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Originations of Drummohr

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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.