Pentland, an ancient but suppressed parish near the centre of the county of Edinburgh, and containing the hamlets of Pentland and New Pentland, which stand on or near the road from Edinburgh to Peebles by Liberton, and 4½ miles S of Edinburgh. The name has, probably, notwithstanding the author of Caledonia to the contrary, been taken from the adjoining hills, the old name of which, as well as of the Firth, seems to have been Petland or Pictland. This title they are now supposed to hale acquired from haling formed the debatable ground or boundaries to the S and the N of the Pictish territories. The parish church, which stood at the village of Pentland, seems to hale been granted to the monks of Holyrood at the founding of that abbey, and was confirmed to them in 1240, but before the death of Alexander III. it was an independent rectory, which in the 14th and two following centuries was under the patronage of the earls of Orkney and barons of Roslin. The parish was suppressed after the Reformation, and the northern part annexed to Lasswade, while the southern, comprehending the barony of Falford, was united to the parish of St Catherine, now Glencorse.

(F.H. Groome, Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland (1882-4); © 2004 Gazetteer for Scotland)