Mains (Scotland)

Mains (Scottish Gaelic: Mànas) in Scotland normally refers to the main buildings of a farm. This may include a farmhouse, farm buildings such as a byre and dairy, and workers' cottages. It is a pseudo-plural, actually being a Lowland Scots corruption of the French demesne,^[1] and so is never used in the form "Main" (except occasionally in the tautological "Main farm", although this usage is not traditional).

The mains was usually the principal farm on an estate, or at least the one with the most fertile ground. The Laird's house - if there was one - may have been nearby or some distance away but is not usually part of the mains. The equivalent in England would be a home farm or perhaps a manor. Many mains remain as working farms, while others have been converted to residential accommodation. Sometimes the buildings and/or farm have disappeared altogether and only the name survives.

Mains occurs frequently in Scottish placenames, most noticeably/frequently in the north east of the country, and east coast, extending down into Fife, where the usual form is "Mains of X", without the definite article. However, the best known example of its use in a Scottish placename is Davidson's Mains, now a suburb of Edinburgh, which does not follow this form, and indeed south of the M8 Mains names almost invariably take the form "X Mains" . The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary notes the same word/corruption/usage to have occurred in Northern England, and farm names of the form "X Mains" can also be found in northern Northumberland. In some cases recently new owners have renamed various mains "manor" in ignorance of the distinction in Scotland, and there are also occasional instances of the media using the tautology, "Mains of X farm". In the local area of "Mains of X" it will often be referred to as "the mains", there being only one.

Mains is a family name and a sept of the Scottish clan Gunn.

See also

• Townland

1. ^ The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary