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Carcow Burn

W.F. Nicolaisen records that the river name Carron is found in six locations throughout Scotland, including the Carron
Water, which flows into the River Nith at Carronbridge near Thornhill in Dumfriesshire, 20 miles downstream from New
Cumnock. This name like the River Cart, Nicolaisen explains 'can with confindence be derived from the Indo-
European root kar- 'hard, stone, stony', with obvious reference to the quality of the beds of these water-course!'.
W.J.Watson gives Carran, or Carron as an example of an ancient stream name ending with -ann.and consider the first
element of the name to derive from kars-, 'harsh, rough,' seen in Welsh carreg 'stone, rock,' Gaelic carr 'a rock shelf'.

Carcow Burn is the only example of a water-course in the parish of New Cumnock which contains the element car- . In
this form it is difficult to seperate the name into distinct elements. Parallels may can be drawn with Crawick Water in
Dumfriesshire.

W.F.H Nicolaisen 'Scottish Place-Names' (1986)

W.J.Watson 'The Celtic Placenames of Scotland' (Birlinn Edition, 1993)

Reverend R.Simpson 'Traditions of the Covenanters'

Malcolm MacLennan 'Gaelic Dictionary (1995)

Crawick Water

Carrick Water flows into the River Nith at Sanquhar, Dumfriesshire, ten miles downstream from New Cumnock. The
local pronunciation is crack, (ka-rak) and this water too may be an example of a car- water-course, which certainly
describes the hard stony beds of this water, popular with summer picnic-ers. The farms of Carco Mains, Carcoside,
Meikle Carco and Carco populate the west bank of the water. Is the name Carco a local variant of Crawick and a
corruption of a car- name? If so then the name is perhaps a diminutive form of the Welsh carreg 'stone' , so that
Carcow Burn is the 'little stony one' ?

(Note : The Reverend Simpson of Sanquhar puts a different spin on both names, giving Crawick 'the habitation of the
crows' and Carco or Carcaw 'winding hollow', presumably from Gaelic car 'meandering' + cadha 'pass'.)

Carcow ' moss of the hazel'

There is of course the possibility that Carcow Burn takes its name from the farm of Carcow, which is fairly typical of
New Cumnock burns (as opposed to Pol- Burns) and therefore the name may not be a car- water-course name.
There is a collection of names surrounding the farm of Carcow in New Cumnock, including Munwhull, Glenhastel
and Auchincally which all appear to contain an element corrupted from the Welsh collen, Gaelic coll 'hazel'.
Carcow may also fall into this category and be Gaelic car 'moss' + coll 'hazel', i.e. 'moss of the hazel', New
Cumnock's equivalent of the famous Ayrshire place-name Moscow. (See Hill Place-Names) .