Moscow
| Moscow | |
| Ayrshire | |
|---|---|
 Near Moscow, Ayrshire | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | NS487404 |
| Location: | 55°37’59"N, 4°24’14"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 141 (2001) |
| Post town: | Kilmarnock |
| Postcode: | KA4 |
| Dialling code: | 01560 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | East Ayrshire |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Kilmarnock and Loudoun |
Moscow is a hamlet in Ayrshire. It has no direct connection with the Russian town which shares its name.
Moscow lies on the A719 road some four miles east of Kilmarnock. The village's name has been the subject of many theories. Whatever the origin, the spelling of the name is widely thought to have been formalised in 1812 to mark Napoleon I's retreat from Moscow in Russia. A stream called the Volga Burn flows through the village, named in a nod to the hamlet's eastern namesake. The burn is a tributary of the River Irvine.
In 2008 a personal airstrip was established in a field near the village for light aircraft.
The hamlet's name
One theory on the origin of the name is that it is a corruption of 'Moss-hall' or 'Moss-haw'. Another theory is that it is from the Old Welsh Magos cau, "green field" (magos being equivalent to the modern Wesh maes).
Whatever the origin, its spelling may have been fixed at "Moscow" in 1812 to mark the burning of the Russian town or to celebrate Napoleon's disastrous retreat from there.
Walter Emery of the Kilmarnock Glenfield Ramblers had researched the names Moscow, Volga and Ruschaw in 1933. The Ordnance Survey notified him that the local residents had authorised the name 'Moscow' and that the name appears on Aitken's 1829 map, the valuation roll, the Grougar Estate map, and Johnson's 1828 County map. The Ordnance Survey also referred to a local tradition that the name was derived from the burning of Moscow in Russia in 1812, the first house in Moscow in Ayrshire having been built at about that time.
Ayrshire County Council suggested that "during the Crimean war there were various refugees and prisoners located in the neighbourhood, and it was then that Russian names were given to various places."[1]
James Shaw records that "a generation ago Russian prisoners of war were located between Galston and Fenwick, at a place called Moscow".[2]
Locally the land and forest around Cowans Law to the North West is referred to as Little Russia.
References
Outside links
- Local government website
- I'm in Moscow, but where are all the fans? - Times On-line May 21, 2008
