welcome

River Nith

Ptolemy was responsible for producing the first map of Scotland.in
which he illustrated the territorial domains of many tribes as well as
many of the major rivers. In the south of Scotland, in the lands which
would rest between the two Roman walls of Antonine and Hadrian
were four tribes, the Damnonii, the Otadani, the Selgovae and the
Novantae. The lands of the Novantae lay in the south-west of
Scotland to the west of the river from which they took their name. A
river, Ptolemy called novius fl. in Latin and a river known today as
the River Nith. This relationship between tribal name and river name
was revisited some 6 centuries later when Bede referred to the
people of the Novantae as the Niduari - 'the Nith people'.

W.J. Watson in his assessment of the River Nith supports the
general view that 'Novious is agreed to be, by position, the Nith',
but challenges (intially at least) 'Whether the name Novious is
represented by modern Nith'. If it is, then the name has its origins
in Welsh newydd 'new, fresh', which is cognate with the Latin
novus 'new'. Here the term new is assumed to be some reference to
the freshness of the river-side which still to this day has some
significance. The transformation from newydd to nith no doubts
spans British, Welsh, Gaelic and English speaking influence.

Hugh Lorimer considers other possibilities. (1) Old Scottish nit 'nut' (cf. Nitshill, Glasgow) based on the abundance
of hazel-nut bushes on the banks of the Nith at Sanquhar. (2) Gaelic nead 'nest, haven' (Cf. Welsh nyth 'nest,
inaccessible position') ' which might apply to the outlet of the Nith, which provides a safe anchorage to a
vessel in the Solway'.

'Carrick Castle on a Craigie stands shall cry unto
Cumnock for a true nest'

Lorimer reassess the lines of an ancient poem and 'wonders if
that cry is to Cumnock Castle which if the Nith means a
nest would be very applicable , as a stronghold sitting in a
true nest surrounded by water and safe.'

Comparisons may also be drawn with the
River Ness, a name which as Nicolaisen
explains may have developed from the
Indo-European root ned 'to wet, flood'.
The Nith certainly has a reputation for
bursting its banks , whether over the castle-
meadows in its home-parish of New
Cumnock or at the Whitesands in Dumfries
town-centre, forty miles downstream.

Ridge of Drumkalladyr

Close to the site of Waterhead Castle the River Nith flows past Rig
Hill.The hills appears as the Ridge of Drumkalladyr in Blaeu's Map
'Coila Provincia' (1654) . W.J. Watson explains that the element
kalladyr is a survival of an early British caleto-dubron 'hard water'.
The source of the River Nith is a few miles upstream from this point.
The river is still relatively shallow and stones and boulders of the hard
river-bed match the description of 'hard water' perfectly

Watson draws parallels with Nithbren, an early form of Newburn, Fife, and suggests that this name may have its roots

Welsh newydd pren 'new, green tree', leading him to conclude 'It would be rash, therefore to deny that Nith may
represent Novious'. Interestingly the farm of Greenburn sits above Dalricket Mill . The latter sits on the banks of the
River Nith, a name which Hugh Lorimer considers to be the 'dale of Rheged', where Rheged is the Dark Age kingdom,
formed when the tribes of Novantae( Nith people ) and Brigantae merged.

In England, the place-name Nith was an early form (Domesday Book,1086) of the Yorkshire village of Nidd, named from
the River Nidd 'a Celtic or pre-Celtic river-name of uncertain etymology' A.D Mills ' Both these forms are reflected in
our own Nith, cf. Nithsdale has evovled from the earlier forms of Stranid 'strath nith' and Nidisdale.