Bob Wallace wrote: > This may seem like a silly question, particularly for someone who has been > reading messages in this group for some number of years, and has traveled to > Scotland on several occasions. No, the really silly thing is *not* to ask, when it appears you are short of some information. > A fairly recent message mentioned the "Mains of" > a town or village that got my curiosity going again. What exactly is the > meaning of "Mains of ..." whatever village or town? Not a town or a village. "Mains of X" is always a single farm. In times past, the countryside was split up into estates, each normally containing more than one farm. Patterns of ownership will almost certainly have changed, but you can often recognise such former estates because there is a common element to all the farm names. So you may find "North X", South X", "Upper X", "Burnside of X" etc. etc. If, in this mix, there is also a "Mains of X" then that will originally have been a farm which, unlike the others on the estate, was not rented out, but was farmed by the estate owner or his manager. In England, the equivalent would be the "Home farm", and you do occasionally find this in Scotland too. Gavin Bell

And the farmer who worked "Mains of X" was sometimes addressed as "Mains". Tony