Place name of the week

Crieff ~ Craoibh

Craoibh or Crieff (Creffe in c. 1178) in Perthshire is from craobh ‘tree’. Sometimes it is called Baile Chraoibh ‘Crieff town’ to differentiate it from the parish. The name is wellknown in Gaelic, with the gardens of Crieff mentioned in Gaelic poetry as Pàirceachan Chraoibh.

To the north of Crieff is a place called Culcrieff which is Cùl Chraoibh ‘the back of Crieff ’. Also nearby is Crieffvechter, but early written forms make it clear the first syllable originally represented Gaelic coire ‘corrie’, and was later reanalysed as Crieff.

Someone from Crieff is known as a Craobhach. There is a burn in Glen Lyon called Spùt a’ Chraobhaich ‘the spout of the Crieff man’. The story goes that he was hired to divert the channel of a burn, but a flood did the work for him. lfor more information visit www.ainmean-aite.scot