Dole, Idrija

Dole (Dolech ) is a settlement in the hills east of Idrija in the traditional Inner Carniola region of Slovenia. It includes the formerly independent settlement of Črna, which was annexed in 1964.

Name
Dole was attested in historical sources as Dolech in 1500. Like related names (e.g., Dol, Dolje, and Dolič), the name is derived from the common noun dol 'small valley', referring to a local geographical feature.

Geography
Dole consists of clusters of houses and various isolated farms along the road from Idrija to Medvedje Brdo. The landscape around the hamlet of Dolenje Dole has rolling terrain with tilled fields and small meadows, and the land around the hamlet of Gorenje Dole has sinkholes and an intermittent spring. In the northern part of the village's territory, just west of the neighboring village of Ravne pri Žireh, there is a geological curiosity known as Tomaž's Table (Tomaževa miza). It consists of a block of dolomitized limestone on which a slab of the same material was deposited; the slab is about 1 m thick and is estimated to weigh 30 MT.