Summary
FOR Roy Beers (Letters, September 27) to discard his fancy red pantiles in the service of the young ladies of "Rattoun Raw" is a step in the right direction. To then form an immediate, unconditional attachment to "Routine Row", without taking elementary precautions, suggests the practice of unsafe toponymy.
Students of place-names dislike examples with a plurality of origins but sometimes this has to be faced. Leave aside Rottenrow for a moment and consider (hypothetically) the name of "Kilbride". Mr X tells Roy Beers of a Saint Bride element. Y is more subtle: Saint Bride, yes, but only as a Christianisation of a sacred grove to the Celtic goddess Breo-Saighead, while Z opines that it is named after another Kilbride. After "more reading", Mr Beers discovers lots of Kilbrides connected with churches and so endorses X and the toponymous Abbess of Kildare. He knows, however, that this cannot explain all Kilbrides, such as that strange stone circle in Skye. Instead of reverting to Messrs Y and Z, he plumps for the dead obvious: places where newly married young women were murdered. "Kill bride".See the full content of this document
Extract
Rottenrow
This hypothesis mirrors the reality he has now confected: that all Rottenrow-type place ...
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