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

132 Place Names in Strathbogie.
old march dyke is lost ; but it probably was
some territorial boundary, within which Belcherrie
was the most easterly town. Guestloan and
Greenloan, immediately adjoining, are no doubt
of Anglo-Saxon origin. ' Loan ' is a well under-
stood Scotch word, meaning an opening between
cultivated fields, protected by stone dykes, into
which cattle were driven for security. It is
difficult in every case to distinguish between the
Gaelic Ion, a ' marsh,' and the Anglo-Saxon loan,
but the ' loans ' belonging to these farms are still
remembered. The tradition as to Guestloan is,
that white stones were built into the enclosing
dykes, and gave rise from their appearance in
the gloaming to the jocular name ' the ghaist
(ghost) loan.' Names occasionally arise from
equally frivolous causes ; and, in absence of any
better explanation, I see no reason for rejecting
what is supplied by tradition. Referring to the
Guestraw, Aberdeen, Dr. Joseph Robertson says,
— ' In the charters of the i6th and 17th centuries
this lane is termed vicus leniunun, the street of
the goblins.' (Book of Bon- Accord, p. 1 17.) Cf.
Gaisthill in Fife, and Gaistmeadow in Forfar.
Greenloan is what its name indicates — ' a green
or grassy loan.' The next farm is Soccoth — so
named from soc, a 'snout' or ' point of land,' which
is a marked feature on the height above the
steading, and it also appears on the lower ground.
The name Drywells has arisen from the fact of a