Crichton is a small village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

Midlothian Midlothian (; gd, Meadhan Lodainn) is a historic county, registration county, lieutenancy area and one of 32 council areas of Scotland used for local government. Midlothian lies in the east-central Lowlands, bordering the City of Edinburgh, ...

, Scotland, around 2 miles (3 km) south of

Pathhead Pathhead ( sco, Paithheid) is an area of Kirkcaldy, in Fife, Scotland. Pathhead was an independent village before it was incorporated into the Royal burgh of Kirkcaldy. In Jan Blaeu's map of Scotland from the 17th century reference is made to ...

and the same distance east of

Gorebridge Gorebridge is a former mining village in Midlothian, Scotland. Gorebridge has an annual Gala Day which always takes place on the 3rd Saturday in June. This is much like a town fair, with rides and games. The gala day has a tradition of pickin ...

. The second element of the name is clearly from the

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...

word ''tūn'' 'farm, settlement'. The first element is less certain, however, and could be from

Gaelic Gaelic is an adjective that means "pertaining to the Gaels". As a noun it refers to the group of languages spoken by the Gaels, or to any one of the languages individually. Gaelic languages are spoken in Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man, and Ca ...

''crioch'' 'border' or

Cumbric Cumbric was a variety of the Common Brittonic language spoken during the Early Middle Ages in the ''Hen Ogledd'' or "Old North" in what is now the counties of Westmorland, Cumberland and northern Lancashire in Northern England and the souther ...

''craig'' 'rock'.Bethany Fox, 'The P-Celtic Place-Names of North-East England and South-East Scotland', The Heroic Age, 10 (2007), http://www.heroicage.org/issues/10/fox.html (appendix at http://www.heroicage.org/issues/10/fox-appendix.html). To the west of the village is the 15th-century parish church, formerly a

collegiate church In Christianity, a collegiate church is a church where the daily office of worship is maintained by a college of canons: a non-monastic or "secular" community of clergy, organised as a self-governing corporate body, which may be presided over by a ...

, established by

William Crichton, 1st Lord Crichton William Crichton, 1st Lord Crichton (died 1454) was an important political figure in the late medieval Kingdom of Scotland. Life The son of Sir John Crichton of Crichton, William Crichton is first attested to as one of the Scots noblemen and g ...

, the

Lord Chancellor of Scotland The Lord Chancellor of Scotland, formally the Lord High Chancellor, was a Great Officer of State in the Kingdom of Scotland. Holders of the office are known from 1123 onwards, but its duties were occasionally performed by an official of lower st ...

from 1439 to 1453. To the south of the church is

Crichton Castle Crichton Castle is a ruined castle near the village of Crichton in Midlothian, Scotland. It is situated at the head of the River Tyne, south of the village of Pathhead, and the same distance east of Gorebridge. Constructed as a tower house in ...

, begun in the late 14th century by William's father John de Crichton and featuring a fine 16th-century Italianate courtyard façade. The civil parish has a population of 1,223 in 2011.Census of Scotland 2011, Table KS101SC – Usually Resident Population, publ. by National Records of Scotland. Web site http://www.scotlandscensus.gov.uk/ retrieved March 2016. See “Standard Outputs”, Table KS101SC, Area type: Civil Parish 1930

References

External links

FamilySearch - Crichton, Midlothian, Scotland
Villages in Midlothian Parishes in Midlothian Civil parishes of Scotland {{Midlothian-geo-stub

See also

References

External links