Blair Collection > Place names in Strathbogie, with notes historical, antiquarian and descriptive

Glass. 1 1 1
the original form of the name, and can therefore
offer no conjecture as to its meaning.
Crossing the Deveron, we enter the old parish
of jMortlach. This name is generally explained
as meaning ' the great hollow,' from inor-Iag,
which seems to me most unsatisfactory, because
we have no explanation of the remarkable
changes which must have occurred in the form of
the word if this derivation is correct. The oldest
documents we have never give us Morlag. We can
go back more than 700 years, and in the bull of
Pope Adrian IV. (A.D. 11 57, Reg. Ep. Abd., p. 5),
confirming the transfer of the church lands to
Aberdeen, the name appears as Murthilloch. In
other old documents we have Morthelach and
Murthlach (Reg. Ep. Abd.), and in a charter of
1426, Murthillach (Reg. Mag. Sig.) The Pres-
bytery Book of Strathbogie gives generally
Mortulach. Were it not that the late corrupt
spelling of Murthlak had been accepted as the
old form, we would have had the derivation, as I
believe it to be, from Mor-tulacJi, ' the big knoll.'
This name I associate with the old tower of
Tullich, which probably occupies the site of a
still older castle, of sufficient importance in early
times to give its name to the district.
To the Church of Murthlach, and afterwards
to the Bishopric of Aberdeen, belonged the lands
of Dumeath, formerly Dulmeath, from dail^ 'a
field.' The hill was called Dumeath, which eave