Names of salmon pools in Berwickshire
2018
In the study of Scottish and English hydronyms, attention has tended to focus
on the names of rivers, lochs, lakes and smaller watercourses, like streams and
burns. This paper concentrates on the names of salmon pools, water features
which have been understudied in comparison, with a few notable exceptions
(e.g. a series of articles on medieval fisheries by Victor Watts published
between 1982 and 1997). Drawing on data from mid-19th-century Ordnance
Survey sources, with reference to an 1864 list of salmon casts and a modern
fisherman’s map, the corpus of salmon pool names under review here is located
in four parishes (Mertoun, Eccles, Coldstream and Ladykirk) in the historical
county of Berwickshire in Scotland. The southern boundaries of all four
parishes are delineated by the River Tweed, a renowned salmon-fishing river.
After presenting the salmon pool names, the paper suggests ways in which
these microtoponyms and their elements may be categorised. It finishes by
raising issues that need to be considered when determining the longevity of this
type of name and the accuracy of such a corpus.
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