Auchencrow is a small village in the Scottish Borders

Scottish Borders

The Scottish Borders is one of 32 local government council areas of Scotland. It is bordered by Dumfries and Galloway in the west, South Lanarkshire and West Lothian in the north west, City of Edinburgh, East Lothian, Midlothian to the north; and the non-metropolitan counties of Northumberland...

 area of Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

, by the Lammermuir

Lammermuir Hills

The Lammermuir Hills, usually simply called the Lammermuirs , in southern Scotland, form a natural boundary between Lothian and the Scottish Borders....

 range of hills, and near Reston

Reston, Scottish Borders

Reston is a village located in the southeast of Scotland, in Berwickshire, Scottish Borders region. The village lies on the western bank of the Eye Water.- Location :...

.

Etymology

The modern name, Auchencrow, tends to obscure the question of origins. A Gaelic origin is accepted by Watson (1926, 138) and Nicholaisen (1976, 138). It is thought that the meaning is "achaidh na cra" "field of the tree or trees" This is apparently contradicted by the 12th-century name-form ‘Alden-’, also preserved, for example, in four 13th-century Durham charters. Mac an Tàilleir suggests the form Aldenacraw may be derived from a name for the watercourse (such as the Gaelic Allt na Crà "stream of the salmon trap") rather than the settlement itself.

Something like ‘Halden’s Grave’ or ‘Halden’s Grove’ could be nearer the original idea, but it is more natural to use the current name, and to speak of the village of Auchencrow. This is itself a form only recently derived by folk-etymology from the much longerrunning ‘Edencraw’ or ‘Auchencrawe’: an evolution from Halden- to Alden- or Eden- to Auchenand from -grove/ -grave to -crawe to -crow.

James Hutton

James Hutton

James Hutton was a Scottish physician, geologist, naturalist, chemical manufacturer and experimental agriculturalist. He is considered the father of modern geology...

, the founder of modern geology

Geology

Geology is the science comprising the study of solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which it evolves. Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth, as it provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and past climates...

, farmed two miles to the west. A James Hutton Trail was established in 2006.

External links

• RCAHMS record on Auchencrow Mains
• Gazetteer for Scotland
• In the territory of Auchencrow: long continuity or late development in early Scottish field-systems?

• Image of Auchencrow