This watermill is called Kilmancha in the Blaeu atlas (surveyed perhaps in the 1590s by Pont). I imagine Kilmancha is a misinterpretation by the Dutch engraver of Pont’s manuscript map form (sadly lost for this area) and that the name represents Muileann nam Manach ‘mill of the monks’ or perhaps Am Muileann Meadhanach ‘the middle mill’. It would be unusual to see meadhanach anglicised as Mannoch in the SW however, usually the form is ‘minnoch’.

Given it is early May and the cuckoos are back in Carrick, this week’s featured lost name is Net Whowaig or Geks Seit. Only attested once, in the Blaeu atlas, it is shown as a farm, close to a the surviving holding of Corphin (perhaps Còrr Pheighinn ‘prominent pennyland’) Barr at approx. NX 284 965.

Watson (CPNS p.355) derives Net Whowaig from Gaelic Nead Chuthaig ‘cuckoo’s nest’. A nice name for a farm!

Ainmean Charraige is compiling a database of as many historic forms of place and personal names from Carrick. This will enable analysis of their meanings, distribution and character. We believe they will tell us a lot about the history of Carrick. The database already has c.8000 entries and is growing all the time. Interim results will be presented by Colin Mackenzie at the conference: Carrick’s Gaelic Heritage, The Carrick Centre, Maybole 14 Sept 24.

One thing we have noticed already: there seems to have been a significant ‘extinction event’ for the Gaelic version of many Carrick farm-names around the time of the reformation.