Image Details
Standing on the cliffs at Neist Point on the west coast of the Isle of Skye, I watched a fine afternoon draw to a close with storm clouds moving in from the south.
On the horizon is the dark shape of the Scottish Hebridean island of North Uist, and into the pools of light on The Little Minch, backlit showers of rain are falling. I thought the clouds looked particularly ominous, and I enjoyed photographing this scene as it developed.
Once the sunlight disappeared altogether I packed up my equipment and walked back over the hill to my car just getting there as the rain started to fall.
North-west Highland Place Names
The landscape of the North-west Highlands and the Gaelic language are intimately connected. Other languages have contributed to the richness of our place names, notably Norse, but the North-west Highlands have for centuries been a Gaelic landscape. In listing the meanings of place names I have relied on authoritative sources wherever possible. For further information about sources please refer to North-west Highland Place Names in the main menu.
Hebrides; The following etymology is quoted from the Wikipedia article on the Hebrides. The first reference to a name similar to the modern Hebrides is by Ptolemy, who called the islands Αἱβοῦδαι = Haiboudai in Ancient Greek. Later texts in classical Latin, by writers such as Solinus, use the forms Hebudes and Hæbudes. The old Old Norse name, during the Viking occupation, was Suðreyjar, which means ‘Southern Isles’. It was given in contradistinction to Norðreyjar, or the ‘Northern Isles’, i.e. Orkney and Shetland.
Ironically, given the status of the Western Isles as the last Gàidhlig speaking stronghold in Scotland, the Gaelic language name for the islands - Innse Gall - means "isles of the foreigners" which has roots in the time when they were under Norse occupation and colonisation, and in reference to the Norse-Gaels, known in Gaelic as the Gall-Ghaidhil (meaning Foreign Gaels).
Neist Point; An Éist, ‘The Horse’ from Norse. A more full name is An Éist Fhiadhaich, ‘wild Neist’. In Gaelic Neist Point is Rubha na h- Éist or Gob na h-Éist.
North Uist; In Gaelic it is written as Uibhist a Tuath from Tuath (North) and Uibhist which may mean ‘Corn Island’. Another explanation is that Uibhist may be derived from inni-vist, an old Norse word for ‘dwelling’
Skye; Skye's history includes the influence of Gaelic, Norse and English speaking peoples and the relationships between their names for the island are not straightforward. The Gaelic name for the "Isle of Skye" is An t-Eilean Sgitheanach (or Sgiathanach, a more recent and less common spelling). The meaning of this name is not clear. Various explanations have been proposed, such as the ‘winged isle’ or ‘the notched isle’ but no definitive solution has been found to date.
The Little Minch; In Gaelic is an Cuan Canach where Cuan translates as sea but Canach translates as bog cotton or cotton grass which is obviously not a satisfactory answer. Research to date has yet to find a more satisfactory explanation.
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