Sutherland Place‐Names
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Scottish Geographical Magazine ISSN: 0036-9225 (Print) (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rsgj19 Sutherland place‐names John Mackay To cite this article: John Mackay (1896) Sutherland place‐names, Scottish Geographical Magazine, 12:10, 513-522, DOI: 10.1080/00369229608732917 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00369229608732917 Published online: 27 Feb 2008. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 12 View related articles Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=rsgj20 Download by: [137.189.171.235] Date: 18 June 2016, At: 11:59 ADDRESS TO GEOGRAPHICAL SECTION OF THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. 513 itself for solution; to take every help we can get from every quarter in arriving at our conclusions; and to let the name that our work goes by take care of itself. SUTHERLAND PLACE-NAMES. By JOHN MACKAY, AS. Inst. C.E. LOCAL names are usually descriptive, historic, or personal. They are not to be regarded as arbitrary signs. They have a meaning and a history, though, owing to the absence of early documents, the history may be lost and the meaning may not be accurately ascertained. Physical features, such as the names of mountains and rivers, are frequently the memorials of extinct or ancient races. Not only is this the case in Sutherland, but it is the same all over Europe, where local names are met with bearing witness of races departed or absorbed. In Sutherland, place-names are chiefly descriptive; a few there are, historic and personal, recording battlefields and the names of commanders that were slain and interred where they fell. The stone and the cairn were raised to commemorate the event and the men. We also find that a religious spirit has actuated the inhabitants in causing places to bear the name of a local hermit or a saint, as we find in other parts of Scot- land, Ireland, Wales, Cornwall, and France. Even in India a large number of towns take their names from the temple of some deity. The names of places, like those of the streets of towns, are endowed with extraordinary vitality, frequently surviving the race or the nation that imposed them, and often defying the accidents of conquest and even of time, while furnishing information of an unexpected character. In Sutherland they disclose the existence, extinction, or absorption of four different races and four different languages,—Iberian or Basque, Caledo- nian Pictish, Norwegian, and Gaelic. Downloaded by [] at 11:59 18 June 2016 Of the first, few footprints remain, only two river names—the High and the Naver. Of the second, there are several records in river and place names, proving that the Brythonic language had been spoken in that region previous to the commencement of the Christian era. Of the third, there are many all around the west, north, and south coasts, and even for some miles inland, along some of the valley rivers, and on the frontiers adjoining Caithness on the east; while in the interior Gaelic holds undivided dominion over mountain, lake, river and place names, and the preponderance all round. Sutherland itself may be termed a name of position, given it by the Norsemen: " Sudrland," the land to the South. From the eighth to the twelfth century that portion of Scotland north of the Dornoch Firth and the Oykell river formed only one province under the name "Catenes." On the expulsion and subjection of the Norsemen by William the Lion, the province of Cateness was divided into three districts. Caithness, east of the Ord and the ridge of mountains extending from it to the- Northern Ocean, was left to the Norse Earls of Caithness, while the; VOL. XII. 2 0 514: SCOTTISH GEOGRAPHICAL MAGAZINE. northern portion, from the river Halladale to Kylescow on the west, was called Strathnavernia, and became " the territory " of the Mackays, styled in the native language " Duthaich Mhic-Aoidh," granted to their first chief for services rendered to William in subduing the Norsemen, 1196-98. The southern portion, or the Norse Sudrland, was conferred by the same monarch npon Hugh Freskyn, a Morayshire proprietor, who also assisted William in the same expedition. This territorial name was adopted by Freskyn's successors as the family title and surname. To keep this Paper within reasonable limits, only names supposed to be of Iberian origin, Pictish, and Norwegian can be adverted to. The river names,—Abona (the Dornoch Firth or the estuary of the Oykell), Il-a (the Iligh), Nabar-os (Naver)—of Ptolemy's map are the most ancient records we have of geographical names in Sutherland which have come down to us from remote times, and which for eighteen centuries or more have as nearly as possible preserved their primitive forms and pronunciations to this day. The Abona, being so evidently of Pictish origin, will be alluded to hereafter in that class. The Il-a, or Iligh, has been referred to an Iberian origin, from the Basque word El, water, owing to its resemblance to the first syllable in Il-a. It may be right to show that the term given by Ptolemy has as great similitude to a word in the language then spoken by Northern Caledo- nians, now generally admitted to have been a dialect of the Brythonic, of which we have still the living remains in Welsh, Cornish, and Armoric ; Welsh, Hi, llif, stream, flood; Cornish, lif, flood; Armoric, liv, flood. The Welsh pronounce Hi, llif, as if written thli, thliv. The Gaelic equiva- lent is lighe, flood or fulness of water, and pronounced nearly similarly to the Welsh. This river is subject to floods from its extensive watershed, and the numerous lakes round about its sources form reservoirs which give it abundance of water and regulate its flow. • The Nabar-os or Naver is also presumed to be Iberian from the Basque words nava, naba, high table-land, and erri, country—high table- land country; cognate is Navarre, a province of Spain, a Celto-Iberian Downloaded by [] at 11:59 18 June 2016 territory. It may apply to this river as rising in and flowing through high lands. PICTISH PLACE-NAMES. Abona—this name is Pictish or Brythonic. Its form in Welsh would be Y-bwn-aw. T, the; bwn, head or end; and aw, flowing water; the end or head of the flowing water or tide. We have this name still pre- served in modern Bon-ar. At the lower end of Loch Ness is Bun-aw, or Bon-aw, with the same signification. Awe, a lake in Assynt; Welsh, aw, flowing water; Gaelic, ath, ford; a place where water is shallow and flows fast. Esc—stream, running water; Welsh, wysg, stream; Cornish and Armoric, isge, stream; Gaelic, uisge, stream, water. There are several Esks in Scotland. The same word appears as river-names in England, as Esk, Exe, Axe, Ax, and Usk. Several hamlets and townships in Sutherland, situated on small streams, are named from their situation, Aber-esc-ag, Over-esc-ag, Shiber-esc-ag; the terminal syllable is a Gaelic diminutive. SUTHERLAND PLACE-NAMES. 515 Ochtow—a place-name in Strath Oykell,"situated on high ground above the river, means high side; Welsh, XJch, high, and tu, side, Uchtu; Gaelic, Uachdar, upper part; Welsh and Armoric, Uchder, upper part; Cornish, Uch, above. Here we have in the far north a remnant of the Caledonian language similar to place-names in Pictavia from the Forth to the Spey, and similar to Welsh, Cornish, and Armoric. The Ochil Hills, Auchterarder, etc., are cases in point. Pit.—This is a prefix met with throughout Pictland, meaning a small portion of cultivated land, a hollow, frequently a sheltered hollow. In Assynt, where arable land is very scarce, the natives enclose and cultivate patches of land in dry hollows; they call such an enclosure pool; Welsh, pwt, a short part or portion, also petti, a small part; Cornish, pyth, a small part. Pitfure—pit, a small cultivated plot of land; for, fur; Welsh, ffor, fur; Cornish, for, a way, a road. Pitfur would therefore mean a plot of cultivated land near a roadway. Pittentrail.— Welsh and Cornish, pit-yn-trai; pit, enclosed land ; yn, at or near; and trai, ebb tide; the enclosed land or habitation at or near the ebb of the tide. W. trai; Corn, traith; Arm. traez; Manx, traih; Irish, traigh; Gael, traigh; shore at ebb tide. Pitgrudie—-pit and grut; W. grit; the gritty or stony enclosure. Oykell, river, the Eccial of the Norsemen, probably the same as Ochil; Welsh, Uchel; Corn, uchel; Arm. uchel; high, lofty. This river is flanked on both sides by lofty mountains, and possibly it derived its name, like the Naver, from the high lands in which it has its source and through which all its course runs. Proncy.—This place is situated on a protuberance of a long acclivity facing the Dornoch Firth; near it on a higher site are the ruins of a Pictish tower. In Wales, Cornwall, and Brittany a great number of place- names begin with Iron, signifying breast, pap, protuberance: b and p being labials frequently interchange; b becomes p and p becomes b. Here we have p adopted for b, and the bron becomes pron for the first syllable; Downloaded by [] at 11:59 18 June 2016 the cy is the sedd of the Welsh, seat; the sedh of the Cornish, seat, habitation. Proncy may be of the same origin, signifying the habitation on the elevated ground. On the same acclivity are two other Proncies —Proncy-cruaidh (G.