English Place-name Society

Survey of English Place-Names

A county-by-county guide to the linguistic origins of England’s place-names – a project of the English Place-Name Society, founded 1923.

Dry Stone Knott

Early-attested site in the Parish of St John's, Castlerigg and Wythburn

Historical Forms

  • le Dristanknot, Drystanknot 1303 Cl

Etymology

'Rocky hill,' v. cnotta (under knǫtt ), or possibly 'cairn of dry stones.'The earliest quotation given in NED for 'dry' in the sense 'without mortar' is dated 1816, and the forms quoted above are two centuries earlier than any example of this usage in Craigie's Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue .