Tulliallan
Tulliallan TUL PS NS934880 1 25m
Tullalwy 1275 Bagimond’s Roll 54
Tulialwy 1276 Bagimond’s Roll 72
Tolyalwyn 1304 CDS 2 no. 1514 [fortified (presumably referring to the castle) on the orders of Edward I by his valet,224 William Byset, then sheriff of Clackmannan]
Tulyalone 1402 NAS GD15/332 [o.c.; Erskine of Cardross papers; an abridged translation is printed Fraser, Douglas iii, p. 402 (Abridgements no. 346): ‘Archibald Earl of Douglas and lord of Galloway, granting to his well-beloved and faithful Sir John of Edmondstone, knight, lord of that ilk, for faithful service, his fortalice with the pertinents, lying in his lands of Tullyalone <for MS Tulyalone>, in the sheriffdom of Perth’]225
Tulyalon’ 1403 NAS GD15/333 [o.c.]
Tulyalon 1407 NAS GD/15/334
Tullialoun 1410 Fraser, Douglas iii, p. 406 (Abridgements no. 358) [also Tulialoun; ‘and the “forslete of that ilk”’ (forsellet, forslet etc ‘fortress’ DOST)]
Tylialoun 1444 ER v, 174
(Elizabeth Edmonston of) Tulialon 1486 RMS ii no. 1644
ecclesi<a> de Tullialane 1488 RMS ii no. 1707
Tullialane 1488 RMS ii no. 1707 [John Blackadder (Blacadir), son of Elizabeth Edmonston (Edmonstoun)]
(lands of) Tulyalloun 1507 RMS ii no. 3153 [with castle, fortalice etc.]
le Overtoun de Tullialloun 1521 RMS iii no. 212 [extending to 8 husbandlands, with 6 tenants named]
(John Blacader of) Tulialloun 1530 RMS iii no. 917
molendino de Tuliallane 1532 RMS iii no. 1128 [mill of Tulliallan]
Nethertoun de Tullialloun 1540 RMS iii no. 2869
Ovirtoun de Tulialane 1551 RMS iv no. 659 [in the barony of Tulialane, stewartry of Strathearn and sheirffdom of Perth]
(rental of parsonage and vicarage of) Tulliallone 1572 Assumption 297
Tulyallan Cast. c.1590 Pont MS 32 [referring to old Tulliallan Castle]
(James Blacader of) Tulliallinn 1608 RMS vi no. 2167
Tullialloun 1614 Retours (Perth) no. 230 [John Blackadder, lands and barony of Tullyallan]
terras et baroniam de Tullialloun 1619 RMS vii no. 2017 [see TUL Introduction]
Tulyaller Cast. 1654 Blaeu (Pont) Stirlingshire [referring to Tulliallan Castle]
Tulliallan 1663 RMS xi no. 406
miln of Tullieallan 1664 NAS RS59/2 fo. 47 [Mr William Mylne taxman of the miln of Tullieallan tenent at the Hartshaw Miln (Clackmannan)]
(lands of) Tulliallan 1673 Retours (Perth) no. 855 [to Adam Lindsay]
Tyllyallan 1681 Adair/Clackmannan
Tyllyallan K<irk> 1681 Adair/Clackmannan
Tullyallan 1753 Roy sheet 16, 1 [also Tullyallan Pans]
Tulliallan 1783 Stobie [also Tulliallan Pans]
Tullyallan 1821 Ainslie/S. Scotland
Tulliallan Castle 1866 OS 6 inch 1st edn. [twice, once showing the old castle ‘in ruins’, and once showing the new]
G tulach + ? G all-mhagh or ? en *Alway + ?
‘Hill or mound of the (little) rock-plain or *Alway.’
The first element G tulach ‘hill(ock), mound’. sometimes in the sense of ‘assembly mound’ is found as the generic element in several nearby medieval parish-names viz Tillicoultry CLA, Tullibody (later part of Alloa) CLA, and Tullibole KNR (formerly FIF, later part of Fossoway parish). It is also found in Tulligarth, Clackmannan parish, a farm c.1 km from the Tulliallan parish boundary. For more details see Elements Glossary.
The NGR is of the old parish kirk (now in ruins) at the edge of the policies of Tulliallan Castle. However, the site of the earlier, medieval parish kirk is c.1.4 km to the north, at NS940895 (see TUL Introduction). It lies on the western slope of a small hillock, which may be the tulach of the name. However, if the name derives from the secular centre of the parish, then the eponymous tulach may be the small rocky hill where Old Tulliallan Castle stands (called on OS Explorer Norris Knowe).
The second (specific) element of this name is more complex. It probably contains an area- or territory-name made up of the same elements found in Alloa and Alva in neighbouring Clackmannanshire i.e. two Gaelic words (or Gaelic adaptations of underlying British words): Gaelic all, ail ‘rock, cliff’ (Old Irish all, ail); and Gaelic magh ‘plain, level ground’. The first word usually refers to large, conspicuous features: the British form of this word *al refers to Dumbarton Rock on the Clyde, which was called by the British Al Clud ‘Rock of the Clyde’. It is also found, for example, in the Fife place-names Crail CRA and The Murrel ABO.
The second word (G magh ‘plain, level ground’) usually refers to ground with good agricultural potential. The change of m to mh (pronounced approximately like a nasalised v), which accounts for both the early and the modern form of both Alloa and Alva is the result of lenition.226 For example when a noun immediately follows another noun, as in all-magh, the first letter of the second element is lenited, and would be written in Gaelic *all-mhagh.
The meaning of both Alloa and Alva is therefore probably ‘cliff plain, plain at or by a cliff’, the cliff most likely being the steep escarpment of the Ochils. W. J. Watson discusses these and other similar names such as Alloway AYR, Alvie, Badenoch INV and Alvah BNF (1926, 502–3).227
It is my contention that *All Mhagh underlying both Alloa and Alva was originally the name of the whole of the stretch of low land between the Ochils and the Forth.228 Magh can refer to quite extensive stretches of land. The broad sweep of low land in Kinross-shire between the Cleish and Ochil Hills, and to the north of Loch Leven, must once have been known simply as (Am) Magh ‘(the) plain’, and survives in names such as Mawmill, Mawhill (formerly *Mawqueich) and Mawcarse (formerly *Maw-arlary), which are found in different parts of this area. The relatively flat land along the Devon between Yetts o’ Muckhart and Crook of Devon was probably the magh which forms the second element in Fossoway (‘firm or level plain’).
If the specific element of Tulliallan is indeed made up of *all-mhagh, as seems likely from the earliest forms, the question remains as to whether it refers to a separate feature around Kincardine or whether it is part of the same ‘cliff-plain’ discussed above in connection with Alloa and Alva. If the latter, then it represents the easternmost edge of this feature, and would be some kind of boundary name.
One further puzzle remains. The earliest forms (from Bagimond’s Roll) do not show the final n. However, all later forms do. I think therefore it is safest to assume that in the copying of the Bagimond forms a suspension-mark over y representing final n has been overlooked by a scribe unfamiliar with the places involved. I do not think that this ending can be the common locational suffix –in ‘place of’, found so frequently in place-names of Celtic origin in this part of the world, since this never survives beyond c.1300, being consistently reduced to –ie or –y. It may rather be a diminutive ending (Old Gaelic –ín, –an etc.), referring perhaps to the small area of *all-mhagh or *Alway at Tulliallan.
Overton of Tulliallan # appears as Overtown on Stobie (1783), and as Overtown on Stobie/South-East Perth (1827). It is defined in 1521 as consisting of eight husbandlands (RMS iii no. 212). It lay north of the medieval parish kirk (now the Mausoleum), at approximately NS942897. OS Explorer Tulliallan Farm, north-west of the Mausoleum, is a relatively recent creation: it is not named on OS Pathf., and on OS 6 inch 1st edn. (1866) there are no buildings at all on the site.
/ˈtʌlɪ ˈalən/ or /ˌtʌlɪˈalən/
This place-name appeared in printed volume 1