Prof Elizabeth FitzPatrick of NUI Galway has carried out a detailed study of formaoil (early formáel) names in Ireland, appearing in 35 townland names[1]. It refers to hunting grounds, in some cases identifiable as preserves of early medieval kingdoms and … Continue reading “FORMAOIL IN SCOTLAND (Bill Patterson)” →
This paper was the culmination of research and fieldwork undertaken for my PhD ‘Breaking old and new ground: a comparative study of coastal and inland naming in Berwickshire’ at Glasgow University and for the Masters in Landscape Architecture programme at … Continue reading “BOATS, BATTERIES, AND BARRICADES: SOME WAYS WATER INFLUENCES OUR PERCEPTIONS OF PLACE (Leonie Dunlop)” →
The focus of this paper was on place-names with a literary connection that can be found among the corpus of Berwickshire place-names being surveyed by the Recovering the Earliest English Language in Scotland: Evidence from Place-Names project. Before looking more … Continue reading “LANGUAGE, LITERATURE AND PLACE-NAMES (Eila Williamson)” →
Bragar and Arnol Community Trust / Urras Coimhearsnachd Bhràdhagair agus Àrnoil has published a wonderfully detailed map of the place-names of its part of Lewis, a labour of love by Anne Campbell, with contributions from many others, over several years. … Continue reading “Dealbh-Dùthcha – Ainmean-Àite Bhràdhagair agus Àrnoil” →
From ‘Lammin Snaw’ by Angus Watson The snell lammin snaw Fummles at the pin Huvvers at the keyhole But ye’re no in. Toom the hoosie lies Saft the stour faws In the muir a ewe tyauves Fer the hoodie craws. … Continue reading “DR ANGUS WATSON, 1937-2017 – AN APPRECIATION BY SIMON TAYLOR” →
In 2009, two place-name debates hit the headlines on opposite sides of the world. In New Zealand, residents of Wanganui, on the west coast of New Zealand’s lower North Island, debated whether the town’s name should be spelled with an … Continue reading “USES OF THE PAST IN PLACE-NAME DEBATES: CASE STUDIES FROM NEW ZEALAND AND NORTHERN IRELAND (Ewan Morris)” →
The name of the talk was taken from the title of the 1999 article by A. A. M. Duncan: ‘Yes, The Earliest Scottish Charters’, Scottish Historical Review 78 (1), 1–38. One of the shoutiest titles of any piece of academic … Continue reading “‘YES, SOME OF THE EARLIEST RECORDED SCOTTISH PLACE-NAMES’ (Simon Taylor)” →
