ON ISLAY PLACE-NAMES. by CAPT. F. W. L. THOMAS, R.N., F.S.A. Soot
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I. ON ISLAY PLACE-NAMES CAPTy B . W.F . L. THOMAS, R.N., F.S.A. Soot. Whe examinatioe nth e Lewith f no s Place-Names—wit e vieth hf wo ascertaining to what extent the Scandinavian influence had been im- pressed there—was finished, it seemed very desirable that the name- system of the Southern Hebrides, particularly Tslay, should be inquired intoj for comparison with that of Lewis; but having no local acquaint- ance with the island d onlan ,y ver e d mapsb y ba e attemp o t th , d ha t postponed. But having lately the offer of assistance from Mr. Hector Maclean of Ballygrant, Islay, who, besides having a critical knowledge of Gaelic, is thoroughly acquainted with the topography of Islay, it was considered safe to proceed, but without his co-operation this account of Islay Place-Names coul t havdno e been written. This paper must be considered complementary to that on Lewis Place- Names, to which the reader is referred for many remarks bearing on the present subject t whichbu , avoio t , d repetition omittee ar , d here,. formee th n I r pape methoe th r s detailedi whicy db namee hth s them- selves were determined and their analysis performed,—and the same system has been followed in this. To prevent any unconscious selection, and as affordin faia g r exampl e name-systeth f eo mIslayn i lise farmf o th ,t n i s the Valuation Rol f Argyllshiro l s takea basis wa es a n . These names VOL. xvi. Q 2 24 PROCEEDING THF SO E SOCIETY , 18828 Y . MA , were compared with suce writte f thear o h s mn Johnston'a o n s (Thom- son's) county maps witd an ,h Stephen M'Dongall' f Islayo p , sma mad n ei 1749-50-51. From these three authoritie e moderth s - nob fors mwa tained, while the charters of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries con- tained in the Origines Parochiales Scotice, and Blaeu's Atlas, with a few other sources, supplied a phonetic spelling of the names, which, although often eccentric, retained sufficien f theio t r original souno t d indicate their etymology. Probably these names were copied (or mis- copied) from supposee oldeb o t r t documentsdno s thai e low t th i t r - fo , country clerks could by any combination of letters known to them repre- sen soune th t wordf do s when uttere Gael.a y db 1 Ther usualls ei y much abbreviatio generie th f no c centurieso e lastermth tw t n i s , particularly such as have ceased to have meaning in common speech, and in a few cases they are altogether suppressed. Thus stadr, in the sixteenth century become vaguelw no ss yi "sta "say,representet d i t an " "bu y "s"db ; fell, after sundry mutations, suc s "field,a h " "vail, figurew no "s a s " ville"; dalr, though sometimes transforme o t "d till, t " no &c. s i , largely altere Gael e soundn di th t , knowinbu , meanino gn "r dalgfo n "i sense th f "o e dale, " have almost always prefixed theiworn row d Gleann; and Aird is quite tautologically prefixed to nes. Many JSTorse topogra- phical terms have become Gaelic, in so far that they have meaning and are in common use; such as sker, Gael, sgeir, English " skerry; " nes, Gael, nis, Eng. "ness;" Metr, Gael, deit; bodi, a breaker ; Gael, boglta, Eng. " bow," " baa." This adoptio f Norso n e terms into Gaelis ha c led some writers to assume that there are hardly any Norse names in Ireland. Some Worse terms undergo a curious change; thus holmr becomes a Gaeli s a , c nominative a termination s a , d tulman ; , " am," " um." But this word is subjected to metathesis, and in the Northern "The spelling of the names in Origines Parochiales does not seem to me to 1 have been done by persons who did not know Gaelic, for it is similar to the spelling od knof di thos o w esomwh e Gaeli n thosci e time founs sa numeroun di s documents. The spelling resembles that in Dean M'Gregor's (of Lismore) Collection of Gaelic Poems, complete 1512,"—n di H. M. ON3 ISLA24 Y PLACE-NAMES. Hebrides is changed to " mol;" for Kartel-holmr, in Barra, is now " Kisa-mol." Norse Th e vik,1 Gael, Wiic, frequens i t roun e wholdth f Islayeo s i s a ; also gja, Gael, geod/ia creeka = , rift, chasm stakkr,d an ; Gael, stachd,a stack-lik , Mettr,eOa rock n I Gael. , cle.it, a cliff , f rockfrequeno s i , t occurrence. There is a Gaelic cleit = (a quill), a rock with a hole through . it Thert a perhape r thres o ar e f theso wa o e t tw n Islaysi i e d an ; one time believed that persons afflicted with some diseases were healed puttiny b g them through those rocks.—. HM , Having collected all the forms of the Islay names that could be got, map listd san s were looked ove r cognatfo r e Hebridee nameth n i sd san Wes f Scotlando t d sucan ; h name s wersa e considere f Norso e b e o t d origin were sought for in Orkney, Shetland, and Iceland. Some of the Islay names are identical with names in the Scandinavian Islands; e.g., Ellister in Islay and Shetland; Toradale in Islay, Orkney, .Shetland, and Iceland; Grobolls in Islay and Orkney; Scarrabus in Islay and Caith- nes s; Cattadal n Isla i ed Iceland yan e origina Th . e naml th for f emo was assumed from a comparison with all these sources, and its etymology thereby determined. There was little difficulty with the majority of Gaelic names ; they appear to be in modern Gaelic, and most of them are foune b o n Joyce'dt i s admirable wor Irishn o k Names f Places.o e Th . MacleanH e s sagacit. i th t I Mr o t .f o ye du s i w fe meanina t no f go easo s yt wit no Norse hth e names e attributivth , f maneo y being grossly corrupt; e.g., Nosebridg r Hnaus-borg;fo e however moss a , f theo t e mar found repeate northere th n d i Teutoni e genue nth th islandsf s so a cd an , languages places the generic term at the end of the word, it is not usually o mucs e recognisable,—sb h o disguiset t no s da o e tha b e wor n th t dca relegate s propeit o dt r class, althoug adjective hth hopelessle eb tery mma y obscure. Where the etymology is stated as " probable," it must only be considere provisionas da l until t morupo subjecte go nth e b ligh n .ca t The greatest peculiarit Norse th n ei y name prevalencf e Islaso th s yi e " passes Vikha d into aig, whic evidentls hha y been derived fromuig, fore mth whiclm'/f1 c would first take in the mouth of the Gael."—If. M. 4 24 PROCEEDING SOCIETYE , 18828 TH Y F .SO MA , of bdlstccftr dwelling-place= , homestead t i usuall; y indicates good land. In Islay, " bolstad " include whole sth abouf eo Nors1 t e names,—in Lewis, only about TV- This recurrenc "bolstad,of e absencthe eand " of vollr r void,o usually Englished "wall," point o somt s e dialectic peculiarity in the Norse " nam-men" or settlers. In the fertile island of Tyree, " bolstad," disguised as " poll," is frequent; but in the con- tiguous Mull, "bolstad" (in Val. Boll) is only represented by Eorabns and Assapol. The reason for this is not evident, but the comparatively barren soil may partly account for it. The difference of Place-Names in Mull and Islay is so marked as to have given rise to a proverb :— " Ceithir busacha fichead 'an lie, 'S ceithir ardacha flchead 'am Mnile." " Twenty-four ' busses' in Isl And twenty fou ' ardsr Mull.n i ' " l But Mr. H. Maclean has only heard it repeated thus :— " Ceithir ' busa' ficliead an He ; Ceithi ' rtire ' fichea Muilm da e; 'S ceithir 'bailte' flchead an.Oinn-tire." i.e., " Twenty-four ' busses' in Islay ; Twenty-four ' lands Mulln i ' ; And twenty four ' ballys ' in Kintyre." 2 After bolstccSr, dalr—dale 3 is the most common (|) of the Norse generic terms in Islay, and the two together make up one-half of the Norse names there. Stadr and setr (and it is not easy to distinguish Nicolsori's Gaelic Proverbs,. 79 . p 1 2 The former proverb is the most appropriate. 3 '' Dal, Gaelie th c for dalr,f mo neves i r beginnine founth t da namea f go , ans dha never been borrowe separata s da e case worde samth e Th s ei wit. h aig, from mk." —H. M. ON ISLAY PLACE-NAMES. 245 them when the form of the name is corrupt) are ^ of the Islay Norse names absence Th e comparativaccountee .f b th kletr e o y y b ma lr dfo e smoothness of the surface ; but that of vollr, void,2 Eng. " wall" (noticed above), which, although commo n Orknei n d Shetlandan y f raro es i , occurrence, if at all, in the Hebrides, was to have been expected in this fertile island.3 The attributives of the Norse names are often so corrupt as to render their etymology uncertain ; nevertheless, a large number—such as Aven- lussay, Lurabus, Risabus, Cornabus, Torrabolls, Toradale, Frackerdale, Trotterness, &c.—admit of no doubt.