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Approach to Kipperoch Farm

This farm track is part of a longer footpath between Dalmoak and Cardross (see endnote).

The buildings of the farm itself lie ahead, on either side of the track, but there are some other buildings nearby. One of these is Old Kipperoch, which is visible near the lone tree standing between the fields in the left-hand side of the photograph. Located behind it, but hidden by the trees, is Kipperoch House.

The form "Kipperminshoch" is used in several works in the 19th century, and, much earlier, John Blaeu's 1654 map of Dunbartonshire shows a "Kipperminshochs" in this area. A 1570 document specifying lands being granted to Dumbarton Castle also mentions two holdings called "Kipperminshochs" (these holdings were perhaps distinct from Kipperoch, but they were certainly located in the immediate vicinity; their names clearly have related origins).

Although their meanings are elusive, these names are certainly Gaelic in origin. A plausible but very speculative nineteenth-century suggestion was that "-minshoch" is from the Gaelic "minnseag", meaning "yearling she-goat".

The meaning of the first part of these names is hard to discern. Reference to "Kip" and "Kippie" in the place-name index of W.J.Watson's "The Celtic Place-names of Scotland" shows that "Kip-" place names are often derived from the Gaelic "ceap" ("block"), perhaps used in the sense of a "holding" (see under the headword "ceapach" in Alexander MacBain's "Etymological Dictionary of Scottish-Gaelic"). The Gaelic "ceapach", in turn, gives the common place-name "Keppoch", and it is perhaps significant that there is a Keppoch (earlier "Kippoch") located just 5 km WNW of here in NS3279. Nevertheless, the observations made above fail to account for the "-er-" element in Kipperoch and Kipperminshochs, so their derivation remains unclear.

Another old name found nearby, whose meaning is easier to determine, is Succoth; see NS3777 : Kipperoch Road near Succoth Lodge.