Scottish Place Names
- Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
For comparability with other cities around the world, Hobart has been defined as the urban and semi-urban area extending from Brighton in the north to Blackmans Bay in the south and from Collinsvale and Fern Tree in the west to the airport, Seven Mile Beach and Lauderdale in the east. Of the names of the 78 suburbs and neighbourhoods in the Greater Hobart area, 23 (29.5%) can be found in Scotland, are based on Scottish family names or have some other connection with Scotland. Some of the names are used in other parts of the British Isles as well, but half of them (15.4%) are unique to Scotland or are readily identifiable with places in Scotland that are based on the same names.
Official suburbs and other localities with names that occur only in Scotland and not elsewhere in the British Isles, and/or are definitely or most probably of Scottish origin are:
- Berriedale (Highland and Orkney Islands).
- Bonnet Hill (Moray, spelt Bonnethill).
- Dynnyrne - as explained by Kennedy & Kennedy (2006, p. 90), this name "follows from a house built by R.L. Murray in the late 1820s, and its subsequent application to his whole estate. It was a self-styled corruption by Murray of Dunnerne (or Dunearn) in Fife, the seat of the first baronet, Sir William Murray, his claimed ancestor."
- Geilston Bay - Geilston is a village in Argyll & Bute, west of the town of Dumbarton and therefore not far from Glasgow. Geilston House in Geilston (seen in the illustration above) is now owned by the National Trust for Scotland (NTS). There is a direct family connection between Geilston Bay in Hobart and the NTS property since the inlet of Geilston Bay, and thus the Hobart suburb, was named after Colonel Andrew Geils. P.R. Eldershaw (1966), in his entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography, states that Colonel Andrew Geils "was born probably in India, the eldest son of Lieutenant-General Thomas Geils of the Madras artillery in the East India Co.'s service and later of the Ardmore, Geilston and Dumbuck estates, Dumbartonshire, Scotland." (p. 435). Colonel Geils was appointed Commander of the settlement of Hobart Town in 1812, and lived on property which he called "Geilston Park" after the family estate near Dumbarton, Scotland.
- Glenorchy (derived from the river Orchy in Argyll & Bute; this river flows into Loch Awe). It is thought that Governor Lachlan Macquarie bestowed the name in 1811 in honour of his wife's family home in Scotland. The 1904 Australian Handbook described the little town as "thoroughly English-looking"!
- Granton (a district of the City of Edinburgh).
- Green Point (Shetland Islands) -it may be sheer coincidence, of course, that the only place in the British Isles with this descriptive name happens to be in Scotland.
- Lauderdale (Scottish Borders).
- Montrose (Angus). One of the reasons for the popularity of the name Montrose throughout the English-speaking world may have to do with Sir Walter Scott's novel The Legend of Montrose, published in 1819.
- Mount Stuart (Clackmannanshire, Dumfries & Galloway and South Lanarkshire). Mount Stuart is also an amazing Gothic mansion house on the Isle of Bute, created on the site of a building dating back to the reign of Queen Anne, at the start of the 18th century.
- Rose Bay - Rose is a well-established Scottish Clan, records of the name going back to the 12th century.
- Rosetta (Scottish Borders and Dumfries & Galloway) though the name, both in Scotland and in Hobart, could refer to Rosetta in Egypt. The name of the Hobart suburb was actually derived from the Rosetta Seminary and/or the Rosetta jam factory, but considering that the suburb adjoins Berriedale, Glenorchy and Montrose, a Scottish connection seems quite likely.
Some of the following suburbs and neighbourhoods are also likely to have a direct or indirect Scottish connection, but these names can be found in other parts of the British Isles as well:
- Glebe (Highland, Orkney Islands and Shetland Islands) also found in England and Ireland. Glebe is an Old English word for land put aside for church use..
- Firthside - there are places called Firth in Angus, the Scottish Borders and Shetland Islands, as well as a Firth House and Mains in Midlothian, Firth Ness in the Shetland Islands, Firthfield in Angus, Firthhead and Firthope Rig in Dumfries & Galloway and Firthybrig Head in the Scottish Borders. Place names with Firth as an element are also found in northern England, but less frequently than in Scotland where the word "Firth", meaning an estuary or wide inlet of the sea, derives from the Old Norse which also gave rise to the word "fjord". The illustration above is of the Firth of Clyde. The suburb was formerly known as Little Groningen, because of post-WW2 Dutch immigration to the area.
- Rokeby - this suburb could well have a Scottish connection. The name itself is a northern English one (it was first recorded as a family name in Yorkshire and there is a Rokeby Close, Grange and Park in County Durham), but Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832), the famous 19th century Scottish writer, used the name as the title of one of his poems. The titles of Sir Walter's novels and poems, or characters in his works, have been used surprisingly frequently as place names throughout the English-speaking world. The Hobart suburb recalls Rokeby Court, a residence built by George Stokell, a merchant and farmer, and which dates from about 1840.
- Springfield (Argyll & Bute, Dumfries & Galloway, Fife, Highland and Perth & Kinross) also very commonly found in England and Wales. Springfield is a popular place name in the USA as well.
A final category of suburban names comprises places that can be found in Scotland but which, in Hobart's case, definitely or most probably have no connection with Scotland.
- Austin's Ferry - there is an Austincroft in Highland; also Austin's Bridge in Devon, England. This suburb is named after an English convict, James Austin (1776-1831), who began the first ferry service there in the early 1800s across the River Derwent and who died a wealthy man
- Claremont (Fife, also Claremont Park in Edinburgh). Claremont is also found as an element in place names in southern England. The Hobart suburb was named after Claremont House, which was built in the 1830s by local settler Henry Bilton, who named it after Claremont Estate near Esher, Surrey (one of the royal homes of England).
- Kingston (Angus, City of Glasgow, East Lothian, Moray and Renfrewshire) and Kingston Beach and Heights by association; also all over southern England and is found in Ireland and Wales as well. Historians suspect that the suburb most probably commemorates King George III rather than a place in the UK.
- Montagu Bay - there is a Montague in Perth & Kinross. There is also one in East Sussex, England; both are spelt Montague. There is no Scottish connection, however, since the name honours Algernon Sidney Montagu (1802-1880), Attorney General and judge, who was born at Cambridge, England.
- New Town (East Lothian, also The New Town, a World heritage site in Edinburgh plus many other places spelt Newtown) but New Town is found far more frequently in England than in Scotland. New Town/Newtown is one of the most commonly recurring urban place names throughout the English-speaking world and in the majority of instances is simply a descriptive name. This also seems to have been the case with Hobart's New Town, historians being in agreement that the name was acquired in order to distinguish the various new settlements around Cornelian Bay from the original settlement of Hobart Town.
The role that Scotsmen played in establishing and developing Tasmania's capital city is further attested by the names of several main roads, both in the city centre and in the suburbs. Examples include Argyle Street, Campbell Street, Clydesdale Avenue, Gordons Hill Road, Macquarie Street, Melville Street and Murray Street. Governor Lachlan Macquarie was responsible for bestowing several of these names when he visited Hobart in 1811. Several parks and reserves also bear Scottish or Scottish sounding names, for example Cameron Park, Roseneath Park and Waverley Flora Park.
Acknowledgments:
- Kennedy, Brian and Kennedy, Barbara (2006). Australian Place Names. (ABC Books, Sydney).
- Scarlett, James D. (1975). The Tartans of the Scottish Clans. (Collins, Glasgow and London).
- Australian Dictionary of Biography - Online Edition.
- UBD Hobart & South-East Tasmania Regional Touring Map, 2003 (Universal Press Pty Ltd).
- Websites, place name gazetteers and published Ordnance Survey maps of British and Irish cities, towns, villages and counties.
© Ian Kendall
Melbourne, Australia, July 2004
Revised March 2007If you wish to contact Ian about his research, his e-mail address is ian.kendall1@bigpond.com.
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