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We have now reached the end of the road on the eastern shore of Loch Ewe at a place called Mellon Charles. Beyond the road end is a rough track, which continues for about 1km providing an easy walk along this part of the Rubha Mor peninsula, and some rougher walking follows for several kilometres for those who wish to enjoy and explore this beautiful coast.
This view, taken from a small hill called Cnoc Feadaig, is looking north east over the entrance to Loch Ewe, to the Cove peninsula on the opposite shore, to The Minch beyond, and ultimately to the Hebridean Islands just visible in enlarged versions of this image.
The large building, The Perfume Studio, is a new attraction in this area, housing a cafe, de luxe shopping, and a laboratory and production unit making exclusive perfumes and other scented products for its discerning customers.
Just beyond this building is a rocky point called Leacan Donna. This was a signal control station during World War II, part of the defences around Loch Ewe to protect against enemy attack. Loch Ewe was of major strategic importance to the war effort, and from the control station at Leacan Donna mines could be detonated to prevent enemy ships from entering Loch Ewe.
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.
Cnoc Feadaige; No sources were found for this Gaelic place name but I have translated it as meaning ‘the small hill of the plover’.
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).
Leacan Donna; No source explains this place name which refers to a rock on the Rubha Mor peninsula by Loch Ewe in Wester Ross. However Leac is a Gaelic word referring to a flat ledge of rock and Professor Watson, referring to another place name, translates an donnaidh as ‘a mishap’, so perhaps this name means ‘the flat rock of the accident’.
Loch Ewe; Professor Watson said “that he had taken iu, with hesitation, from the Irish eo, thus ‘Loch of the yew tree’; the fact that Tobar na h-Iu in Nigg showed the article is practically decisive in favour of iu being there at least a Gaelic word. No Pictish name is accompanied by the Gaelic article. But the Ewe may be a Pictish name derived from the same root, or from a totally different one.”
Mellon Charles; Gaelic is Meallan Thearlaich, Charles’s Little Hill.
Rubha Mor; Listed by Professor Watson as Rudha-mór, ‘the big headland’.
The Little Minch; In Gaelic it is 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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