Cunie.1 ROMAN AND OTUER ANTIQUITIES. 331
locality; But the ?? Old Statistical Account ? has
the following version of it :-
?L From its name-Koria or Coria-it seems to
have been one of those districts which still retain
their Roman appellation. This conjecture is supportedby
the following authors, who give an account
of the ancient and modem names of places in
Scotland : 1st. Johnston, in his ? Antiquitates
Celto-Normannicz,? for the Koria of Ptolemy places
Cumc; znd, Dr. Stukeley, in his account of
Richard of Cirencester?s map and itinerary, for the
Koria of Richard fixes Corstanlaw in the neighbourhood
of Currie ; 3rd, Sir Kobert Sibbald, in
his ? Roman Antiquities of Scotland,? conceives
it to have been the place near the manor of Ingliston,
from a pillar dug up there, which place is
likewise in the vicinity
_ _
of earthenware. South of the great cairn were five
large stones, set upright in the earth, to com-?
memorate some now-forgotten battle ; and at the
bottom of the same field were found many stone
coffins, which the late General Scott of Malleny
re-interred, and he set up a tombstone, which still
marks the place.
At Enterkins Yett,according to tradition, a bloody
battle was fought with the Danes, whose leader
was slain by the Scots and buried in the field giving
rise to its name.
But, apart from these prehistoric vestiges, Cume
has claims to considerable antiquity from an ecclesiastical
point of view.
Father Hay records that the Knights of the
Hospital had an establishment at Currie, then
called Kill-leith (i.e., the
1
of Currie. These circumstances
tend io prove
that it must have been
originally a Roman sta-,
tion-traces of which
have lately been found
in the neighbourhood ?
The locality is very
rich in ancient militar;
remains, as the extract
from the ? I Old Statistical
(Vol. V.).
KNIGHT TEMPLAR?S TOMB, CURRIE CHURCHYARD.
(Ajtrr a Sketch by th Author.)
Account ? would lead us
to- expect. Indications of Roman stations are
visible on Ravelrig Hill and Warlaw Hill.
The former crowns the summit of a high bank,
inaccessible on three sides, defended by two ditches
faced with stone, with openings for a gate. It is
named by the peasantry the Castle Yett.
Farther eastward, commanding a view of the
beautiful strath towards Edinburgh, is another
station, traditionally called the General?s Watch, or
Post. These works are much defaced, the hewn
stones having been carried off to make field dykes.
On Cocklaw Farm, there were, till within a few
years ago, the remains of a massive round tower,
eighteen feet in diameter. The ruins were filled
with fine sand. It had some connection with the
station on Ravelrig Hill, as subterranean passages
have been traced between them.
On the lands of Harelaw-a name which implies
the locality of an army-near the present farmhouse,
there stood an immense cairn, ofwhich three
thousand loads were carted away, some time shortly
before 1845. Within it was a stone cist, only two
feet square, but full of human bones. In the same
field was found a coffin of stone, the bones in
which had faded into dust; amid them lay a piece
Chapel by the ? Leith),
which was a chief commandery.
But there lies
in the village churchyard
a tombstone six feet
long by two broad, on
which there is carved a
sword of the thirteenth
century, with the guard
depressed, and above it
the eight-pointed cross
of the Temple, encircled
by a rosary of beads.
It was for a time built into the wall of the village
school-house.
In 1670 Scott of Bavelaw was retoured in the
Temple lands and Temple houses of Currie. The
fragment of the old church bore the impress of
great antiquity, and when it was removed to make
way for the present plain-looking place of worship,
there was found a silver ornament supposed to be
the stand of acrucifix, or stem of an altar candlestick,
as it had a screw at each end, and was se,ven
inches? long by one and one-eighth in diameter.
On a scroll, it bore in Saxon characters, the legend-
3esn . fiIi . Pof . flfserorc . mti.
It is now preserved in the Museum of Antiquities.
In the reign of David II., William of Disscyngtoun,
relation and heir of John Burnard, had?
a grant of land in the barony of Currie ; and under
Robert III., Thomas Eshingtoun (or Dishingtoun),
son probably of the same, had a charter of the
lands of Longherdmanstoun, Currie,. Redheughs,
and Kilbaberton-all in the shire of Edinburgh
Under the same monarch, William Brown of
Colstoun had a grant of Little Currie, in the
barony of Ratho ; and afterwards we find Robert
Maitland granting a charter to Robert Winton
?of the barony of Hirdmanston, called Curry.?
(Robertson?s Index to Missing Charters.?)
The present bridge of Currie is said to be above
five hundred years old j and the dark pool below
gave rise to the Scottish proverb concerning intense
cunning-? Deep as Currie Brig.?
Currie Church was an outpost of Corstorphine,
and, with Fzla, fomied part of the property given
by Mary of Gueldres to the Trinity College.
NIDDRIE HOUSE.
?? Mr. Adam Letham, minister of Currie, 1568-76,
to be paid as follows: his stipend jc li, with the
Kirkland of Curry. Andrew Robeson, Reidare
(Reader at Curry; his stipend xx lb., but (it.,
without) Kirkland?
After the Reformation there was sometimes only
In the seventeenth century, Mathew Leighton,
nephew of the famous Archbishop of Glasgow, a
prelate of singular piety and benevolence, was
, one minister for four or five parishes.
It was a benefice of the Archdean of Lothian.
Even so late as the reign of Charles I., it does
not appear to have been considered a separate
parish from Corstorphine, for no mention is made of
it in the royal decree for the brief erection of the
see of Edinburgh, though all the adjoining parishes
are noticed.
Till within a few years, ironjougs hung at the
north gate of Currie Churchyard, at Hermiston
(which is a corruption of Herdmanstown), at Malleny,
and at Buteland, near Balerno.
Currie was one of the first rural places in Scotland
which had a Protestant clergyman, as appears
from the Register of Ministers,? published by the
Maitland Club :-
curate of Currie during the reign of Episcopacy ;
and, singular to say, was not expelled from his
incumbency at the Revolution in the year 1688,
but died at an advanced age, and was interred in
the church-yard, where his tomb is still an object
of interest.
The parsonage of Currie is referred to in an Act of
Parliament, under JamesVI., in 1592; and Nether
Currie is referred to in another Act, of date 1587,
granted in favour of Mark, Lord Newbattle.
Cleuchmaidstone is so named from being the
pass to the chapel of St. Katherine in the valley
below, and having a spring, in which, it is said,
pilgrims bathed before entering it.
Some parts of the parish are very elevated.
