Criffel


Criffel from Caerlaverock

Criffel is a hill in Kirkcoubrieshire on the Solway Firth near the veilage o New Abbey. It is 570 metres (1,870 feet) it is the eighth maist prominent hill in southern Scotland. It Is surroondit by a host o smaller hills, sic as Lang Fell, Maidenpap an Bainloch Hill. The slopes o Criffel feature the upland vegetation o heather, bog cotton 'n' blueberry an ur inhabitit by Laverocks. Loch Kindar sits at the foot o the hill.

Loch Kindar Shore

Etymologie

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Triangulation station an Douglas's Cairn, Criffel

The name Criffel is recordit in 1273 as Crufel.[1] The saicant pairt o the name, -fel, is aither Auld Scots or Northern Middle Inglis fell or Auld Norse fjall 'mountain'.[1] Seein as Auld Norse fjall had been lent intae Middle Inglis by the twelfth century, it isnae possible tae sey gin the name wis gien by Scandinavian speakers or no.[1] There's been sindry thochts anent the etymologie o the first pairt o the name. Criffel is recordit as Crofel in 1319[2] an in 1330 as Crefel.[3][4][5] (Drummond gies the form Crafel in 1330, an aa;[6] it isnae clear gin this refers tae the same source or no.) In 1892 Johnston pit forrit Gaelic crich 'boundary' + Icelandic fell in Place-Names of Scotland.[5] Hooiver, by the saicant edition o 1903 he thocht a derivation fae Icelandic kryfja, meanin 'tae sinder' wis mair likely.[7] In the third edition in 1934 this is the ainly derivation gien.[8] Mills thinks the name is Auld Scandinavian kryfja + fjall an aa, but disnae think the derivation fae kryfja is siccar.[3] In 1930 Sir Herbert Maxwell pit forrit that the name wis fae Scandinavian kraka fjall, meanin 'corbie's or craw's hill' or fae Lowland Scots Craw Fell.[4] William J. Watson rejected a derivation fae kraka fjall, seyin that it wid turn intae sumhin like Crackel.[9] Geoffery Barrow thocht Criffel micht be taen fae the name Cro, whilk appears in Desnes Cro, the name o a deanery situatit atween the rivers Nith an Urr.[2] Here Cro wid be the Gaelic wird fur bucht.[2]

References

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  1. ↑ a b c Brooke, Daphne (1987). "The Deanery of Desnes Cro and the Church of Edingham: Churches and Saints Before 1120 AD" (PDF). Transactions of the Dumfriesshire and Galloway Natural History and Antiquarian Society. LXII: 61. Archived frae the original (PDF) on 29 Julie 2019.
  2. ↑ a b c Brooke, Daphne (1987). "The Deanery of Desnes Cro and the Church of Edingham: Churches and Saints Before 1120 AD" (PDF). Transactions of the Dumfriesshire and Galloway Natural History and Antiquarian Society. LXII: 48. Archived frae the original (PDF) on 29 Julie 2019.
  3. ↑ a b Mills, A. D. (2011). A Dictionary of British Place Names. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 138.
  4. ↑ a b Maxwell, Herbert (1991) [1930]. The Place Names of Galloway: Their Origin & Meaning Considered. Wigtown: G. C. Book Publishers Ltd. p. 94. ISBN 1872350305.
  5. ↑ a b Johnston, James B. (1892). Place-Names of Scotland. Edinburgh: David Douglas. p. 77.
  6. ↑ Drummond, Peter (2010). Scottish Hill Names: Their origin and meaning (Revised 2nd ed.). Scottish Mountaineering Trust. p. 176. ISBN 978-0-907521-95-2. OCLC 148288097.
  7. ↑ Johnston, James B. (1903). Place-Names of Scotland (Second ed.). Edinburgh: David Douglas. p. 89.
  8. ↑ Johnston, James B. (1934). Place-Names of Scotland. London. p. 145.
  9. ↑ W. J. W. (1932). "[Review of] The Place-Names of Galloway: Their Origin and Meaning Considered by Herbert Maxwell; Scottish Place-Names by W. C. MacKenzie; Place-Names of Glengarry and Glenquoich and Their Associations by Edward C. Ellice". The Geographical Journal. 79 (5): 419. doi:10.2307/1783944. ISSN 0016-7398. JSTOR 1783944.