
? lands of Panparthill 1571 NAS GD15/ 952/ 9, item 106 [18th c. copy; for Pauparthill? Sasine given by John Blackadder (Blacader) to Patrick Blackadder (Blacader), parson of Tulliallan, his son; in the barony of Tulliallan; see discussion, below]
? lands of Palparthill 1581 NAS GD15/ 952/ 9, item 117 [18th c. copy]
? lands of Panparthill 1581 NAS GD15/ 952/ 9, item 120 [18th c. copy; for Pauparthill? See discussion, below]
? Paperthill 1619 RMS vii no. 2017 [in barony of Tulliallan; see PNF 1, 564]
Paper mill Dam 1753 Roy sheet 16, 1
Papermill Dam 1790s OSA Perth, 621
Peppermill Dam 1866 OS 6 inch 1st edn.
This name, which applies to a large body of water east of the site of the medieval church of Tulliallan (now the Mausoleum), has been interpreted in recent times as containing both SSE paper and pepper. However, it is likely that this initial element is the same as that in Paperthill, one of the lands of the barony of Tulliallan in 1619 as enumerated in RMS vii no. 2017 (for more details of which see TUL Introduction). It is probably also found in Pepper Knowe CBE (PNF 3) and Pepper Hill MAI (PNF 2). This problematic element is discussed in PNF 5, Elements Glossary under pepper.
Assuming the identification of Papert- with Pepper-, then the generic element was originally hill.
The early forms in Pan- are probably the result of a misreading of original Pau- by the eighteenth-century copyist. This is likely not only because of the absence of n from all later forms, but also because the 1581-form Pal- is a standard way of representing Paa- or Pau- in Scots orthography at this time.
According to OSA (Perth, 621), the dam was built to amass water to drive mills, and ditches were dug in the rising ground around the dam to increase its collection of water.
This place-name appeared in printed volume 1