Gaelic and Nordic Names Around Loch Hourn — May 1999
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Gaelic and Nordic names Version as distributed in around Loch Hourn Portable Document Format List of toponyms etc. from around Kinloch Hourn and … Barrisdale, as pronounced on our tape by Peter MacRae for printed version or tape of Invergarry, formerly of Kinloch Hourn. Recorded in see directions on page 15 September 1995; listed with introduction, translations … and comments by Ruurd & Mieke Groot; May 1999 Introduction, translations and commentary with additions and suggestions from Peter MacRae and his late brother Roddy MacRae – natives of the area, and from Dr Robert F. Smith – who has known the area and the MacRae family for almost 40 years. We dedicate this booklet to the memory of Roddy MacRae, his kindness and wit For non-commercial purposes, this file may be copied and distributed freely, provided its original form is maintained in its entirety; parts of it may be quoted or used in other material, provided this file is adequately identified as the source – cf page 15. © IWACC – OUDENDIJK, THE NETHERLANDS – May 1999 version 3.1b(3) 2006 – please see the notes added at the bottom of page 15 Gaelic and Nordic names around Loch Hourn — May 1999 CONTENTS 1 Introduction 2 2 Do names mean anything at all? 3 3 Vagaries of spelling and meaning 3 4 List of names with commentary 5 5 Some additional names 14 6 Epilogue, address etc. 15 help of the Scots Magazine (Kinloch Hourn Remembered , by Alistair Scott; October 1993). 1 Introduction Meanwhile, Roddy was occupied as stalker and keeper along the shores of the original, now For every year from 1991, we – Ruurd and inflated Loch Quoich, on the original, now so Mieke Groot – have put up our base camp in fragmented Glen Quoich estate – a life rudely Kinloch Hourn. Most years we stayed for some interrupted by his being captured by the enemy six weeks, to hike from our base camp over the in the North African campaign and being held surrounding hills and glens — or to go and visit as a prisoner of war in Italy… Of course, when the friends we acquired in the area over the we first met them, Roddy and Peter had moved years... Sometimes we put up a wee backpack- in retirement to Invergarry long ago. ing tent away from Kinloch Hourn, enabling us Peter turned out to be more of a scholar, for to cover a wider area; thus it is that Barrisdale he had studied publications on the subject of (with double r , cf. Barrisdale in chapter 5) is toponyms, and had a knack for developing his another place we have learned to love. own theories. His brother Roddy, on the other One of the things we like is ‘to know where hand, was a witty ‘practical expert’, at crucial we are’, i.e. to keep track of the names of places, moments putting our wild theorising squarely burns etc. we come by on our way. These in the perspective of actual usage and living names or toponyms were recorded in our diaries speech. and incorporated in the captions by our photo prints. But knowing how to write a name is not In 1995 we made a tape recording of Peter enough; we think one also has to know how it reciting the names from a list we had prepared. should be pronounced – and do it right. And The recording was made on a wee journalist’s we like to know what it means or used to mean, tape recorder, which explains the somewhat if that is possible at all. tinny sound quality of the recording accompa- nying our list. This is the more regrettable, as Over the years, we built up a collection of Peter’s dramatic voice adds an awe-inspiring names and their approximate pronunciation echo of history to the words he pronounces. and meaning. Meeting first Roddy and then Still, much of that echo remains audible on our Peter MacRae, we discovered that our new copies. Our son Jur, who made the copies at the friends were great sources of knowledge about time, was so impressed with the sound of the local toponyms. Both were native speakers of recited names, that he used to declaim them Gaelic and had grown up in Kinloch Hourn on aloud when going up or down the stairs. what is now known as the Barrisdale farm. In addition to the tape copies we made Peter worked that farm for many years with copies of our original list, with for every name their elder brother Eoin (1903 - 1982); he has an improved note on the probable or possible conveyed the experiences of their youth, and of meaning: partly to please our friends and ac- his adult life there, to a wider audience with the quaintances, but also to elicit reactions from version 3.1b(3) – 2 – Gaelic and Nordic names around Loch Hourn — May 1999 anybody who’d care to give them. Meanwhile We have experienced that names of places we had met the Smiths, who had known the can be very old, while being perfectly ‘trans- area and the MacRae family since the early latable’ at the same time. Some fields in the area sixties. They shared our interest in the area and we’ve researched in the Netherlands, had names its history, and Dr Smith has been kind enough that derived from Old Frisian, a language no- to help us with suggestions and additions. With body in the area had spoken for the past 600 all the help from him and of course Peter and years. Translating those names was relatively Roddy MacRae, and in some cases from others easy, as we were helped by numerous onomastic – local or otherwise, we finally could make this publications on ancient Dutch-Frisian field and revised third version (even 3.1, in the modern water names. Onomastic research is an parlance) of our list with comments. interesting occupation in its own right, but of wider interest as it may guide archaeologists to Although the two of us were only given a few likely spots for digging, and historians in years in which to know Roddy MacRae, and even general to a clearer vision of ancient patterns of then only during the summer months, it was quite habitation and land use in general. This circum- enough to grow fond of him. His death, earlier this stance will explain the availability of so much year 1999, was a very sad occurrence. helpful documentation. For our translations and comments in the 2 Do names mean anything at all? present list, however, we have mainly relied on very simple sources: first of course, the people When looking for meaning in names, we mentioned in the Introduction; then Malcolm should always be aware that the meaning may Maclennan’s Gaelic Dictionary , subtitled ‘a have been irretrievably lost in time. Certainly Pronouncing and Etymological Dictionary of most users of a name aren’t conscious of any the Gaelic Language’ (published by Acair and meaning, most of the time. What does Glasgow Aberdeen University, 1925 – 1979..1989). mean? Or London? How many people know Furthermore, Peter MacRae and Dr Smith that, let alone even think of it when using such were themselves familiar with other sources, names? It may appear from our list and com- e.g. Celtic Place-names of Scotland by Prof. W.J. mentary that Highland toponyms are special, in Watson (Edinburgh, 1926). And of course, our that the meanings of so many appear to be personal experience — legs-on, so to speak — derivable at all. If one is of a suspicious nature, with the actual lay of the land in the present has one might get the feeling that too many of the helped as well. names have been adapted in their form or spel- ling to meanings perceived by a later, perhaps somewhat romantic generation. 3 Vagaries of spelling and meaning We claim no special scholarly authority in As explained in the introduction, our list etymology – the study of the original form and refers to places we came by while hiking in the meaning of words – or in onomastics – the area around Loch Hourn. In principle, there- etymology of names in particular. One of us fore, all names were copied from the Ordnance (Mieke) has a life-time experience as a transla- Survey maps we used. Of these maps we prefer tor; the other (Ruurd) read classical philology, those of 1:25,000 scale for their detail, putting but later switched to physics, a grounding that up with it that the larger their scale, the more was applied to researches in the psychophysics maps you need – our tent invariably contains a of perception – such as how and why the visual box with a veritable library of that type, which surroundings may influence our mind-set and OS currently calls Pathfinder . While it is bad behaviour. These backgrounds gave us some enough that many names as found on OS maps feeling for the subject, but surely didn’t make us have been irrecoverably anglicised or otherwise into onomastic specialists. More relevant will be corrupted, some of the names have even been the fact that together with our son Jur, we assigned to the wrong places, mostly in less published a book on the toponyms of a peat frequently visited spots. Attribution of names meadow conservation area in our native region, to spots may also differ on the OS maps at the based on our own field research and literature 1:25,000 scale from their location on the – less studies. accurate – OS maps at the 1:50,000 scale.