Vennel

A vennel is a passageway between the gables of two buildings which can in effect be a minor street in Scotland and the north east of England, particularly in the old centre of Durham.

Unlike a tenement entry to private property, known as a "close", a vennel was a public way leading from a typical high street to the open ground beyond the burgage plots.

There are vennels in Ardersier, Cromarty, Culross, Dumfries, Dalry, Dumfries, Dunfermline, Edinburgh,[3] Elie, Eyemouth, Forfar, Irvine, Lanark, Linlithgow, Maybole, North Berwick, Peebles, Perth (see Vennels of Perth), South Queensferry, Stirling and Wigtown.

There are also vennels in the towns of Glenarm and Bangor (abandoned in 2021[4]) in Northern Ireland, likely reflecting the Scottish influence in the eastern parts of the province of Ulster.

For example, the old name for High Street in Comber was Cow Lane, an anglicisation of its Ulster Scots name Coo Vennel.