Pitmilly

They probably reflect the P-Celtic, Scottish Gaelic, Scots and Latin languages, coupled with no great desire for consistency in spelling and the modification of place names that occurs so often.

The prefix pit is derived from the P-Celtic word, pett,[4] meaning a piece of land, and is very common in place-names in this part of Scotland.

The farms, all of which are identified on the 2008 Ordnance Survey map, are Boghall, Falside, Hillhead, Morton of Pitmilly and Kilduncan.

A study of the cartography of the region from 1642 onwards[5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] shows the different naming of Pitmilly Burn and Kenly Water by individual mapmakers.

Beatson[14] and Wright,[15] in The Statistical Accounts of Scotland of 1791-99 and 1834–45, respectively, described stone coffins, containing human bones, on the shore of Kingsbarns parish, which includes Pitmilly.

[17] Around 2004, an early Bronze Age cist was discovered just outside the ruins of Pitmilly House during road work; it contained a skeleton and a food vessel of the Yorkshire vase tradition.

In the latter half of the twelfth century, Countess Ada de Warenne, William I of Scotland's mother, made two grants concerning land that she owned at Pitmilly to the St Andrews Cathedral Priory.

In 1172, William II de Haya leased one ploughgate in Pitmilly to St Andrews Cathedral Priory and its hospital for twenty years at an annual rent of half a merk of silver.

[28] The land in question was part of Eva's tocher (dowry) and is known to be Falside from the rubric on King William's charter.

In 1296, along with the other Scots gentry and landowners, John de Monypenny of Pitmilly signed the so-called Ragman Rolls by which he swore fealty solely to Edward I of England.

Sibbald,[20] writing in 1710, notes the existence of the house, one mile east of Kingsbarns, of a very ancient family of the name of Monipenny.

Ainslie,[30] in 1775, depicts on his map the square area of the grounds and house, labeling them as "Pitmilly Coll" and "Moneypenny".

The third stage, a block added to the front of the house, was built in the typical style of a Georgian mansionGeorgian architecture in 1818, the architect being Robert Balfour of St. Andrews.

National Monuments Record of Scotland have found no evidence that an earlier house stood on this specific site.

However, stone wall fragments from another large structure have been described to the south-east of this house[citation needed] and may have been part of an earlier residence.

[36] Pitmilly House was taken over during World War II as a billet for Women's Royal Naval Service (WRNS).

[37][38] After the war it operated as a hotel[39] under several owners, but ultimately these businesses failed and the house, which was said to be haunted by a particularly active poltergeist,[36] deteriorated badly.