Pitmilly

Pitmilly is the site of a former estate located five miles south-east of St Andrews, Scotland. Its historical significance is threefold. It has been inhabited from ancient times; artifacts continue to be recovered from the Neolithic, Bronze and Iron Ages and a well-known barrow (burial mound) Tumulus from the Bronze Age still exists there. It is connected to Clan Hay in that Eva of Pitmilly, the Celtic heiress to these lands, married William II de Haya, a Norman, in the 12th century C.E., with the couple becoming the progenitors of that Scottish clan. Finally, for over seven centuries, it was owned by the important Monypenny family.

The name, Pitmilly or Pitmillie, has been used for centuries, but many variants occurred in earlier times. These include Petmullin, Pitmulin, Pethmolyn, and Pitmaulin. They probably reflect the P-Celtic, Scottish Gaelic, Scots and Latin languages, coupled with no great desire for consistency in spelling and the modification of place names that occurs so often. The prefix pit is derived from the P-Celtic word, pett, meaning a piece of land, and is very common in place-names in this part of Scotland. The second part of the name means mill, regardless of its various forms. Pitmilly means, therefore, a piece of land by the mill(s), and indeed, there are still ruined mills at Pitmilly.

The Pitmilly Lands lie on both sides of the Pitmilly Burn, a stream that joins the larger Kenly Water, just before the latter reaches the North Sea between Craig Hartle and Babbet Ness on the east Fife coast. The lands on the east side of the Pitmilly Burn border that sea. In order to define further the Pitmilly Lands as they have been known through the centuries, it is helpful to note that in the early 20th century, before it was broken up, the Pitmilly estate consisted of the manor house with its grounds, known as Pitmilly House, several farms, a flax mill and a grist mill, both of which may have been ruins then, and a fisherman's bothy. The farms, all of which are identified on the 2008 Ordnance Survey map, are Boghall, Falside, Hillhead, Morton of Pitmilly and Kilduncan. A possible source of confusion is that the Kenly Water has sometimes been known, and shown on maps, as Pitmilly Burn, but it seems clear that the Pitmilly Burn of the Pitmilly Lands is the tributary stream.

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