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

Druiiiblade. 73
formed by the windings of the burn, which in
course of time has cut out this singular den. The
burn is joined by two smaller streams near Begs-
hill, and is then known as the Garlet Burn —
Garbh-leac, ' rough flag-stone burn,' which is ver}^
descriptive of its channel. Begshill was formerly
written, and by old people occasionally pro-
nounced Bogshill, from the bogs which at one time
spread all over the low ground. The last gener-
ation supplied themselves with peats from this
hollow which is now well-cultivated land. Coma-
legy is given in a charter of 141 3 Culmelegy,
which I take to represent Ciil-inaoil-lagain, ' the
back of the bare little hollow.'
Two curious names have died out in Drum-
blade. Blankets may have been a corruption of
some such name as Blaket, common over Scot-
land. If the change was intended to suggest the
amount of comfort in the place, it certainly has
not always been realized. Within my own
memory one tenant after another has found ' the
covering narrower than that he could wrap him-
self in it.' Poddocknest may be the nest of the
Puttock, Kite, or Glead. Gledsgreen is in the
neighbourhood.
The Ramstone has always been a well-known
landmark on the Aberdeen turnpike. In the old
times it was reckoned a ' fairies' kiln,' and these
clever creatures cut out six steps in this 'heathen'
boulder to allow easy ascent to the hollow on the