Scottish Placenames E-Book

George Mackay

• Herausgeber: Waverley Books
• Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013

Beschreibung

This popular and interesting book explains how over 2000 towns, villages and lochs in Scotland got their names, with placename origins explained.

Das E-Book wird angeboten von und wurde mit folgenden Begriffen kategorisiert:

Leseprobe

SCOTTISHPLACE NAMES

 

This edition published 2012 by Waverley Books,an imprint of DC Thomson Books Group Ltd,144 Port Dundas Road, Glasgow G4 0HZ, Scotland

Text by George Mackay

Copyright © 2012, DC Thomson & Co Ltd

www.dcthomson.co.uk

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the copyright holder.

This ebook edition of Scottish Place Names is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

Book ISBN 978-1-902407-87-6

ePub format ISBN 978-1-84934-076-2

Mobi format ISBN 978-1-84934-215-5

Contents

Introduction

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

Q

R

S

T

U

V

W Y Z

Introduction

The place names of Scotland reveal the historical presence of the three main groups of peoples who occupied the country and whose descendants still form the vast bulk of the population. These are the Celtic, Nordic and Anglo-Saxon groups. They came at different times and over a period of almost two thousand years that stretches from before the beginning of the Common or Christian Era to the 11th century. The earliest and most numerous of these groups were speakers of a Celtic language or languages of the same group that modern Breton and Welsh belong to and referred to in this dictionary as Brythonic. The first of the many generations of incoming Celts did not find an empty land; the country was already inhabited but we know virtually nothing of the languages of the people who lived in Scotland between the Ice Age and the coming of the Celts. A few of the place names we still use, especially river names, may be theirs. A number of place names have been ascribed to the Picts, a people who may have preserved elements of a pre-Celtic language just as they may have formed or absorbed a pre-Celtic population. The likelihood of this is still a subject of research and debate.

It is clear, however, that the present toponymy (landscape-naming) began with the Celts. The earliest recorded Celtic names from the 1st century are from Brythonic. From the 6th century, with the arrival of the Scots in Argyll, Gaelic names begin to appear. Gaelic became the dominant language and the majority of Scottish place names are Gaelic (referred to as Scottish Gaelic to distinguish it from the similar Irish Gaelic). From the 7th century onwards, in the Borders and Lothian, Anglian names appear, given by the Old English speakers moving in from the south. Their language, with many contributions from Gaelic, French and Dutch, went on to become the Scots tongue of the Middle Ages and later. The advent of the Norsemen in the 9th century, and their political control of the North, the Northern and the Western Isles, produced many Norse names in those parts of the country and indeed elsewhere, notably the south-west.

The study of place names, apart from its own interest, provides valuable support to others areas of scholarship, particularly certain aspects of history. Investigation of the history of a place name can sometimes show the sequence of people who lived there and when they came. The form of the name can establish the period at which it was given.

Many names thought of as typically, and quaintly, Scots are in fact Gaelic names, meaningless in the Scots language and only yielding up their identity when the original Gaelic form is established. Thus Auchenshuggle, long thought of as an appropriate-sounding destination for Glasgow’s tramcars, is simply a Scots version of the Gaelic for ‘rye-field’. Names of Gaelic and pre-Gaelic origin are found in areas where Scots or English has been the standard speech for hundreds of years. They show us how far the tide of Gaelic has receded. It should be emphasised that this was a linguistic, not a population, change. Over successive generations, political, economic, and cultural changes, hardly noticeable except over the course of a lifetime, established Scots as the majority language, just as Gaelic had once been. Place names, however, were not (on the whole) renewed or translated; they were merely scotticised and their meanings gradually forgotten except in areas where Gaelic remained a living language.

The Gaels, as with most earlier peoples, were both precise and prosaic when it came to applying names to places, hence the many ‘red hills’ and ‘boggy places’ that are found. In a country whose population was mostly illiterate, precision in place-naming was important: the name was the chief means of identifying and describing a locality. Many names show their significance in land-use, of which Arrochar, Pittendreich and Pennyghael are three examples. But clear as all names must once have been, they are by no means all clear in their meaning today. Gaelic in Scotland formed a number of dialects and the same word did not always have the same meaning in all of them. Words fell out of use or acquired new or additional meanings but the place name incorporating the old or forgotten form did not change. The etymology of place names is not a straightforward business and the serious student of Scottish toponymy, apart from Gaelic and Scots, needs to have an acquaintance with the Norwegian and Danish forms of Old Norse, with the Anglian form of Old English, with Medieval Latin, Norman French, Middle Low German and Frisian, as well as a knowledge of the structures and hypothetical sounds of the extinct Indo-European languages that predate the Celtic and Germanic languages. There are still many Scottish place names whose origin and meaning have not been established or on which scholars disagree. The pioneering 20th-century researchers, like Alexander MacBain and William Watson, had the advantage of being brought up as Gaelic speakers and of being able to consult native Gaelic speakers in areas like Perthshire and mainland Argyll, where few now remain. Theirs is the foundation on which the School of Scottish Studies builds in its work of compiling a record of all known Scottish place names and their meanings.

This dictionary presents the names of virtually all of Scotland’s settlements from villages upwards, as well as the names of its topographical features such as rivers, mountains, lochs and islands.

A

AberbrothockseeArbroath.

Abercairney (Perth & Kinross) ‘Confluence by the thicket’ or ‘cairns’. Aber (Brythonic-Pictish) ‘confluence’ or ‘river mouth’; cardden (Brythonic) ‘thicket’; with - ach (Scottish Gaelic suffix) indicating ‘place’; or alternatively càirneach (Scottish Gaelic) ‘place of cairns or rough rocks’.

Aberchirder (Aberdeenshire) ‘Mouth of the dark water’. Aber (Brythonic-Pictish) ‘confluence’ or ‘river mouth’; chiar (Scottish Gaelic) ‘dark’; dobhar (Brythonic-Gaelic) ‘waters’.

Aberdeen ‘Mouth of the River Don’. Aber (Brythonic-Pictish) ‘confluence’ or ‘river mouth’; the second element seems to suggest the River Dee, which flows into the North Sea at the centre of modern Aberdeen, but the name was recorded as Aberdon in the early 12th century and at that time referred to the original settlement now known as Old Aberdeen, situated immediately to the north at the mouth of the River Don, close to the Cathedral of St Machar. By the 13th century, the current name form, probably a conflation of the two, was emerging as Aberdoen in 1178 and Aberden in 1214. See alsoRiversDee and Don.

Aberdour (Fife) ‘Mouth of the River Dour’. Aber (Brythonic-Pictish) ‘confluence’ or ‘river mouth’; dobhar (Brythonic-Gaelic) ‘waters’.

Aberfeldy (Perth & Kinross) ‘The confluence of Pallidius or Paldoc’. Aber (Brythonic-Pictish) ‘confluence’ or ‘river mouth’; phellaidh (Old Gaelic) refers to St Paldoc, Christian missionary to the Picts in the 5th century, or alternatively, a water sprite believed to live where the local Urlar (Scottish Gaelic ‘land floor’) Burn meets the River Tay.

Aberfoyle (Stirling) ‘The confluence of the pool’. Aber (Brythonic-Pictish) ‘confluence’ or ‘river mouth’; phuill (Scottish Gaelic) ‘of a pool’.

Abergeldie (Aberdeenshire) ‘Confluence of the white water’. The Geldie Burn here flows into the River Dee. Aber (Brythonic-Pictish) ‘confluence’ or ‘river mouth’; geall (Scottish Gaelic) ‘white’. The -die suffix is from an Old Gaelic ending used to form adjectives from nouns.

Aberlady (East Lothian) Possibly ‘river mouth of the lady’, as in the Virgin Mary. Aber (Brythonic-Pictish) ‘confluence’ or ‘river mouth’; hlaedig (Old English) ‘lady’ or ‘loaf-kneader’.

Aberlemno (Perth & Kinross) ‘Confluence of the elm wood’. Aber (Brythonic-Pictish) ‘confluence’ or ‘river mouth’; leamhanaich (Scottish Gaelic) ‘of the elm wood’.

Aberlour (Moray) ‘Loud confluence’. Aber (Brythonic-Pictish) ‘confluence’ or ‘river mouth’; labhar (Gaelic) ‘loud’.

Abernethy (Perth & Kinross, Highland) ‘Mouth of the River Nethy’. Aber (Brythonic-Pictish) ‘confluence’ or ‘river mouth’; the second part is possibly derived from an eitighich (Scottish Gaelic) ‘gullet’, indicating water rushing through a gorge. The Tayside place was a stronghold of Nechtan, who was King of the Picts around AD 700. His name has been identified with that of the river but a more likely derivation is the old Celtic river name Nedd, which stems from a root-word indicating ‘gleaming’.

Abington (South Lanarkshire) ‘Albin’s village’. Ael-wine (Old English) ‘noble friend’; tun (Old English) ‘enclosure’ or ‘settlement’, giving the Scots place termination ‘-ton’.

Aboyne (Aberdeenshire) ‘White cow ford’. Ath (Scottish Gaelic) ‘river ford’; bó (Scottish Gaelic) ‘cow’; fhionn (Scottish Gaelic) ‘white’.

Abriachan (Highland) ‘Mouth of the steep burn’. Aber (Brythonic-Pictish) ‘confluence’ or ‘river mouth’; bhritheachán (Scottish Gaelic) ‘of the steep hillside’.

Achallader (Stirling) ‘Field of the stream’. Achadh (Scottish Gaelic) ‘field’; Chaladair (Scottish Gaelic stream name) anglicised as ‘Calder’, perhaps from Brythonic caleto-dubron, ‘hard water’.

Achanalt (Highland) ‘Field by the river’. Achadh (Scottish Gaelic) ‘field’; an (Scottish Gaelic) ‘by the’; allt (Scottish Gaelic) ‘stream’ or ‘river’.

Acharacle (Argyll & Bute) ‘Torquil’s ford’. Ath (Scottish Gaelic) ‘ford’; Torcuil (Gaelic-Norse proper name) ‘Torquil’, from Thor-ketil, meaning ‘vessel of Thor’. Thor was the Norse god of thunder and warfare.

Achiltibuie (Highland) Possibly ‘field of the yellow stream’. Achadh (Scottish Gaelic) ‘field’; allt (Scottish Gaelic) ‘stream’; buidhe (Scottish Gaelic) ‘yellow’. An alternative is ‘field of the yellow (-haired) lad’, derived, from achadh-a-gille-buidhe ; with gille (Scottish Gaelic) denoting a lad or a young man.

Achmelvich (Highland) ‘Field of the place of sea-bent’. Achadh (Scottish Gaelic) ‘field’; mealbhain (Scottish Gaelic) ‘bent grass’, from Old Norse melr, ‘bent grass’ or ‘grassy dunes’.

Achmore (Highland) ‘Big field’. Achadh (Scottish Gaelic) ‘field’; mór (Scottish Gaelic)‘big’.

Achnacarry (Highland) ‘Field of the wrestlers’. Achadh (Scottish Gaelic) ‘field’; na (Scottish Gaelic) ‘of’; caraiche (Scottish Gaelic) ‘wrestlers’ or ‘tumblers’. ‘Field of the fish-weir’, from coraidh (Scottish Gaelic) ‘fish-weir’, has also been suggested.

Achnacloich (Highland, Strathclyde) ‘Field of stones’. Achadh (Scottish Gaelic) ‘field’; na (Scottish Gaelic) ‘of’; cloich (Scottish Gaelic) ‘stones’.

Achnahannet (Highland) ‘Field of the patron saint’s church’. Achadh (Scottish Gaelic) ‘field’; na h- (Scottish Gaelic) ‘of the’; annait (Scottish Gaelic) ‘church of a patron saint’ or ‘church with relics’.

Achnasheen (Highland) ‘Field of the storms’. Achadh (Scottish Gaelic) ‘field’; na (Scottish Gaelic) ‘of’; sian (Scottish Gaelic) ‘storm’. This mid-Ross-shire village is in quite an exposed situation.

Achnashellach (Highland) ‘Field of willows’. Achadh (Scottish Gaelic) ‘field’; na (Scottish Gaelic) ‘of’; seileach (Scottish Gaelic) ‘willow trees’.

Achray, River and Loch (Stirling) Possibly ‘ford of shaking’. Ath (Scottish Gaelic) ‘ford’; chrathaidh (Scottish Gaelic) ‘shaking’. See alsoCrathie.

Adder, River (Scottish Borders) ‘Water’. Adder is one of the numerous river words that go back to the language of the European Celts. Cognate with the German Oder . Its original form is conjectured as adara indicating ‘flowing water’.

Addiewell (West Lothian) ‘Adam’s well’. Addie (Scots) diminutive form of ‘Adam’.

Ae, River and Forest (Dumfries & Galloway) ‘Water’. The river name, from aa (Old Norse) ‘water’, also gave its name to the modern forest and to the village housing the foresters and their families.

Affleck (Aberdeenshire) ‘Place of flagstones’. Achadh (Scottish Gaelic) ‘field’; na (Scottish Gaelic) ‘of’; leac (Scottish Gaelic) ‘flagstones’. A compressed form of Auchinleck.

Affric, River, Glen, Loch (Highland) Possibly ‘speckled ford’ or ‘ford of the trout’ or ‘of the boar’. Ath (Scottish Gaelic) ‘ford’; breac (Scottish Gaelic) ‘speckled trout’ or bhraich (Scottish Gaelic) ‘boar’.

Afton (East Ayrshire) ‘Brown stream’. Abh (Scottish Gaelic) ‘stream’; donn (Scottish Gaelic) ‘brown’.

Aigas (Highland) ‘Place of the abyss’. Aigeann (Scottish Gaelic) ‘chasm’. The River Beauly flows here in a deep gorge, divided by an eilean (Scottish Gaelic) ‘island’, Aigas.

Ailort, Loch (Highland) Perhaps, from él (Old Norse) ‘snow shower’ and fjordr (Old Norse) ‘sea inlet’ or ‘fiord’, with loch (Scottish Gaelic) ‘lake’, ‘loch’.

Ailsa Craig (South Ayrshire) ‘Fairy rock’ has been suggested, from aillse (Scottish Gaelic) ‘fairy’; creag (Scottish Gaelic) ‘rock’; also ail (Old Gaelic) ‘steep rock’. Perhaps more likely is an Old Norse origin, Ael’s Isle, from Ael (Old Norse proper name) and ey (Old Norse) ‘island’, with the Scots Craig added after the significance of the -ey had been lost. This prominent island landmark on the Firth of Clyde is also known popularly as ‘Paddy’s Milestone’.

Aird (Highland) ‘The high ground’. Airde (Scottish Gaelic) ‘high’. The name comes from the hilly district around Kirkhill and Kiltarlity in Inverness-shire.

Airdrie (North Lanarkshire) ‘High hill pasture’. Airde (Scottish Gaelic) ‘high’; ruighe (Scottish Gaelic) ‘slope’ or ‘shieling’.

Airth (Stirling) ‘Level green place’, from àiridh (Scottish Gaelic), which apart from ‘summer pasture’ has the meaning ‘level green place’, with the sense of being among hills.

Airthrey (Stirling) Derived in the same way as Airdrie.

Aith (Shetland) ‘Isthmus’ or ‘neck of land’. Eidh (Old Norse) ‘isthmus’.

Alder, Ben (Highland) ‘Mountain of falling water’. Beinn (Scottish Gaelic) ‘mountain’; all dobhar (Old Gaelic) respectively ‘rock’ and ‘water’. The Alder Burn would thus appear to have given its name to the mountain (3,765 feet/980 metres).

Ale, Water of, seeAncrum.

Alexandria (West Dunbartonshire) Named after the local member of parliament, Alexander Smollett, a relative of the town’s developer around 1760.

Alford (Aberdeenshire) ‘High ford’. The most probable derivation is from ath (Scottish Gaelic) ‘ford’; aird (Scottish Gaelic) ‘high’.

Aline, Loch (Highland) ‘The beautiful one’. Aluinn (Scottish Gaelic) ‘beautiful’; loch (Scottish Gaelic) ‘lake’ or ‘loch’.

Allan (Perth & Kinross, Scottish Borders, Stirling) Allan Water and the River Allan have a pre-Celtic root, alauna, meaning ‘flowing’; cognate probably with Welsh Alun.

Alligin, River and Ben (Highland) The original name is that of the river, associated with other al- river names with a pre-Celtic root indicating ‘flowing water’.

Alloa (Clackmannanshire) ‘Rocky plain’. Derived from a compound word ail-mhagh (Scottish Gaelic) ‘rocky plain’, most apposite to the town’s location on a flood plain on the north bank of the River Forth.

Alloway (South Ayrshire) ‘Rocky plain’. This village, the birthplace of Robert Burns, lies on the flat land of the Ayr Basin. Its name has the same derivation as that of Alloa.

Almond, River (Midlothian, Perth & Kinross) The river name is from pre-Celtic Ambona, deriving from an Indo-European root-word meaning ‘water’. The Gaelic name is Abhainn Aman.

Alness (Highland) ‘Stream place’. Recorded as Alenes and Alune in the 13th century, it probably has the same pre-Celtic river name origin, alauna, as Allan, the River Alun in Wales and Rivers Aln and Lune in England. The - ais suffix is found as an indication of ‘place’ in many locations in the former Pictland. The emphasis is on the first syllable, which rules out nes (Norse) ‘headland’ as an element.

Alsh, Loch (Highland) ‘Fairy loch’. Aillse (Scottish Gaelic) ‘fairy’ or ‘spectre’; loch (Scottish Gaelic) ‘lake’ or ‘firth’.

Altnabreac (Highland) ‘Stream of the trout’. Allt (Scottish Gaelic) ‘river’; na (Scottish Gaelic) ‘of’; breac (Scottish Gaelic) ‘trout’, from the adjective breac, ‘speckled’.

Altnaharra (Highland) ‘Walled or embanked stream’. Allt (Scottish Gaelic) ‘stream’; na (Scottish Gaelic) ‘of’; earbhe (Scottish Gaelic) ‘wall’.

Alva (Clackmannanshire) ‘Rocky plain’. The derivation of this town’s name is the same as that of its neighbour, Alloa.

Alvie (Highland) ‘Rocky place’. From the root-word al - (Brythonic-Pictish) ‘rock’ or ‘rocky’, giving aillbhe (Gaelic) ‘rock’, as the prefix of Alloa.

Alyth (Angus) ‘Steep bank or rugged place’. This descriptive name comes from the Hill of Alyth that rises steeply on the town’s northern edge. Aileach (Scottish Gaelic) ‘mound’ or ‘bank’; or alternatively aill (Old Gaelic) ‘steep rock’.

Amisfield (Dumfries & Galloway) ‘Amyas’s field’. One Amyas de Charteris was a medieval lord of the local manor. His name, Amyas, deriving from amatus (Latin) ‘beloved’.

Amulree (Perth & Kinross) ‘Ford of Maelrubha’. Ath (Scottish Gaelic) ‘ford’; the second element refers to the 7th-century missionary saint who, though chiefly associated with Wester Ross, became the local patron saint here.

Ancrum (Scottish Borders) ‘Bend on the River Ale’. Older forms include Alnecrumba (12th-century). ‘Ale’ stems from the pre-Celtic form alaua, ‘water’; crum from crwm (Old Welsh) ‘bend’.

Angus One of the old counties (also known as Forfarshire), now one of Scotland’s unitary authorities. The name is generally taken as commemorating the 8th-century King of the Picts, Aonghus or Oengus (Pictish and Scottish Gaelic proper name) ‘unique choice’, a highly successful warrior king, who died in 761. Together with the Mearns it formed one of the major divisions of Pictland, recorded in the 12th century as Enegus.

Annan (Dumfries & Galloway) On the basis of the earlier Latinised form Anava, it has been construed as deriving from Anu, the Gaelic goddess of prosperity; an is also an obsolete Gaelic term for ‘water’. Medieval forms of the name have a final t or d, as in Stratanant (Strath Annan) in 1152.

Annat (Highland, and other areas) In Irish Gaelic, andóit indicates ‘church holding relics of its founder’. The numerous Annats in Scotland mostly have evidence of an ancient church or burial ground and, in Scotland, the name may simply indicate the latter rather than any special church. Often the Annats are by a clear stream and this has also been suggested as the source of the name.

Anstruther [Current local pronunciation is Ainster] (Fife) ‘The little stream’. An (Scottish Gaelic) ‘the’; sruthair (Scottish Gaelic) ‘little stream’. Recorded as Anestrothir in 1205 and Anstrother in 1231.

Aonach Eagach (Highland) ‘Airy notched ridge’. Aonach (Scottish Gaelic) ‘steep hill’, normally applied to ridged mountains; eagach (Scottish Gaelic) ‘notched’. An aptly descriptive name for this exposed mountain ridge (3,173 feet/951 metres) of rock spires and pinnacles rising above Glencoe.

Aonach Mór (Highland) ‘Great steep ridge’. Aonach (Scottish Gaelic) ‘steep hill’, normally applied to ridged mountains; mór (Scottish Gaelic) ‘big’. This mountain near Ben Nevis, where a ski centre has been developed, forms the peak of a two-mile open ridge that ends to the south with the slightly higher, and thus curiously named, Aonach Beag, ‘little ridge’ (4,060 feet/1,218 metres).

Appin (Argyll & Bute) ‘Abbey lands’. Apuinn (Scottish Gaelic) ‘abbey lands’. The name probably refers to the land that was owned here in medieval times by St Moluag’s foundation on the nearby Isle of Lismore, across the Lynn of Lorn.

Applecross (Highland) ‘Mouth of the Crosan River’. Aber (Brythonic-Pictish) ‘mouth of a river’; Crosan (Brythonic-Pictish river name of uncertain derivation). The 11th-century Annals of Tighernach refer to it as Aporcrosan. Some writers have suggested that the second element may be the Gaelic crossain, ‘crosses’, associated with the monastery founded here in Wester Ross in AD 673 by St Maelrubha.

Arbirlot (Angus) ‘Confluence of the Elliot Water’. Aber (Brythonic-Pictish) ‘confluence’ or ‘river mouth’.

Arbroath (Angus) ‘Mouth of the Brothock Water’. Aber (Brythonic-Pictish) ‘confluence’ or ‘river mouth’; the second element refers to the name of the local burn, the root of which is brothach (Scottish Gaelic) ‘filthy’, but perhaps here ‘boiling’ or ‘turbulent’, from the related Gaelic bruth, ‘hot’, referring to its waters.

Ardbeg (Argyll & Bute) ‘Small height’. Ard (Scottish Gaelic) ‘high’; beag (Scottish Gaelic) ‘small’.

Ardchattan (Argyll & Bute) ‘The high place of Catán’. Ard (Scottish Gaelic) ‘high’; Chatáin (Old Gaelic personal name) ‘Catán’, a Celtic saint associated with Bute and the coast of Argyll.

Ardeer (North Ayrshire) ‘Western headland’. Ard (Scottish Gaelic) ‘high’, ‘height’ or ‘headland’; iar (Scottish Gaelic) ‘west’.

Ardelve (Highland) ‘Height of the fallow land’. Ard (Scottish Gaelic) ‘high’ or ‘height’; eilghidh (Scottish Gaelic) ‘fallow ground’. Recorded in the mid-16th century as Ardillie.

Ardentinny (Argyll & Bute) Although suggested as ‘heights of the fox’, with ard (Scottish Gaelic) ‘high’ and an t-sionnaigh (Scottish Gaelic) ‘of the fox’, the latter part is more likely to be teine (Scottish Gaelic) ‘fire’ or ‘beacon’.

Ardersier (Highland) Possibly ‘high western promontory’. Ard (Scottish Gaelic) ‘high’; ros (Scottish Gaelic) ‘promontory’; iar (Scottish Gaelic) ‘west’. Since 1623, it has had the alternative name of Campbelltown, after the Campbells of Cawdor, who were local proprietors.

Ardgay (Highland) ‘Height of the wind’. Ard (Scottish Gaelic) ‘high’ or ‘height’; gaoithe (Scottish Gaelic) ‘wind’.

Ardgour (Highland) Possibly ‘promontory of Gabran’. Ard (Scottish Gaelic) ‘promontory’; the second element referring to Gabran, son of King Fergus of Ulster, in ancient times. More plausible alternatives include promontory of the ‘goat’, from gobhar (Scottish Gaelic) or ‘sloping’ or ‘crooked’ promontory (fitting the local topography) derived from gwyr (Brythonic).

Ardkinglas (Argyll & Bute) ‘Height of the dog-stream’. Ard (Scottish Gaelic) ‘high’; con (Scottish Gaelic) ‘dog’ or ‘wolf’; glas (Scottish Gaelic) ‘water’.

Ardlamont (Argyll & Bute) ‘Height of Lamont’. Ard (Scottish Gaelic) ‘high’ or ‘height’; mhicLaomuinn (Scottish Gaelic personal name) ‘Lamont’, the man of law. This is in the territory historically occupied by the Clan Lamont.

Ardle, River and Strath (Perth & Kinross) Perhaps ‘river dale’. Aar (Old Norse) ‘water’; dalr (Old Norse) ‘valley’, Gaelicised into Srath Ardail .

Ardlui (Argyll & Bute) ‘Height of the calves’. Ard (Scottish Gaelic) ‘high’ or ‘height’; laoigh (Scottish Gaelic) ‘calves’. An area where cows were brought to calve.

Ardmeanach (Highland, Strathclyde) ‘Middle height’. Ard (Scottish Gaelic) ‘high’ or ‘height’; meadhonach (Scottish Gaelic) ‘middle’ or ‘central’, referring to the main ridge of the Black Isle. The same name is given to an area of West Mull.

Ardmore (Highland, Strathclyde) ‘Big height’. Ard (Scottish Gaelic) ‘high’ or ‘height’; mór (Scottish Gaelic) ‘big’.

Ardnamurchan (Highland) Probably ‘promontory of the otters’. Ard (Scottish Gaelic) ‘promontory’; na (Scottish Gaelic) ‘of the’; muir-chon (Scottish Gaelic) ‘sea dogs’. A less likely derivation of the last two parts of this name, muir-chol (Scottish Gaelic) ‘sea villainy’, suggests piracy, which may have been associated with this remote peninsula. The point marks the westernmost edge of the Scottish mainland.

Ardoch (Dumfries & Galloway, Perth & Kinross, Highland) ‘High place’. Ard (Scottish Gaelic) ‘high’; -ach (Old Gaelic suffix) ‘place’.

Ardrishaig (Argyll & Bute) ‘Promontory of thorny brambles by the bay’. Ard (Scottish Gaelic) ‘promontory’; dris (Scottish Gaelic) ‘thorns’ or ‘brambles’; aig (Gaelic form of Old Norse vik ) ‘bay’.

Ardross (Highland) ‘Height of the promontory’. Ard (Scottish Gaelic) ‘high’ or ‘height’; rois (Scottish Gaelic) ‘of the promontory’. The name refers to the highest ground between the Cromarty and Dornoch Firths.

Ardrossan (North Ayrshire) Perhaps ‘height of the little cape’. Ard (Scottish Gaelic) ‘promontory’ or ‘height’; rois (Scottish Gaelic) ‘cape’ or ‘headland’; -an (Scottish Gaelic suffix) ‘little’.

Ardtornish (Highland) ‘Promontory of the hill’. Ard (Scottish Gaelic) ‘promontory’; torr (Scottish Gaelic) ‘hill’; ness (form of old Norse nes ) ‘point’. The Gaelic ard having been prefixed when the sense of ness was lost. This Morvern castle close to Loch Aline was a stronghold of the Lords of the Isles.

Argyll (Argyll & Bute) ‘District or land of the Gaels’. Airer (Scottish Gaelic) ‘coastland’; Gaidheal (Scottish Gaelic) ‘of the Gaels’. The Gaelic-speaking Scots, originating in Ireland, colonised much of the western seaboard of Scotland during the 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th centuries. The name was first recorded as Arregaithel in a 10th-century manuscript.

Arinagour (Argyll & Bute) ‘Summer pasture of the goats’. Airidh (Scottish Gaelic) ‘summer pasture’ or ‘shieling’; nan (Scottish Gaelic) ‘of’; gobhair (Scottish Gaelic) ‘goats’.

Arisaig (Highland) ‘River mouth bay’. Ar-óss (Old Norse) ‘river mouth’; aig (from Old Norse vik ) ‘bay’.

Arkaig, Loch (Highland) ‘Dark water’. Loch Airceig (Gaelic), from arc (Celtic root-form) ‘dusky’ and also from airc (Gaelic) ‘strait’. The -aig ending here is of uncertain origin.

Arkle (Highland) ‘Ark mountain’. Arkfjall (Old Norse) ‘ark-like hill’. A mountain in the Reay Forest, rising to 2,580 feet/774 metres.

Arklet,Loch (Stirling) Perhaps ‘dark water’, of similar derivation to Arkaig, or ‘steep-sloped’, from airc (Scottish Gaelic) ‘difficult’ and leathad (Scottish Gaelic) ‘slope’.

Armadale (West Lothian, Highland) Perhaps ‘arm-shaped dale’. The Lothian town is named after a local landowner, Lord Armadale, who took his title from the village of Armadale on the north coast of Sutherland. The name’s likely meaning, ‘arm-shaped valley’, is Scandinavian in origin and also applies to Armadale on the Isle of Skye. Arm-r (Old Norse) ‘arm’ or ‘arm-shaped’; dalr (Old Norse) ‘dale’ or ‘valley’. The Old Norse personal name, Eorm, has also been suggested for the first part.

Arngask (Stirling) Perhaps ‘place or height of the crossings’. Ard (Scottish Gaelic) ‘height’ or ‘promontory’; na (Scottish Gaelic) ‘of’; chroisg (Scottish Gaelic) ‘crossings’; but gasg (Scottish Gaelic) ‘tail’ (of land) may be more likely.

Arnisdale (Shetland) ‘Orn’s valley’. Orn (Old Norse proper name) ‘eagle-like’; dalr (Old Norse) ‘valley’.

Arnprior (Stirling) ‘The prior’s land’. Earann (Scottish Gaelic) ‘portion’ or ‘share of land’; na (Scottish Gaelic) ‘of’ with ‘the prior’. A hybrid Gaelic-English combination; the priory is that of Inchmahome in the Lake of Menteith.

Aros (Argyll & Bute) ‘River mouth’. From á (Norse) ‘water’; óss (Norse) ‘river mouth’. As óss on its own implies the river, the reason for the prefix is unclear. There is also the possibility of àros (Scottish Gaelic) ‘house’ or ‘palace’.

Arran (North Ayrshire) The name may indicate ‘place of peaked hills’. Aran (Brythonic) ‘height’ or ‘peaked hill’. Alternatively, the derivation may be related to that of the Irish Aran Islands where arainn (Irish Gaelic) ‘kidney’ implies an arched ridge. However, this is only true of Arran when viewed from the mainland to the north, from where it assumes the commonplace description of the ‘sleeping warrior’.

Arrochar (Argyll & Bute) ‘Ploughgate’. The ‘aratrum’ – an ancient Scottish square land measure of 104 acres, ‘ploughgate’ in Scots – was the area of land eight oxen could plough in a year at 13 acres each. Derived as a Gaelic form of aratrum (Latin) ‘plough’, early medieval recordings include Arathor in 1248 and Arachor in 1350. In the 19th century, it was often spelt Arroquhar. Alternatively, a local hill spelt as Ben Arrochar on an early map is derived from Beinn Airigh-chiarr (Scottish Gaelic) ‘mount sheiling-dark’.

Arthur, Ben (Argyll & Bute) ‘Arthur’s mountain’, in Gaelic Beinn Artair . Arthur was the legendary hero of the Britons during their resistance to the invading Saxons and it is not surprising to find this prominent mountain (2,891 feet/867 metres) in the old Strathclyde kingdom, named after him. The modern alternative name, ‘The Cobbler’, known from around 1800, originally referred to the central peak and is said to be a translation of an greasaiche crom (Gaelic) ‘the crooked shoemaker’.

Artney,Glen (Perth & Kinross) ‘Pebbled’. Artein (Scottish Gaelic) ‘pebble’, presumably with reference to the valley sides or floor.

Askaig, River and Loch (Highland, Argyll & Bute) Perhaps ‘river strip’, from á (Old Norse) ‘river’ and skiki (Old Norse) ‘strip of land’.

Assynt (Highland) Perhaps ‘(land) seen from afar’. Asynt (Old Norse) ‘visible’, referring to the sight of the area’s many isolated and distinctive peaks as seen from out at sea in The Minch. This is a conjectural derivation. Ass (Old Norse) ‘ridge’ has also been put forward for the first part of the name.

Athelstaneford (East Lothian) ‘Athelstan’s ford’. King Athelstan of Mercia and Wessex took Northumbria and invaded Lothian in the early 10th century. In AD 934 his troops were defeated near this village, which possibly commemorates his name, which means ‘noble stone’ (Old English). Legend has it that during another battle near here in 761, the Picts, under their king, Aengus, and facing a Northumbrian army, saw a St Andrew’s cross in the sky. Inspired by it to victory, they took Andrew as their patron saint and the saltire as their national flag. It has also been suggested that the origin of this place name has no connection at all with the Anglo-Saxon name Athelstan(e) but represents a tautology of ath-ail - stane (Gaelic, Scots) ‘stone ford’.

Atholl seeBlair Atholl.

Attadale (Highland) ‘Ata’s valley’. Dalr (Old Norse) ‘valley’, prefixed by the Old Norse personal name Ata.

Attow, Ben (Highland) ‘Long mountain’. Beinn (Scottish Gaelic) ‘mountain’; fhada (Scottish Gaelic) ‘long’. This mountain (3,385 feet/1,015 metres) rises in the Kintail Forest of Wester Ross, behind the ‘Five Sisters’.

Auchendinny (Midlothian) ‘Field of the height or fortress’. Achadh (Scottish Gaelic) ‘field’; denna (Old Irish, genitive of dind ) ‘of the height’.

Auchenshuggle (Glasgow) ‘Rye field’. The name derives from achadh (Scottish Gaelic) ‘field’; na (Scottish Gaelic) ‘of the’; seagal (Scottish Gaelic) ‘rye’.

Auchinleck (East Ayrshire, Dumfries & Galloway) ‘Field of the flat stones’. Achadh (Scottish Gaelic) ‘field’; na (Scottish Gaelic) ‘of the’; leac (Scottish Gaelic) ‘flat stones’.

Auchmithie (Angus) ‘Field of the herd’. Achadh (Scottish Gaelic) ‘field’; muthaidh (Scottish Gaelic) ‘herd’.

Auchnagatt (Aberdeenshire) ‘Field of the wild cats’. Achadh (Scottish Gaelic) ‘field’; na (Scottish Gaelic) ‘of the’; cat (Scottish Gaelic) ‘cat’. SeeCadboll, Lynchat.

Auchterarder (Perth & Kinross) ‘Upland of high water’. Uachdar (Scottish Gaelic) ‘upper’ (land); ard (Scottish Gaelic) ‘high’; dobhar (Brythonic) ‘water’.

Auchtermuchty (Fife) ‘Upper pig enclosure’. Uachdar (Scottish Gaelic) ‘upper’; muc (Scottish Gaelic) ‘pig’; garadh (Scottish Gaelic) ‘enclosure’. Early records show Huedirdmukedi in 1250, Utermokerdy in 1293 and Utremukerty in 1294.

Auchtertool (Fife) ‘Athwart-lying upland’. Uachdar (Scottish Gaelic) ‘upper’ (land); tuathal (Scottish Gaelic) ‘crosswise-set’ or ‘leftwards’.

Auchtertyre (Highland) ‘Upper section of land’. Uachdar (Scottish Gaelic) ‘upper’ (land); tìr (Scottish Gaelic) ‘land’.

Auldearn (Moray) ‘River’. Allt (Scottish Gaelic) ‘river’; earn is likely to be one of Scotland’s many ancient river names derived from a pre-Celtic root-form, perhaps ar- or er-, indicating ‘flowing water’. The traditional derivation, ‘river of Erin’, Eireann (Irish Gaelic) ‘of Erin’, is thought to be unlikely.

Auldhouse (South Lanarkshire) ‘Stream of the ghost’. Allt (Scottish Gaelic) ‘stream’; fhuathais (Scottish Gaelic) ‘spectre’ or ‘apparition’.

Aultbea (Highland) ‘Stream of the birches’. Allt (Scottish Gaelic) ‘stream’; beithe (Scottish Gaelic) ‘birches’.

Averon, River (Highland) An alternative name for the Alness river. It may stem from the Celtic prefix ab- or av-, indicative of a stream; while the latter part seems cognate with that of Deveron.

Aviemore (Highland) ‘Big pass’. Agaidh (Scottish Gaelic) ‘pass’; mór (Scottish Gaelic) ‘big’. This popular mountain and ski resort lies at the centre of the wide Strathspey and at a strategic entry point into the Cairngorms.

Avoch (Highland) ‘Place of the stream’. Abh (Old Gaelic, obsolete) ‘water’, related to abhainn, ‘river’, and stemming from the same continental Celtic root, ab or av, as Averon; - ach (Scottish Gaelic) a variant on achadh, ‘field’.

Avon, River and Loch, (Highland, Moray, West Lothian) ‘Stream’. Abhainn (Scottish Gaelic) ‘stream’ or ‘river’. It is cognate with Welsh afon and the numerous Avons of England, and stems originally from an Indo-European root-form, -ab or - aub, seen in Danube and Punjab.

Avon, Ben (Moray) This mountain (3,843 feet/1,171 metres), a lofty eastern outlier of the Cairngorms, takes its name from the river above which it rises.

Awe, River and Loch (Argyll & Bute, Highland) From abh (Old Gaelic, obsolete) ‘water’. SeeAveron, Avoch.

Ayr (South Ayrshire) The former county town of Ayrshire, still an important administrative centre, market and resort town, takes its name from the river at whose mouth it stands on the Firth of Clyde. Ayr is a pre-Celtic river name that possibly means ‘smooth-running’. It has many variants in England (Aire, Oare) and elsewhere in Europe (Aar, Ahr, Ahre, Ara, Ohre, Ore).

Ayton (Scottish Borders) ‘Place on the River Eye’. The river name is éa (Old English) ‘running stream’ with -tun (Old English) ‘farmstead’.