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

Place NciDies in Strat/iboHe.
name, we must know as much about it as we do
about any ordinary topographical name which
we attempt to explain. A corrupt form of a word
may seem to have a humorous meaning now which
it had not at first. Confounderland appears at
first sight a nickname, but when we find that the
old spelling was Conquhendarland, we see at once,
although we have only made two steps backward
towards the original form, that we are attaching
a meaning which does not belong to it. Although
several explanations of Gillgetherbus have been
offered, none appear to me of any value what-
ever, and I can only add a conjecture to those
already given. Gillgether probably represents a
personal name, originally Gillegedder. Gedder
is a name which appears in Cairnie in 1696, and
Gill was a prefix common in the district, as Gill-
mihel, Gillanders, Gillespok, and others. As I
conjecture, from the legends associated with the
place, some person of the name lost his life
there, and in a superstitious age, may have been
supposed to haunt the neighbourhood. In Ire-
land such events occasionally gave rise to place
names having the prefix Gilk, followed by
a personal or descriptive name ; and appari-
tions are also associated with the English word
bush, as Dullowbush, ' the bush of the phantom,'
Gillgetherbus is certainly an old name, as we
know that a century ago it was reckoned a
haunted place ; and legends of kelpies, candles.