Originations of Drummohr
Originations of Drummohr
Drummohr Camping and Glamping Site is a 5-star Edinburgh campsite in the walled grounds of an old monastery Drummohr House. We wanted to find out more about the originations of our name and the derivations of its spelling. Drum Mohr, Drum-Mohr, Drumore, Drummore and Drummohr are all popular versions.
History of Drummohr House
Built in the 18th century by a lawyer named
Dalrymple as the perfect location for his Edinburgh summer parties, Drummohr
House replaced the previous home which was destroyed in a fire by the Jacobites in the
Battle of Prestonpans in 1745. Drummore House (or Drummohr House as it became
known in the 1930’s) was originally named after its owner Hew Dalrymple of
Drummore. The Dalrymples were a prominent aristocratic family in Edinburgh
during the Scottish Enlightenment and Newhailes House and Gardens is also a former Dalrymple family
home.
A neo-classical building in red sandstone, Drummore
House is a fine example of a smaller classical country seat. It has since been
used as a Passionists monastery, an outbuilding for the nearby girls’ Loretto
School in Musselburgh, a hotel and a care home. It is now a private home.
The old riding stables were re-named the “Big
Shed” and are now home to Vision Mechanics, who encourage local communities to
cooperate in the creation of original high-quality arts projects and open-air
"augmented reality" shows.
The part of the grounds that became Drummore
Camping and Glamping Site were separated from the house in 2000 and converted
into a caravan park near Edinburgh. The 10m tall sandstone rubble and red brick
boundary wall, originally enclosing 18th century walled garden, remains to this
day. An old timber access door can be seen in the area closest to the family
bothies.
Lord Drummore
Hew Dalrymple was Lord Drummore between 1690 -
1755. A lawyer, he was also a Scottish judge and is famous enough to have a
portrait in the National Galleries of Scotland in Edinburgh. He purchased the
Westpans estate in Prestonpans in 1725 and re-named it Drummore House, after
his family connection to the old family estate of Drummore in south-west
Scotland. When in December 1726 he was elected a Senator of the College of
Justice in place of Robert Dundas, he adopted the name of Lord Drummore. He
died at Drummore House on 18 June 1755.
Drummore, the Scottish villiage
The Scottish coastal village of Drummore is not
even in East Lothian, it is located in Galloway and is the most Southernmost
village in Scotland. It is further south than the English cities of Durham and
Carlisle. It is almost as far South as Penrith.
Gaelic meaning of Drum Mohr
The underlying name is the Gaelic "druim
mòr" or "big ridge". A ridge is most commonly druim, but can
also be aonach, a high ridge, leathad, a broad ridge, leitir, a long ridge, or
gualann, a broad shoulder. There are so many terms for the same thing likely
because as different people settled in different areas, each region developed
its own unique dialect.
In Gaelic hills aren’t usually given just one
name, and normally a qualifier is added, denoting colour, size, position or shape.
For size; we have mòr (mhòr, mhòir, more) to mean great, and beag (bheag, bhig,
beg) to mean small.
So that’s how “druim” and “mor” were combined
and then simplified to Drum Mohr or Drum-Mohr, then amalgamated into Drummohr.
There are no big ridges that we know of near Drum Mohr Camping and Glamping
Site although you can see Arthurs Seat from the shores of the Firth of Forth
and our 2-bedroom lodges with hot tubs and 3-bedroom lodges are named after the
Pentland and Lammermuir hills.
Drumore Loch
The only spelling we could find of “Drumore” is
Drumore Loch, a small body of water with a small single-storey, whitewashed
boathouse, dated 1864 near Glen Isla, Blairgowrie.