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Updated 01/31/2020

 


The Roving Baker frae Milngavie

Milngavie is a town in East Dunbartonshire, Scotland. It is on the Allander Water, at the northwestern edge of Greater Glasgow, and about 6 miles from Glasgow city center.

The apparent mismatch between the town's written and pronounced names stems from the way its Gaelic name was adapted into English. The Gaelic name for the town is conjectured to have been Muileann Dhaibhidh, with Daibhidh shortened to Dàidh in common speech, yielding Muileann Dhàidh. The former may thus account for the spelling "-gavie", the latter for the pronunciation "-guy".

There are many Scots names for the town. In fact, even within single texts such as the Records of the Parliament of Scotland, different variants are used alongside each other (Mylnedavie, Mylnegaivie, Milnegaivie and Milngaivie). Joan Blaeu's Atlas of Scotland shows some Scots spellings for well-known places which indicate some of their origins: Milngavie is shown as Milgay, possibly meaning "Mill of Guy". An alternative suggestion is that the original translation meant "Gavin's Mill", and indeed Gavin's Mill remains in the town center to this day.