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INV Inverness-shire
Bibliography
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)
Crawford, Barbara E. and Taylor, Simon 2003, 'The
Southern Frontier of Norse Settlement in North Scotland: Place-Names
and History', Northern Scotland 23, 1-76.
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
Cox, Richard A. V., 2002, The Gaelic Place-Names of Carloway,
Isle of Lewis: Their Structure and Significance (Dublin
Institute for Advanced Studies).
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.
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