A mains () in
Scotland
Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...
is a farm, or the buildings of a farm.
This may include the farmhouse, farm buildings such as a
byre, dairy, and workers' cottages. It is pseudo-plural, actually being a
Lowland Scots corruption of ''domains'' or ''
demesne
A demesne ( ) or domain was all the land retained and managed by a lord of the manor under the feudal system for his own use, occupation, or support. This distinguished it from land subinfeudation, sub-enfeoffed by him to others as sub-tenants. ...
'',
[The ''Shorter Oxford English Dictionary''] and so is never used in the form "main" (except occasionally in the tautological "main farm", although this usage is not traditional).
Definition
The mains was usually the principal farm on an estate, or at least the one with the most fertile ground. The rough equivalent in England would be a ' home farm' (or perhaps 'manor farm', but not a 'manor' or 'manor house'). The laird
Laird () is a Scottish word for minor lord (or landlord) and is a designation that applies to an owner of a large, long-established Scotland, Scottish estate. In the traditional Scottish order of precedence, a laird ranked below a Baronage of ...
's house – if there was one – may have been nearby or some distance away, but is not usually considered part of the mains. Many mains remain as working farms, while others have been converted to residential accommodation. Sometimes the buildings and/or farm have disappeared altogether, and only the name of the location survives.
Placenames
The word ''mains'' occurs frequently in Scottish placenames, most noticeably in the north east and east coast regions, extending down into East Lothian and Berwickshire, where examples include Auchencrow Mains, Blackadder Mains, and Hutton Mains. The usual form is "Mains of X", without the definite article
In grammar, an article is any member of a class of dedicated words that are used with noun phrases to mark the identifiability of the referents of the noun phrases. The category of articles constitutes a part of speech.
In English, both "the" ...
"the", for example, "Mains of Hallhead". However, the best-known example of its use in a Scottish placename is Davidson's Mains, now a suburb of Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...
, which does not follow this form. Indeed, south of the M8, Mains almost invariably take the form "X Mains", as in "Mordington Mains".
The same word usage to occur in Northern England
Northern England, or the North of England, refers to the northern part of England and mainly corresponds to the Historic counties of England, historic counties of Cheshire, Cumberland, County Durham, Durham, Lancashire, Northumberland, Westmo ...
,[ and farm names of the form "X Mains" can be found in northern ]Northumberland
Northumberland ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North East England, on the Anglo-Scottish border, border with Scotland. It is bordered by the North Sea to the east, Tyne and Wear and County Durham to the south, Cumb ...
. Examples here include Adderstone Mains, near Bamburgh, and Burradon Mains, a few miles north of Rothbury in the Vale of Whittingham. In some cases, new owners have renamed various "mains" to "manor" in ignorance of the distinction in Scotland. The media occasionally uses the tautology, "Mains of X farm". Locally, it will be referred to as "the mains".
Others
Mains is also a family name and a sept of the Scottish clan
A Scottish clan (from Scottish Gaelic , literally 'children', more broadly 'kindred') is a kinship group among the Scottish people. Clans give a sense of shared heritage and descent to members, and in modern times have an official structure r ...
Gunn.
See also
* Townland
A townland (; Ulster-Scots: ''toonlann'') is a traditional small land division used in Ireland and in the Western Isles of Scotland, typically covering . The townland system is of medieval Gaelic origin, predating the Norman invasion, and mo ...
References
Geography of Scotland
Scots language
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