Unmapped Inflow on Logie Water

Image: © Ian Dodds Taken: 22 Jun 2021

Considering its size I was surprised to find that this incoming water isn't shown even on the latest big-scale online mapping. I didn't venture onto the opposite bank so will have to in the future. Around the spot the water is pouring in from, a mill lade and a small pond - constructed to serve a former paper mill which was situated just downstream from here - are still shown as containing water on today's maps. Logie Water is extremely short - two burns join to form it and less than a mile later it joins the River Avon. 'Logie' is a relatively common component of place-names, so I thought I'd find out what it once meant. To my horror its meaning is so uncertain and contested that a 64 page essay on it exists! In its various forms 'Logie' is usually said to derive from a word meaning 'place in the hollow'. This was originally thought to be applicable for the whole of Scotland, but the current consensus is that it is only so for areas that used to speak Gaelic. So the current thinking (or guess!) is that it means 'bright/shining'; the water is clear here. There is an interesting freely available guide to West Lothian place-names online. It was written in 1992 by John Garth Wilkinson. To avoid putting a link up, which will no doubt not work in a few years time, you currently download it as follows: type in the author's name followed by dot com, then scroll down his list until you find it.

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