Penninghame

Penninghame in Wigtownshire, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, is a civil parish area, 8 miles (N. W.) from Wigtown. The area is approx 16 miles in length, and from 5 to 6 miles width, bounded on the north and east by the River Cree, and on the west by the Bladnoch; comprising nearly 38,000 acres, of which 12,000 were arable, 600 woodland and plantations, 1600 meadow, and the remainder hill pasture, moorland, moss, etc.The civil parish area of Penninghame is bounded on the south by the civil parish area of Wigtown and on the west by Kirkcowan on the north by the civil parish area of Colmonell and on the east by the civil parish area of Minnigaff.There are numerous nature trails nearby, managed on behalf of the state by Forest Enterprise.EtymologyPenninghame is one of the earliest Anglo-Saxon place-names in south-west Scotland. It is derived either from Old English *pening-hām 'farm on which a penny geld was payable' or *pen-ingahām, the second element of which means 'homestead of the followers of...' or 'homestead of the settlers at...'. Hough argues against a derivation from -ingahām based on the geographical isolation of Penninghame from the other -ingahām names in southern Scotland ; the lack of medial in the early spellings of the name; and the obscure first element 'Pen'.