Lochhead
Lochhead WMS S NT317963 1 385 50m NEF
(vill and lands of) Lochheid 1630 RMS viii no. 1627 [to Lady Anne Balfour spouse of David master of Wemyss (Weyms)]
(vill and lands of) Lochheid 1632 RMS viii no. 1896 [‘in the parish of Wemyss’ (in parochia de Weymis)]
Lochheid 1642 Gordon MS Fife
Loch-head 1654 Blaeu (Gordon) Fife
Lochhead 1753 Roy sheet 18, 1
Mickle Lochhead 1775 Ainslie/Fife [at the same site as OS Pathf. Lochhead]
Little Lochhead 1775 Ainslie/Fife [now the site of mine-working at NT323965]
Loch Head 1828 SGF
Lochhead 1856 OS 6 inch 1st edn.
Sc loch + Sc heid
‘Head or end of a loch’. Lochhead lies at the south-east end of a sizeable area of land with a shallow gradient, lying around 55–65 m above sea-level. Ainslie/Fife (1775) marks the heart of this area as Peat Moss, and OS Pathf. Wemyss Moss (now an open-cast mine) and Moss Wood reflect this feature. Even today there are two small lochans on this terrain, which drains to the north-east, in a burn that flows through Lochhead and down to East Wemyss. It is likely that this burn, which has been straightened and made a more efficient drain of the upland, has greatly reduced the body of water which must have given Lochhead its name.
OS Pathf. also has Lochhead Farm Cottages and Lochhead Strip; also Lochhead Crescent on the northern edge of Coaltown of Wemyss. On OS Explorer (2001) Lochhead is called Lochhead Farm.
This place-name appeared in printed volume 1