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Travelling south on a crisp November morning along the Inverasdale peninsula on the western shores of Loch Ewe, this landscape presents itself about a kilometre south of the village of Naast. My wife and I had been at a friends house not far from Firemore (An Fhaighear Mhóir), and on our drive home I stopped to capture this superb vista of Loch Ewe and the mountains.
In the foreground are the Boor Rocks upon which many cormorants were sunning themselves. Starting at the far left is the tree-covered peninsula on which the National Trust's Inverewe Gardens are situated, then the following mountains are all visible; Beinn a' Chàisgein Mór, Carn Mor, Ruadh Stac, A' Mhaighdean, and finally Beinn Airigh Charr, below which the village of Poolewe can just be seen.
This range of mountains is just part of a huge wilderness area known as 'The Great Wilderness', Britain's last great wilderness, and it is a magnet for walkers and climbers of all abilities, presenting challenging climbing and unsurpassed scenery.
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.
A’ Mhaighdean; A mountain in Wester Ross; the name translates as ‘the maiden’. Why it’s called the maiden is not explained by any of my sources. It is however reckoned to be the most inaccessible of Scotland’s mountains due to the 2-3 backpacking in required in order to climb it. A lady friend did say to me that it is called the maiden because it is inaccessible, I have not been able to verify this!
An Fhaighear Bheag & Mhóir; A rocky point on the western shore of Loch Ewe at Coast. Listed by Professor Watson [p229] as Am Faithir Beag meaning the little shelving declivity and Am Faithir Mór meaning ‘the big shelving declivity’. I feel that Fhaighear or Faithir is probably the origin of the ‘Fire’ in the place name ‘Firemore’. Note that Dixon when referring to Firemore said that its Gaelic name is Faidhir Mor which he describes as a ‘great market’, from Faidhir, a fair or market.
Beinn a' Chàisgein Mór; Listed by Dixon as Beinn a Chaisgean which may be a corruption of caisg; Easter. Apamapa translates the name as ‘the big mountain of Cashken’. Watson lists the mountain but offers no explanation of the meaning of the name. I have not been able to source any other explanations.
Beinn Airigh Charr; Gaelic. Listed by Watson as Binn Airigh a’ Charr and explained as ‘hill of the shieling of the projecting rock or shelf’. Listed in Dixon’s ‘Gairloch & Guide to Loch Maree’ as Beinn Aridh Charr its meaning is given as ‘the mountain of the rough shieling’ from the following roots; Beinn, ‘mountain’, aridh (accepted spelling is àirigh), ‘a shieling’, charr, a corruption of garbh, ‘rough’.
Boor; A small settlement on the western shore of Loch Ewe. Both Watson and the Scottish Parliament propose it is derived from a Norse word búr-á meaning ‘bower stream. J H Dixon offers two explanations, that it is from a word containing the root boor, meaning ‘roaring’ because stags used to roar here. The other explanation is that it is from the Gaelic word buradh, meaning a ‘bursting forth of blood’.
There is a story in Dixon’s ‘Gairloch & Guide to Loch Maree’ regarding Dixon’s latter explanation. Before McLeod’s got possession of the Gairloch area (of which Boor is part) it was held by a tribe of Macbeths. On one encounter between the Lord of Kintail’s men and the MacBeaths one of the MacBeaths was shot by an arrow which pierced him “in the thickest of his flesh”. In making an escape, running with the arrow still in him, he ran down the brae to a place which is called Boora to this day. When he pulled the arrow out, a buradh, or bursting forth of blood came after it. A nice story, but as Watson is the pre-eminent scholar in the field of place names it is more likely that his less romantic explanation is the correct one.
Carn Mór; Gaelic for ‘Big Cairn’, in this case referring to a large outcrop of rock.
Firemore; See An Fhaighear Mor.
Inverasdale; Village on the western shore of Loch Ewe. The following notes are by Professor Watson. In Gaelic it is Inbhir-asdal. A hybrid name; from Gaelic, inbhir, estuary; from Norse, aspi-dalr, Aspen-dale, from osp, the aspen tree. The old forms, together with the independent authority of Blaeu (a 16th century Dutch mapmaker), prove that the modern Gaelic is a contraction with compensatory lengthening of the vowel a.
Inverewe; In Gaelic it is Inbhiriu, meaning the ‘mouth of the Ewe’, referring to where the River Ewe enters Loch Ewe.
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.”
Naast; There is some uncertainty about the origin and meaning of this place name. According to the Scottish Parliament it is Nàst in Gaelic, perhaps derived from a Norse word meaning ‘boat place’. JH Dixon agrees it is from the Norse and gives an alternative spelling, Naust. Dixon goes on to state that Fäste is Norse for fortress and that its Gaelic form with the article would be Näste; that there is a knowe by the sea called Dun Naast, apparently including the Gaelic Dun, a castle.
Professor Watson goes on to give the following account; “The Nastis in 1638 ; Gaelic Nàst ; doubtful. We may compare the Irish Naas, derived from nàs, a fair ; t would easily develop. Norse naust, a boat-place, would land in Gaelic nòst, hardly nàst, unless we could suppose a change from o to a. Also Plàtach Nàst, the flat place of Naast ; and Dùn Nàst, Fort of Naast.”
Poolewe; Gaelic Poll-iù, ‘the pool on the Ewe river’; Professor Watson states that the village was called by the natives in his time Abhainn Iù, Ewe River. He also said that Ewe, Gaelic iu, he had taken, with hesitation, from Irish eo, ‘Yew Tree’, but concedes that it may in fact be a Pictish name.
Rhuadh Stac; Listed by Professor Watson and J H Dixon as Ruadh stac, meaning ‘steep hill’ or ‘red peak’.
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