BEAULY
Place-names of Beauly and Strathglass
Some of the fruits of the AHRB (Arts and Humanities Research Board)-funded one year project (2000-2001) looking at the place-names of south-east Inverness-shire are now available. A long article by Barbara Crawford and Simon Taylor in the most recent Northern Scotland (23, 1-76), entitled 'The Southern Frontier of Norse Settlement in North Scotland: Place-Names and History' sets out the data and conclusions regarding the central focus of the project. However, in order to evaluate the few place-names of possible Norse origin, the Project collected and analysed many names from the drainage system of the River Beauly or Forn and its chief tributaries, the Glass, the Farrar and the Cannich i.e. the parishes of Kilmorack, Kiltarlity and Convinth, and the western part of the parish of Kirkhill. Thus the results of the research also form the basis for a complete place-name survey of an area which had hitherto received little serious attention from place-name scholars. All the place-names collected and analysed have been entered into the Scottish Place-Name Database, and will be published in book-form, with an extensive introduction. A draft text of this book, supplemented with colour photographs taken by Mary MacDonald, is also available on the project's website http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~beauly, which is now accessible.
GLENGARRY AND GLENQUOICH
Place-Names of Glengarry and Glenquoich, Edward C. Ellice (1898), Reprint of the 1931 Edition, Glengarry Visitor Centre (1999), 163 pp. hardback £19.99.
First published in 1898 and later revised in 1931, Place-Names of Glengarry and Glenquoich and their Associations was compiled by Edward C. Ellice (1858-1934), last of the Ellices to live in Invergarry House as laird of the large estates of Glengarry and Glenquoich, which stretch westwards from the Great Glen.
A classic of its kind, this volume is made available as a limited edition reprint of the 1931 revision. It is ? by Glengarry Visitor Centre, which recently opened on the site of the old inn next to Invergarry Hotel.
Ellice, a Gaelic-speaking lover of all things Highland, approaches the study of place-names from the perspective of the well-read, benevolent laird who wishes to 'encourage the people of these glens to keep up the old local traditions'. It is essentially a local history that uses the place-names as the vehicle for researching and transmitting a wide-ranging compendium of anecdotes, personal recollect ions and local lore, as well as explanations as to the origin and meaning of names.
The core of the book takes the reader through the four districts of Glengarry, Aberchalder, Ardochy and Glenquoich, exploring in turn mountains, loch, rivers and other place-names. Each chapter is prefaced by a brief general introduction that provides a useful background to aspects of geology, natural history, land-use and general history.
Liberally illustrated with sketches of local characters and accompanied by an indispensable fold-out map, Ellice's eclectic study concludes with a series of appendices that reflect the fact that the author is the owner of a great estate. Notes from the Glenquoich game-book and 'Extracts from the Visitors' Book at Glenquoich reveal something of the early Victorian fascination with the Highlands, while the section 'The Birds of Glengarry' by Murdoch Matheson, gamekeeper and deerstalker in Glengarry, provides the natural historian with a rare account of over 130 species of nesting bird. Despite Ellice's uncritical approach to the study of place-names and his lack of reference to some material, this book remains a compelling read after 100 years. If anything, it reminds us of the value of place-names in unlocking the memory of places and in revealing the many facets of the wider environment.
David M. Munro
SOLLAS, NORTH UIST
Ainmean Aiteachan Sgire Sholais by Catriona NicIain. A collection of approximately 350 place-names of the Sollas district, North Uist, with notes and information. Gaelic text, 14 maps, 21 colour photographs.
Available price £9 + 70p p. & p. from the author, 18 Drynie Terrace, Inverness IV2 4UP or Mrs P. Johnson, Sollas, North Uist.
RUM
Scottish Natural Heritage/Dualchas Nàdair na h-Alba has brought out a well-produced little book with accompanying map on the place-names of Rum, by Peadar Morgan, Director of Comann an Luchd Ionnsachaidh and SPNSoc. committee member. Entitled (bilingually) Rum: Island Place-Names/Rùm: Ainmean Àite an Eilein, it achieves the aims stated in the brief introduction.: to review all known island place-names setting out a correct or standard version for each of the named locations - very necessary given the ‘remarkable variety of spellings' used in the many maps and books about the island. It also provides translations for the place-names and indicates how they should sound, using an easy to understand guide to pronunciation. Besides all the place-names, the map shows all walking and pony routes, as well as spot heights; scale is 1 inch to the kilometre.
Price £1 for the booklet; £1 for the map (£2.50 for laminated map). From SNH Reserve Office, Isle of Rum PH43 4RR Tel. 01687 462026.
Bibliography (to see the full bibliography, click here)
Morgan, P., 1999, Rum: Island Place-Names/Rùm: Ainmean Àite an Eilein (with separate map) (Scottish Natural Heritage, Rum)
Rixson, D., 1999, Knoydart: A History (Birlinn, Edinburgh) [section on place-names with early forms + close study of land-units.]
Strathspey
Barrow, G.W.S. 1988 & 1989 'Badenoch and Strathspey, 1130-1312': 1. 'Secular and political', Northern Scotland 8; 2: 'Church', Northern Scotland 9, 1-16.
MacGregor, N. 1992-4 'Gaelic place-names in Strathspey', Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness 58, 299-370.
Western Isles
Fellows-Jensen, G., 1984, 'Viking Settlement in the Northern and Western Isles', in The Northern and Western Isles in the Viking World, eds A. Fenton & H. Pálsson (Edinburgh), 148-68.
Fraser, I. A., 1976-8 'Gaelic and Norse elements in coastal place names in the Western Isles', Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness 50, 237-55.
MacAulay, D., 1971-2 'Studying the place names of Bernera', Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness 47, 313-37.
McKillop, D. (for John Ferguson), 1982-4 'The place-names of Bernera', Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness 53, 115-64. Read after and alongside D. MacAulay's 1971 article, this is instructive - the work of an amateur collector, there is much of folklore interest here, but linguistically and methodologically it has many problems. Comparing this with MacAulay's article will give some insight into problems of methodology.
McKillop, D. 1988-90 'Rocks, shoals and islands in the Sounds of Harris and Uist and around the Island of Berneray', Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness 56, 428-502.
Unpublished
Jennings, A., 1994, 'An Historical Study of the Gael and Norse in Western Scotland from c.795 to c.1000', unpublished PhD, University of Edinburgh.