Drum meaning ridge is very common in Galloway place names and is derived from Gaelic druim meaning the back of an animal. In field names it was probably adopted by Scots speakers to identify long rounded landforms common in the Borgue landscape. These smooth elongated mounds are evidence of deposits laid down during an ice age when the land was plastered with a layer of glacially transported debris in the form of boulder clay, gravel and sand.

There are several fields simply named Drum and others that incorporate the word drum including:

Dairy Drum, Double Drum, Drumhastie, Drumjohn, Farm Drum, Jean’s Drum, Mid Drum, Moss Drum, Near Drum, Sandhole Drum, Swine Drum and Wee Drum.

This information was gathered as part of the PLACE in the Biosphere project. Click on the links to visit their web site and blog.