Chapter 21: Text Dump

Location for notes, words, surplus text

I think a lot of this is in the Mesolithic book.

BRN names
Crannog blurb
Ben Mores
Clerical interference
Moy
BRN again

Why not in with Fearann? Mesolithic survival: or put with saints?

The Bernane and other Bells.
There appears to have been a link between the fearann and bells, which, late in the native period, began to be used instead of fire as a way of gathering a population or passing information. As a replacement for a beacon, a hand-bell struck with sufficient vigour probably worked very well. Some field experiments are called for. Birnie, Moray (grid ref) was the original seat of the bishops of Moray and its church was dedicated to the local place-name saint Brendan or Brennach, a fine collection of BRN ‘fire’ names. Brennach’s bell was known as the Ronnel bell of Birnie (G. rainn ‘portion’, a word equivalent to fearann). St Ernan’s bell at Banchory, Deeside, was called Ronecht.

A third example is the Bernane of St Fillan which survives. It is a cast bronze bell weighing 4 kg (almost 9 lbs), which was kept by a hereditary keeper known as a Deoireach or Dewar who lived at Suie in Glendochart. The Doireach is found elsewhere in the name of a senior local official or judge, the toiseach-doireach. In both cases this points to a link with a deer forest (AG. doire). If the toiseach-doireach was in charge, there were evidently NCOs responsible for other aspects of local organisation. St Fillan in his original manifestation was the gathering beacon of Glendochart, no doubt located at Auchreoch (which would explain why the first Laird of Glenorchy acquired it). Highland Perthshire was richly endowed with early bells of a variety of type, some no doubt re-cycled cow bells. Elsewhere we find Bearnan Bhride ‘the bell of Bride’ and Bearnan Chiarain ‘the bell of Ciaran’. W.A. Gillies 1938, 73-4. The word bearnan is translated ‘gapped’ even when the bell in question is cast in a single piece. It is more probably that it means ‘signal of the local settlement’. Another bell, once at Strowan in Atholl was known as Am Buidhean (G. buidhe ‘troop of hunters’) and was also associated with St Fillan. W.A Gillies 1938, 65.

These saints belong in the realms of Christian pseudo-folklore. The hunting link is underscored by further features. The Dewar of the Bernane of St Fillan was obliged to pursue goods or cattle stolen from anyone in the parish, and was given fourpence, or a pair of shoes and food for the first night. In earlier terms this may have meant that he was responsible for finding game and directing it towards Glendochart. Could the bell have served in some way to drive deer, as it once served to herd cattle? Another relic of St Fillan was his Quigrich or crozier now in the National Museum, Edinburgh. It also was carried to distant places to recover stolen property. W.A. Gillies 1938, 65. The name is G. coigreach ‘stranger, pilgrim’, AG. ‘hunter’, as in the district name Coigrach, Wester Ross. The bell may have served a practical purpose.

Loch Ness, like all the larger lochs, was evidently managed as a single unit, the main beacon site probably where Castle Urquhart now stands but there are no signs of FRN names. Instead we seem to be looking at a derivative of naisein ‘old inhabitants of a country’, nais ‘hearth, furnace’, and naisg ‘bind, make fast’. The monster or dragon which lurks there is no doubt an animated memory of the old beacon, regularly drowned by being dumped in the loch. G. ness ‘promontory, headland’ may define a headland used as a beacon site. Naise was the hero who eloped with Deirdre to live an idyllic life as a hunter in the wilds of Argyll, according to the Irish romance.

Crannogs.
The crannogs or artificial islands which were built in the lochs of Perthshire and neighbouring Argyll in considerable numbers from the seventh century B.C. have been mentioned in several contexts and offer their own witness to the permanence of occupation in this area. Though such constructions are found all over Scotland, those of Loch Tay are so far the oldest of their type. B.A Crone, ‘Crannogs and chronologies’, Proc Soc Antiq Scot, 123, 1993, 245-54. Highland Perthshire is also noted for its substantial stone ‘forts’ or homesteads, which were in use in the Dark Ages as cattle pens but which may be earlier. D.B. Taylor, Circular Homesteads in North West Perthshire, 1990 (Abertay Historical Society Publication No. 29). This completed the picture until stone castles were built by feudal Campbells, Menzies and Stewarts. The chiefs of Clan Gregor built no castles but they and other ‘native men’ are associated with crannogs and homesteads in Lochtayside, Loch Earn, Glenstrae, Glenlyon, Balquhidder and elsewhere.

The Isle of Loch Tay had an importance beyond its size. Probably built in the sixth century BC and serving as a native elite centre, it was renovated in the twelfth century by Alexander I who evidently occupied it himself, for his Queen Sybil died and was buried there in 1122. He then gave it to the monks of Scone as a priory. Duncan Campbell acquired charter to the island in 1491 and apparently lived there himself.

This little island was evidently an important place and the reasons for this can be stated with some confidence, for a beacon lit there would be visible for many miles down the loch. A comparable centre at the west end of the loch is Eilean Ran, another crannog once occupied by the related Macnabs, until they also were evicted by Colin Campbell, who had built his castle of Finlarig half a mile. Loch Tay is some twenty miles long and has a pronounced bend and its two ends were presumably linked by a system of local beacons and relays. Probable sites for these include Fearnan ‘fire place’, Ardtalnaig, Ardeonaig ‘height of the fire’, Lawers ‘fire place’, and Morenish. High-status families lived at all these places.

That all these families, regardless of their actual feudal status or later claims, belonged to a single native organisation which controlled the whole of Loch Tay is suggested by several things. We find Macgregors at Balloch at the east end, Macinvallichs or Mallochs, a Clan Gregor family, at Ardeonaig on the south side, and Macnabs, a related family, at Killin at the west end. Fearnan belonged to the Robertsons of Strowan but was tenanted for several centuries by Macgregors. Part of Morenish was known as Baile mòr MhicGrigoir ‘MacGregor’s great town’.W.A. Gillies, 1938, 399 Clan Gregor traditionally if not reliably claimed to control the whole basin of Loch Tay A.G. Murray MacGregor 1898, 42, note. and logic suggests that it must have been controlled as a unit, probably from Balloch, though the population was divided into many local groups. The surname analysis summarised above also suggests this. It is also relevant that the feudal Campbells ousted native families from many key sites where they built their own castles, at Kilchurn, at the north end of Loch Awe, where they replaced the Macgregors of Glenorchy and Glenstrae, at Achallader, on the marches between Glenlyon and Glenorchy, where they replaced the Fletchers, in Glendochart, where they replaced an unknown native family from the Isle of Loch Dochart, at Finlarig, near Killin, where they replaced the MacNabs, and at Kenmore or Balloch, where they replaced the MacDougall MacGregors.

Ben More as a hunting beacon.
There are fourteen mountains in Scotland named Ben More or Beinn Mhór ‘the big mountain’. In most cases the name is appropriate: most are not only big mountains but the highest in their area. However in several cases they are quite small mountains, in one case only 104 m. high, and in one or two cases there are higher mountains with a very short distance. It was also noted that, in addition to Ben More in Mull and Ben More in Glendochart, there are prominent BMs in both Assynt and Coigach. Another curious feature was that where other features are named More or ‘big’, there is a corresponding feature named Beag or ‘small’, but this is not the case with any of the Ben Mores. Is the name perhaps significant not only of height but of something more? It was decided to compile a gazetteer of sites.

Expect ‘some other unidentified beacon in Skye’.

Mormond: quote Watson p404. 30NJ9757.
Moncrieff = Dun Crub Watson 400-1.
Mor Monadh, Western Isles, 1314 NB2713.
Morven, Aberdeenshire. 37 NJ3704. A big, high isolated hill, 871m Neighbours all much smaller. Between Deeside and Donside, linking them. The Cairn Gorm or Blue Cairn on the shoulder of the hill is on the skyline both from Deeside and from Donside (WMA 1952, 179). Between Cromar also?
Morven, Berriedale, Caithness? 17 ND0028. A big prominent hill of 706m between Small Mount? 535m and Carn Mor 477m; check map and location.
More? Lewis, 8: NB3651, no name mapped but my map is very old.
Morven (NO1388), 859m, large mt with panoramic view. Above Castleton/Forest of Mar etc. Morrone is a ghost name (Alexander).
Morvern: correct name may after all be Morven, which means something.
Those in the Outer Hebrides are visible to the east and those on the west mainland are visible to the west and so both serve to link the two, except the Oa.
Sgurr na Moraich, 876m (map 33) is the most visible but not the highest of the Five Sisters of Kintail.
Fourman or Formond, is a prominent hill in Huntly (WMA 281). An outstanding hill, like the Brimmond and Mormond, visible over a wide area. The meaning is (>) ‘skyline’ as in the Hill of Fare. It is the aspirated form of Mormond.
Mormond is prominent in a large part of Buchan.’ (WMA 93). The Gaelic would have been mhon, giving Morven, but the aspiration has been lost.
Brimmond (or Drummen) is ‘conspicuous in its area’ (WMA 187). A BRM ‘fire’ word like Birmingham (Brummies). In Aberdeenshire Mon has the meaning of Ben elsewhere. Not very different in fact.

Gazetteer.
14. NB2509. 572 m. The biggest hill on the island.
14. NB4224. 104m. Coastal and in fact a very small hill.
15. Assynt. NC3120. 3273 feet. Overlooks a group of 7 chambered cairns (outliers of the Orkney-Cromarty group) and other cairns. The glen (name?) appears to have been divided into davachs.
15. Coigach. NC0904. 2435 feet and the highest. Beinn an Eoin NC1006 is another beacon site.
18. NF8976. Height?// Prominent but there is a bigger peak to south. Maireabhal NF8070, 230m. To signal to Harris?
22. NF8031. 620 m. The biggest hill on the island.
26. Strathglass. NH3225. 401 m. There are much bigger hills immediately to the south: Meall a Chràthaich NH3622, 679 m, at NH3322, 553 m., at NH3224, 407m, etc. It overlooks Comar, a Chisholm ??? Shown as Grant territory.
36. Speyside. NH9928. 471 m. There are bigger hills immediately to the north, such as Carn Sgriob NH, 485 m. Other surrounding peaks are equipped with cairns. Achnahannet NH9727. Castle Grant N*0430. Faces Abernethy across the Spey and probably visible as far as the Braes of Abernethy or further. An important site in Grant country.
48. Mull. NM5233. A very large mountain and a famous beacon site, visible as far as Morvern.
49. ???? NM7921. 194m. Coastal location facing entrance to Loch Spelve on Mull ?. Equipped with a fort. Creag Loisgte NM8019, 210 m., is higher.
51. Balquhidder/Glendochart, Perthshire. NN4324 1174 m. Slightly higher than neighbouring Stob Binnein 1165 m. Very visible, in Balquhidder and along Glendochart and Loch Tay as far as Carwhin and Ardtalnaig. Very suitable as a beacon site. [see photographs, IFB 238, 308
56. Cowal. NS1090. 741 m. and the highest. Between Glendaruel and Loch Eck, on the north slope of Glen Masan (a hunting forest, beloved of Deirdre).
57. Mor Bheinn (NN7120 check ref), 640 m. Glenartney, a royal hunting forest in 16c. Within Strathearn where Dundurn (NN7121), a Dark Ages hunting lodge.
60. Mull of Oa, Islay. NR2940. 202 m. Coastal location facing south over open sea, but only half a hill. But it is the highest point of the Oa. Beside Dun Athad and Port an Eas. Possible signal to Kintyre or Ireland?
77. Merrick, Dumfries & Galloway. NX3984. 366 m. Not the highest: Bennan NX4082 is 562 m. and is only 2 km away. Chambered cairn NX3785.

Moy in Strathdearn (NH7733).
MOY again near Forres (NJ0160).
MOY, Strathpeffer, (NH4855).
Moycroft at Elgin (NJ2362).
Glen MOY NO4064.
Isle of MAY.

Fearann are in the Mesolithic page.
Why not this?

BRN
oldest form
‘fire’ word, as E. burn

BRN FRN
*bearann ‘beacon ‘fearann - ‘fire’ derivatives

BRN -RN
earann - ‘fire’ derivatives
FRN
Possible later derivatives of
oldest form leading to confusion

BRN names have not been included but many of them are probably relevant. G. bearn ‘gap’, AG. ‘deer trap’ is a plausible antecedent for fearann ‘tribal deer forest’, and has been used to explain the name Morvern, but is not directly relevant to land division. But bearn might be a compound of AG. be ‘fire’ and fearann ‘hunting ground’, the link being that fire was used to drive deer into a narrow gap or trap.

Watson draws attention to a very old name, Brunhere ‘brun-earann’ which was equivalent to Brunalban or Drumalban. W.J. Watson 1926, 226. Drumalban is seen as a range of mountains dividing Scotland into two but opinions differ as to which. The most plausible is the great range of the Grampians which begins at the Mounth in the east and continues west through Drumochter, dividing Atholl from Mar and Perthshire from Inverness-shire. Brunhere might then be another name for Breadalbane but the argument is tenuous.

Birnie and St Marny’s Well, Benholm (NO8069).
Baoirneach, a flat platform near the summit of Cairntoul, explained as Buidhearnach ‘yellowness’ but a BRN ‘beacon’ name. G. buidhe ‘troop (of hunters)’.
Barnitus, the patron of Dreghorn parish, Ayrshire.
Beanock (NH4130): recent Gaelic, small gap?
Bearranan (NF9176) (Uist?) The name is attached to a broad spur of Beinn Vreac and there is an island dun immediately below it (NF9177).
Berniesdale, Skye.
Birnie, Moray (grid ref). It was the original seat of the bishops of Moray. St. Brendan or Brennach here with the Ronnel bell of Birnie (G. rainn?) St Ernan’s bell at Banchory, Deeside, was called Ronecht.
Branboth was an old parish in Glenlyon, Perthshire.
Brandanes were the men of Bute.
Brannie, The (NN1713), a hill-spur overlooking Loch Fyne which was almost certainly a beacon site controlling the loch.
Brathens, The (NO6798), a visible site on small hill above river Dee.
Brown: Glen Brown, Bridge of Brown, Burn of Brown (NJ1220). Between upper Strathavon and Abernethy parish.
Bruan (ND3139), a coastal site in Caithness.
Carn Bhrain (NH3870).
Dalabheairn (NH4951).
Dunbarnie parish on river Earn, Perthshire.
Kilbirnie, Ayrshire. St Birinus here.

Lack of Clava cairns on Spey matched by lack of evidence for a fearann, aberrant name, possibly influence from south rather than from Moray.

Early date suggested by relative absence of names in the high places, only on routes, suggesting only sporadic visits or an entire lack of exploitation and by the great variety of modern forms, suggesting a long period of evolution and local obsolescence.

England.
The OS Gazetteer shows only 40 names in FARN in the whole of England. In Wales one finds Wern (±160) and Gwern (±70). The object of searching control areas in northern England was to establish, if possible, the level of background noise created by irrelevant names. In the event this proved impossible. Furness (Lancs), Furneis.

The first control area was OS 1:50,000 sheet 87, covering Hexham in Northumberland. It produced five probable FRN names of a familiar type.

Farnbury (NY7245), Farneyshield (NY7948), Farneyside (NY7851), Farnley (NY9963), and Fernhill (NY9567).

There were also a substantial number of names which would not have been out of place in Aberdeenshire including Annat Walls (NY7245), Banno Crags (NY8372), Cairn End (NY7160), Click ‘em in (NZ0072), Fairhill (NY7245), Farglow (NY6868), Glendue (NY8865), Moralees (NZ0474), Redpeth (NY6963), Tipalt (NY6968).

The second control area was OS 1:50,000 map sheet 98 covering Wensleydale and Wharfdale, North Yorkshire. It produced five names, two of them attached to prominent hills:

Arncliffe (NY9372), a village in Littondale,
Fornah Gill (NY8469) (cf Fornought (NN9474), Balfornought (NS8293), Forneth (NO0945)
Hern Gill (NY9975).
Whernside (NY7381, NX0277), hills of 736 m. and 605 m. respectively,

There was a similar number of names with Gaelic links, such as Balshaw (NY6764), Braida Garth (NY7077), Cam (NY8282), Caphill Moss (NY7193), Cosh (NY8578), Crummack (NY7771), Firth Fell (NY9275), Gibbon Hill (NZ0196), Leck Fell (NY6678), Oughtershaw (NY8681), Ure river (NY7996).

Saints.

Achnahannait (NH6734).
Achnahannait (NG5037, Skye.
Camas na h-Annait (NG6934), on a very small island, Eilean Mor, one of the Crowlin islands. 2 km by 1.5 km with a good harbour. A beacon site is about the only possibility.
Carn na h-Annaite Mor (NH3554).

PRELIMINARY CONCLUSIONS

The most interesting question is the degree of correspondence between the known or proposed pattern of fearann and other settlement patterns. There is a risk of a circular argument if we use known boundaries features to support the existence of a defined prehistoric district, and then use this proposed district to support the notion of continuity, but when we find several unrelated features coinciding, a continuous history seems the best way of explaining them.

For the use of rivers as boundaries both in prehistory and later there is considerable evidence. As noted already, the prehistoric provinces of Pictish Scotland were defined in terms of rivers. Cat was the land north of the Dornoch Firth and the river Oykel. The next province to the south contained the lands from the Dornoch Firth to Spey. The third lay between Spey and Dee, then Cirech from Dee to Tay, and Fib lay between the firths of Tay and Forth. Inland the watersheds defining river catchment areas were used to define Fotla and Fortrenn. A similar arrangment has been proposed for the fearann into which these larger units were presumably divided. The clearest example of such a subdivision is Formartin, fearann Mhartain, which occupies that part of Buchan between Ythan and Don. Ferindonald, Easter Ross, was bounded by the river Averon on the east and by Allt na Làthaid near Dingwall on the west. So, presumably, were the parishes of Alness and Kiltearn which occupied the same land. W.J Watson 1926, 116. The existence of these boundaries implies the existence of comparable units on either side. When we move to Moray and Aberdeenshire, the use of Spey, Ythan, Dee and Don as boundaries allows us to assume that Findhorn and Deveron served a similar purpose within their respective provinces. The use of Ythan as the northern boundary of Formatin implies the existence of a comparable unit using Ythan as its southern boundary and probably limited to the west by Deveron. This pattern is shown in two modern survivals: the boundaries of the pre-reform and much lamented counties and, to an extent, in feudal clan lands.

The south shore of the Moray Firth was divided between the old counties of Inverness-shire, Nairn, Moray, Banff and Aberdeen (Buchan). There are some irregularities but essentially the county of Nairn was bounded by Nairn and Findhorn, Moray by Findhorn and Spey, Banff by Spey and Deveron, and Buchan was that part of Aberdeenshire which, as we predicted, lay between Deveron and Ythan. At Ythan, as noted, we go into Formartin.

From this pattern we can deduce that lower river valleys in this part of Scotland were avoided for purposes of settlement. There were good reasons for this. They were wild rivers, carrying all the run-off and melt-water from the Grampians, notably the Spey with its huge catchment area. In their lower reaches they were often dangerous to cross and liable to flooding. But above a certain point the same factors did not operate and settlement was able to occupy the entire river valley and is consequently found in various straths and glens which are separated from neighbouring valleys by an increasingly high watershed.

The use of rivers or arms of the sea as boundaries can be traced further. The Dee marks the boundary between Aberdeenshire and Kincardine or the Mearns (part of Pictish Cirech) in its lower reaches while the upper reaches of the Dee, defined by the surrounding hills, fall into Aberdeenshire. Kincardine consisted entirely of lowland from Dee to N. Esk. Angus had two parts, from the N. Esk to the S. Esk and from the S. Esk to the estuary of the Tay and Fife, another Pictish province, lies between Tay and Forth.

Clans
The only detailed information about clan settlement reflects a post-feudal situation which was not only very variable but too late to give much information about pre-feudal land divisions. However a few features can be noted. The distinction between the old Caithness and its southern neighbour was maintained and the Dornoch Firth continued to separate Sutherlands and Rosses. The south shore of the Dornoch Firth, where the original Fearn was located, was occupied by a localised tribe of Maccullochs. Clan Munro occupied the north side of the Cromarty Firth leaving the area around New Fearn and up to Tarbat Ness to others (later Rosses). The Munros also occupied land to the north, in Strathoykell, of a size which suggests a second fearann to the west of Ferincoskry (perhaps the elusive Ferinbeuthlin). The Black Isle, including Ferintosh, was occupied by Urquharts. In upper Strathnairn we find a great swathe of territory occupied by the native Mackintoshes of Clan Chattan and on the upper Spey a comparable territory belonging to the native Grants of Clan Alpin. The good land along the Moray Firth was divided among a multitude of feudal families, initially as a means of pacification, but in some cases the rivers continued to be used as boundaries: the Nairn separated Rosses from the Campbells of Cawdor, the Findhorn separated Stuarts from Cummins, the lower Spey limited the territories of Gordons, Leslies, and Inneses and the lower Deveron at various places marked the boundaries of Ogilvies, Meldrums, Urquharts, Dempsters, Crichtons, Inneses, and Abernethies.

The varying local traditions of monument building in the Late Neolithic or Early Bronze Age must also be fitted into this picture one way or another. In early medieval terms it is possible to say that Orkney-Cromarty tombs were built in the two most northerly provinces, Cat and Ce. Henge monuments are spread more widely – two in Caithness, one in the remote western outpost of this culture in ????, and a remarkable concentration of five to the north of the Dornoch Firth in what was later Ferincoskry. In Moray henges have a regular distribution and evidently mark district meeting places. Those on the lower Nairn and Findhorn may be on or near the lowest safe crossing-place. Settlement, then as later, avoided the lower Spey. The Clava cairns, which mark a new departure, cluster in the valley of the Nairn, which was low and accessible. Their builders avoided higher ground such as the upper Findhorn but found the upper Spey and its tributaries accessible. However there is an unaccountable gap in the low country from the lower Findhorn to the Spey. Further to the east, the Deveron marks the start of a different culture which built recumbent stone circles. Most are concentrated in Aberdeenshire but there are a dozen or so in the Mearns and one each on the North Esk and its principal tributary. Angus and Atholl, further south, shared a henge tradition with Fife.

It is therefore possible to trace a correspondence between recent political units, feudal clan holdings, the provinces attributed to the Picts, and the smaller divisions known as fearann. The fearann is logically the oldest, since it represents the territory that could be exploited and controlled by the smallest viable unit of population, a clan operating under a single leader. It is a sign of the validity and effectiveness of this unit that we can still trace it most of the way from Caithness to Perthshire and in the Hebrides and Argyll.

The achievement of the Picts was to weld these local units into a larger structure which fulfilled some different purpose and also worked very well. Their carved stones leave little doubt that the main activity was the organisation of hunting at regional level: they show mounted leaders, foot soldiers, dogs, stags, boar, and a few rare portraits of hunt officials. The seven provinces of the Picts were both natural and politically-viable units which survived to become the basis of medieval Scotland. The older pattern suggests that the Picts probably did not invent these seven provinces but they may have refined their links with each other and centralised a system of control. That it was a voluntary federation, more like a football league than a feudal state, is suggested by the spread of identical symbols from Shetland as far as Galloway and by the lack of virtually all other signs of their presence.

When we come to fit prehistoric built monuments into this pattern, we can see some similarities and some variants within the general pattern. There are some very widespread distributions: henges cover the whole of the Pictish area, while Orkney-Cromarty tombs are limited to the northern two provinces and recumbent stone circles are found only in Fidach (or perhaps Ce), between Spey and Dee, and the northern half of Cirech. This reveals a sub-division of Cirech which is traditionally acknowledged: they were Angus and the Mearns. It is also reflected in the division between the counties of Angus and Kincardine. In prehistory the southern part of the later province evidently went with Atholl and Gowrie. But these are small adjustments which reveal internal divisions of a pre-Pictish age.

Clerical interference is seen in Moorfoot, once in Norse terms Morthwait, Murroes, now Muirhouse, and Ringansay which now as Ronaldsay commemorates an imaginary Viking. Sythera, once Cyderhall.

Fearann Saints
In the Irish calendar there were twenty-six saints called Ernan including an uncle and a nephew of St Columba. Ernan mac Eochain, ‘fire son of fire’, 1 January. Nephew of St Columba who had a miraculous view of the ascent to heaven of his uncle’s soul, which being translated means he saw smoke from a (pagan) funeral pyre or bonfire.

Ethernascus or Athernaise (3 Dec). Birn or Birin also 3 December and so in some sense equivalent.
Erneneus or Ernan = Marnan, Marnoch (1 Mar).

Ciaran also Queranus and Saranus. cf Whirren and Mirren.
He is found at:
Strathmore, Caithness
Fetteresso, Aberdeen
Glenbervie (well),
Kilkerran, Kintyre.
Kilcheran, Lismore
Kilchieran in Kilchoman, Islay.
Barvas, Lewis.
Dalquherran, Daily, Ayrshire.

Ethernanus (2 Dec) = Itarnan, Tuetheren, Iphernan (at Madderty), and also Ernan (by loss of medial aspirate). Irnie, the steeple of the church at Kilrenny (rainn ‘portion’).
Iphernan the same word by pun to ifrinn ‘hell’ and aifrionn ‘Mass’. cf Offerance, Menteith.
Ferranus, an obscure bishop.

Barnitus? at Dreghorn, Ayrshire

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