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From David Devereux – 4 May 2020
hello Rachel, Alan and Mike
I came across a Borgue field name recently when looking up cup-and-ring marks. You may know the name already, but here’s the relevant extract from F R Coles (1895) ‘Cup and Ring markings from Krikcudbright’ in Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot. Vol.29, p.87. It is near the beginning of a section headed ‘The Senwick Group’.
The most interesting is that shown in fig.28. It is on a very low flattish rock in a hollow of the large pasture-field S.W of Clachandolly smithy, the field itself being known as “the cleagh.”
That particular stone is recorded and located on Canmore – see its approximate position marked by a red spot on the attached map. I’ve indicated the four corners of the field concerned by yellow spots. That field has a distinct density of known cup-and-ting marked stones.
Hope this is of interest
David
From Alan James – 4 May 2020
That’s interesting, I haven’t come across ‘Cleagh’. The field is actually nowadays named ‘Cup and RIng’, it’s Brighouse #12, on which my note reads: The field to the west of Smiddy Field. Cup and Ring marked stones are marked here on current OS maps, Canmore lists two here as ‘possible’. Another is to the east on Green Hill, across the road, and another to the south in field 6, The Clash. Whatever the significance of these mysterious marks, this was evidently a place of some importance in the age when they were made.
Cleagh wouldn’t be easy to interpret out of context, it could have several origins, but I think here it must be the ‘stone’ word, Sc Gaelic clach, Ir cloch, Mx clagh – possibly in the dative-locative, Sc and Ir cloich(e), Mx cloaie. Cla(u)chendolly is close by, from my note on that name: ‘The name is certainly Gaelic *clachan-dollaich: clachan here has its early sense as the plural of clach, so ‘stones’; dollaich means ‘holed, hollowed, pitted’, the name must refer to the notable group of cup-and-ring marked rocks to the south-west of the house.’
I’ll add this earlier name to my Brighouse Farm notes – thanks for pointing it out, David
Alan
From Michael Ansell – 4 May 2020
Good afternoon all
A possible non-stony alternative cold be G. cliathach (I wish we know how Cleagh was pronounced). If bisyllabic Clè-agh then cliathach could work. Is this field on a slope? Cliathach means the slope or side of a hill.
Kind Regards
Michael
PS this just shows how these field names change, pity an earlier Rachel had not done this 100 years ago!
From Alan James – 4 May 2020
Another nice possibility might be Sc and Ir G claig(e) ‘hollow, dimple’ (same in the plural), maybe orphaned from some earlier Gaelic generic, e.g. *clachan nan claige,
‘stones with the dimples’. I’ve not found a Mx cognate, though cleigh ‘hedge’ is from a verb meaning ‘dig’ (cf. ‘dyke’), so there might have been be a same-sounding verbal noun meaning ‘hole’.
Adrian Room gives Claig as the Irish form for Clegg, Co. Galway, and there is (or was) a Claig castle on Islay, but even more interesting, though frustrating, is Cleagh townland in Clonmany, Donegal, alas neither McKay nor the Flanagans give us any lead on that.
Alan
From Michael Ansell – 4 May 2020
Good evening Alan, then there is G. cladh/claidh, graveyard, burial mound, ditch. I think this is normally anglicised in Galloway as clay/cloy but when I was learning from my Lewis teacher this word was pronounced something like clùgh which might not be too far from cleagh. The terminal dh was definitely sounded – quite distinctly.
I think there is a verb, cladh, to dig, though I don’t see it in Dwelly, I’m sure I can recall phrases like tha mi a’cladh le spaid anns an talamh (I’m digging with a spade in the earth/ground). My lessons didn’t involve the niceties of reading or writing however so I might be spelling that wrong!
Kind Regards
Michael
From Alan James – 4 May 2020
Yes, the vb. is cited in DIL as OIr claidid (3rd sg), in Dwelly as cladhaich (root form), a’cladh(ach)ach, Dinneen as cladhaim (1st sg.), and Cregeen as cleigh or cleiy (3rd sg.).
Kelly lists no less than 17 ‘Cleigh’ names on IoM, translating it as ‘hedge’. plus Cool Cleigh ‘corner of the fence’, Faaie Cleigh ‘hedge flat’, and Shen Chleigh ‘old hedge’.
I suppose the ‘graveyard’ sense of cladh might have been imaginatively applied here but I remain doubtful about cladh in any of its meaings being involved.
From Rachel Lucas – 4 May 2020
Hi
A new ‘old’ field name! How lovely is that???
But on a slightly different note, I don’t think I’ve shared the new cup and ring marked rock with you all, which we found between us (High Chapelton) and Muncraig in the field called High Craig Ends. Not too far from Dalarai??? Andy Nicholson was quite excited by it.
From David Devereux – 6 May 2020
Hello Rachel,
That’s a great find – well spotted. Could I forward your email and images to Lisa Allen, who leads the Kirkcudbright Rock Art group? She will be very interested to see this.
Alan and Mike – going back to field name ‘Cleagh’, the Stewartry inventory (1914) gives a description of its particular locality which may perhaps be helpful. And then just today I’ve found another version of the name in Morris (1979) ‘Prehistoric Rock Art in Galloway and the Isle of Man’ (p.80) which he gives as ‘Cleich’. He would have been very familiar with Coles’ earlier article, but doesn’t use his spelling. Does that mean that his is a phonetic spelling of the word as spoken to him at that time? I don’t know if this helps or hinders the interpretation, but I thought you would like to know! Scan of both pages attached
David
From Alan James – 6 May 2020
Thanks David
I think Cleich helps a bit, though I’m afraid mainly i na negative way. -ch came to be used increasingly in the past century in preference to the -gh generally used in Irish-English spellings, for the aspirated consonant that is the familiar, strongly sounded Scots ‘ch’, but in Irish tends to be weakened and lightly voiced [j], or lost altogether. In Manx, -gh was (according to George Broderick) closer to the Scottish sound. The variation between Cleagh and Cleich leaves it unclear whether the consonant in Gaelic was velar (‘broad’) or palatal (‘slender’), the distinction would have been lost in Scots speech. I think Cleich makes cliathach ‘sloping’ doubtful, it would hardly be the reflex of disyllabic [i-a] , and anyway doesn’t really really suit the field. And –ch makes clais ‘trench’ (as in the neighbouring field, The Clash), cliath ‘hurdle’, claig ‘hollow, dimple’, or cla(i)dh ‘digging’, also ‘grave, graveyard’, all less likely. Manx cleigh ‘hedge, stone dyke, fence’ looks closest to Cleich, but I’m not sure (pace Broderick) whether the -gh in that word is for [x], as it’s the equivalent of Sc G cla(i)dh, and Cregeen recorded Cleiy as an alternative. Some connection with clach, ‘stone’, would make sense, but I can’t see how Cleich can be a form, variant or relative of that word in Scottish, Irish or Manx Gaelic.
So I think it remains a mystery.
Mike may have other ideas!
Alan
From Michael Ansell – 6 May 2020
Good evening all
A very good summary of the problem here Alan I’d say. I can offer no better solution at the moment. Maybe the closest is the Manx hedge sense, but Broderick seems to suggest M cleigh was mainly pronounced Cleiy or something like that which doesn’t fit cleagh/cleich. P-N of NI 5 p 70 has Clay from An Chlèith, the hurdle, but none of the early anglicised forms have the terminal ‘ch’ sound. So I’d say this was a remnant specific that somehow survived as a field name, ie the original might have been achadh na cloiche. The slenderisation in the genitive case here might produce cleich in Scots (with a bit of imagination!?)
A difficult one!
Kind Regards
Michael
From Rachel Lucas – 7 May 2020
I’m just updating the new extra large map and have noticed that there’s a feature next to Langlands (649 520) labelled Cleuch. To me that’s not too dissimilar??? But then what do I know of Gaelic????
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