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Adam Irvine's avatar

Hello. Great article. I grew up in Advie at Craigvarren and the gaelic is something like Creag a Bharrin. I cant find it right now, but the translation on Scotlands Places was hill of the steep sided slope, rather than the more common top of the hill/rock translation. I was at the chapel site a few years ago and the bank is very steep down to the river. I wonder if Poll Baráin is better explained by that rather than Baronet's pool.

'Although it’s not in Strathavon, Milne included Pool Veriner in his talk, giving it a supposed original name of Poll Baráin, or Baronet’s Pool.'

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REBECCA's avatar

I can't stop laughing at:

"However, some of Milne’s other interpretations suggest that he was a man who knew some Gaelic and wanted to show it off, rather than someone with a deep grasp of onomastics."

Lucky for him you weren't around back then to stick a pin in his balloon of self-importance, lol.

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Fiona Campbell-Howes's avatar

Hahahaa, oh dear, maybe I was a bit harsh on Mr Milne. (Also thank you for reading that far!!)

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Andy Sweet's avatar

In case it's of any interest regarding pre-SSS references to Pulvrenan, Pont marks the Kirk of Knock Andich suggesting that it wasn't known as Pulvrenan at that time (at least to him) but that it was a known church site.

https://maps.nls.uk/pont/view/?id=pont06r#zoom=6&lat=1702&lon=2461&layers=BT

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Fiona Campbell-Howes's avatar

Thanks Andy. But is it the same site? There are rumoured old church/chapel sites all around Knockando. The one on Pont *seems* like it's nearer the current church, near the mouth of the Knockando burn opposite Phones/Fonish.

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Andy Sweet's avatar

I've no idea to be honest!

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Fiona Campbell-Howes's avatar

Actually I think you've hit on something important here - from Pont's map it does look like the old parish church was nearer to the current parish church than the 'Pulvrenan' site. There was also a rumour in Knockando that the old parish church was near the current one. So perhaps that's where the symbol stones came from, rather than 'Pulvrenan'.

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