Place name of the week

St Andrews ~ Cill Rìmhinn

Although currently named after the patron saint of Scotland, whose bones it claims to possess, St Andrews (Cinrigh Monai in 747) has an older Gaelic name: the first element is Gaelic ceann ‘head’, followed by a Pictish placename *Rymont, later gaelicised as* Rìghmhonadh, thus ‘the end or head of the area called *Rymont’. Pictish *Rymont and its Gaelic equivalent both mean ‘king’s muir’; the muir likely to be between St Andrews and Crail, part of which is still known as Kingsmuir.

By the 12th century, ceann had been reinterpreted as Gaelic cill ‘church’, probably due to the ecclesiastical associations, and the modern Gaelic name for St Andrews preserves the original name as Cill Rìmhinn ‘the church of Rìmhinn’. Further away from Fife, however, this name has sometimes been lost and forms such as Cill Anndrais are used, translated directly from the English form. lfor more information visit www.ainmean-aite.org