Tag: Ayr

  • A Gaelic-named garden plot in Ayr?

    A Gaelic-named garden plot in Ayr?

    One of the Ayr Burgh Records for 1536-7

    records* that one Thome Dalrimple had the few of Garotrodding in Ayr. Could this be for GĂ radh Trodain ‘disputed garden’?

    Or are we looking at a Scots formation incorporating rodding ‘track’?

    There are plenty of Gaelic place-names within the old Ayr burgh boundaries (many more interesting Scots ones of course) and Gaelic was still spoken in most of the rest of Carrick at that date.

    I imagine the linguistic situation in Ayr then was probably similar to Inverness in the 19th Century with a substantial proportion of the population being Gaelic speakers but rendered almost invisible by all business being conducted exclusively in Scots and Latin.

    *Ayr Burgh Accounts, Scottish History Society p.10

    Thanks to Michael Ansell on Facebook