Comhdhail
A comhdhail or couthal was a
Although most of the details of how it functioned are lost, enough evidence of it exists to be sure of its importance. In 1329, Geoffrey,
Barrow further noted that Andrew of Wyntoun appears to have translated the Latin word lucos ("groves"), as kwthlys.[6] Gavin Douglas' translation of Virgil used cythyll and cuthyll, implying that the word connoted a woodland clearing as well as an assembly.[6]
Records of such assemblies are preserved in place-names. Over thirty modern place-names deriving from comhdhail survive in Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 maps, with a similar number recorded in pre-modern documentary sources, but now lost.[7] Examples come almost entirely from eastern and lowland Scotland, stretching from Peeblesshire to Sutherland.[1] Instances include various locations called "Cothill", "Cuttyhill", "Cuthill", and others like Glenquithle and Cuttieshillock.[1]
Notes
- ^ a b c McNeill and MacQueen, Atlas of Scottish History, p. 191
- ^ Barrow, Scotland and its Neighbours, p. 218
- ^ Barrow, Scotland and its Neighbours, p. 217
- ^ a b c Barrow, Scotland and its Neighbours, p. 220
- ^ Barrow, Scotland and its Neighbours, pp. 220–21
- ^ a b Barrow, Scotland and its Neighbours, p. 222
- ^ McNeill and MacQueen, Atlas of Scottish History, p. 191, for map
References
- ISBN 1-85285-052-3
- McNeill, Peter G. B.; ISBN 0-9503904-1-0