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Elvanfoot is a small village in

South Lanarkshire South Lanarkshire (; ) is one of 32 unitary authorities of Scotland. It borders the south-east of the Glasgow City council area and contains some of Greater Glasgow's suburban towns, as well as many rural towns and villages. It also shares bor ...

, Scotland. Elvanfoot is located at the confluence of the

River Clyde The River Clyde (, ) is a river that flows into the Firth of Clyde, in the west of Scotland. It is the eighth-longest river in the United Kingdom, and the second longest in Scotland after the River Tay. It runs through the city of Glasgow. Th ...

and Elvan Water. The Clyde is crossed by a pedestrian

suspension bridge A suspension bridge is a type of bridge in which the deck (bridge), deck is hung below suspension wire rope, cables on vertical suspenders. The first modern examples of this type of bridge were built in the early 1800s. Simple suspension bridg ...

that has been closed since 2007 for want of repair. The unused church is on the

Buildings at Risk Register for Scotland The Buildings at Risk Register for Scotland records buildings of national architectural or historic interest which are considered to be under threat. The list is maintained by Historic Environment Scotland (HES). The register was established in 1 ...

, as are the stables of Newton House, once home to the Scottish judge

Alexander Irving, Lord Newton Alexander Irving, Lord Newton FRSE (1766–1832) was a Scottish judge who served as professor of civil law at Edinburgh University from 1800 to 1826. He was a Senator of the College of Justice. Life He was born on 12 October 1766, the son of G ...

Etymology

The name 'Elvan' includes the element ''*al-'', which occurs in river names in Roman Britain and continental Europe. A number of meanings have been suggested, including 'bright, shining, white', 'sparkling, speckled' and 'holy' amongst others. Almost all attestations of the root occur with the

Proto-Indo-European Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. No direct record of Proto-Indo-European exists; its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-Euro ...

suffix ''-*awe-'' and "root-determinative ''-*n-'' or participial ''-*ant-''", giving the proto-form ''*al-au-n-''.

Andrew Breeze Andrew Breeze FRHistS FSA (born 1954), has been professor of philology at the University of Navarra since 1987. Early life Breeze was born in 1954 and educated at Sir Roger Manwood's School, Emmanuel College, Cambridge (where he took a fi ...

has suggested that the name is derived from

Cumbric Cumbric is an extinct Celtic language of the Brittonic subgroup spoken during the Early Middle Ages in the ''Hen Ogledd'' or "Old North", in Northern England and the southern Scottish Lowlands. It was closely related to Old Welsh and the ot ...

''*halẹ:n'' 'salt',

cognate In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymological ancestor in a common parent language. Because language change can have radical effects on both the s ...

with

Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, of or about Wales * Welsh language, spoken in Wales * Welsh people, an ethnic group native to Wales Places * Welsh, Arkansas, U.S. * Welsh, Louisiana, U.S. * Welsh, Ohio, U.S. * Welsh Basin, during t ...

''halen'', which is found in a number of Welsh river names. As Elvan Water passes through a mining area, Breeze suggests that there may be high levels of salt in the river. The loss of initial /h/ could be explained as a result of the name's transmission via

Gaelic Gaelic (pronounced for Irish Gaelic and for Scots Gaelic) is an adjective that means "pertaining to the Gaels". It may refer to: Languages * Gaelic languages or Goidelic languages, a linguistic group that is one of the two branches of the Insul ...

Transport

Elvanfoot is at the junction of the A702 and

B7040 road B roads are numbered routes in Great Britain of lesser importance than A roads. See the article Great Britain road numbering scheme for the rationale behind the numbers allocated. (some data from openstreetmap.org) Zone 7 (2 & 3 digits) Zo ...

s and south from junction 14 of the

M74 motorway The A74(M) and M74 form a major motorway in Scotland, connecting it to England. The routes connect the M8 motorway (Scotland), M8 motorway in central Glasgow to the Scottish-English Anglo-Scottish border, border at Gretna, Scotland, Gretna. T ...

. Until 1965, it was served by

Elvanfoot railway station Elvanfoot railway station was a station which served Elvanfoot, in the Scottish county of South Lanarkshire. It was served by local trains on what is now known as the West Coast Main Line. History Opened by the Caledonian Railway, it became ...

on the

West Coast Main Line The West Coast Main Line (WCML) is one of the most important railway corridors in the United Kingdom, connecting the major cities of London and Glasgow with branches to Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Edinburgh. It is one of the busiest ...

. The village is also served by the number 102 bus from Edinburgh to Dumfries, which operates once daily in each direction, There used to be two buses per day, but this was cut due to council funding being reduced.

References

{{authority control Villages in South Lanarkshire