SPNS Autumn Conference 2025 – 8 November 2025 – Online, via Zoom

‘Mountains on Roy’s maps.’
Dr Peter Drummond, SPNS

The recent NLS project in which names mapped by Roy’s 1750s survey were transcribed, and linked to an OS 1st edition mapped name, allowed me to examine the status of mountain names in Roy’s maps. In particular looking at which hills were selected to be mapped with a name, and what the project tells us about the apparent high degree of name-change and loss over time.

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‘Let’s Talk about Field-work: Some Observations from a Swiss Place-Names Project’
Dr Sarah Künzler, Luzerner Namenbuch Projekt

Luzerner Namenbuch is a Swiss research centre that collects, studies, and publishes the current and historical place-names of the Swiss canton of Lucerne. Its current project (2025- 2032) focuses primarily on field-work in the two geographical areas not yet covered by our previous publications (Willisau and Sursee). The paper presents this work in progress and shares our experiences of conducting oral interviews. It also briefly explores methodological thoughts on semi-structured interviews, engaging with ideas proposed in a Scottish context (Burns 2020). As such, the paper hopes to instigate a discussion on the importance of, and the difficulties associated with, toponomastic field-work.

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‘The ghost of something big’: spaces and places in medieval Orkney’
Sarah Jane Gibbon, University of the Highlands and Islands (Orkney)

As an historical landscape archaeologist, over the past twenty-five years, place names have formed a vital resource in my toolkit.  From castles to churches, settlements to saints, tings to trade each topic involved researching place-name evidence to better understand past societies.  This paper will present some ideas that have formed during this research concerning high-status medieval settlement form and change (focussing on bœr, bú, skáli, hus and Stove names) and particularly drawing on the work of William P L Thomson from whom the title quote is taken.

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‘Differentiating Gaelic place-name elements for ‘point, promontory’ ‘
Rebecca Madlener, University of the Highlands and Islands (SMO)

Gaelic place-names are rich in vocabulary that refers to a wide variety of landscape features. English translation equivalents often do not do justice to the semantic nuances expressed by Gaelic terms. For instance, there is a number of terms that can be translated as ‘point, promontory’ when applied to coastal landscape features (e.g. àird, corran, gob, rubha, sròn). However, it is unlikely that they all refer to the exact same kind of landscape feature as that would be linguistically redundant. Valuable information about the semantic differences between these place-name elements can be gained from close study of the physical reality of the features they are applied to, as well as the specifying elements that are frequently combined with them.

This paper will present preliminary findings on the differentiation of Gaelic place-name elements for ‘point, promontory’ based on a study of place-names and landscape features on the Isle of Skye. This will provide new insight into the semantic differences expressed by the terms and the motivations for their choice in naming a given landscape feature within the study area.

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Place names along the Golden Road, Harris
Mark Maudsley, Ainmean-Àite na h-Alba 

The places along the Golden Road have a mixture of Gaelic, Norse, and English names, and this reflects the history of the area. Until the eighteenth century there was very little permanent population in this area, though it was used for summer grazing, and fishing in the relatively sheltered waters on the east side, by people who lived on the more fertile west coast. Large natural features, particularly ones that can be seen from the sea, tend to have names of Norse origin, and there are Norse settlement names at the north and south ends of the road.  

In 1779 the land was bought by Captain Alasdair MacLeod, who encouraged the development of the fishing industry on the east coast, and people were living in the area throughout the year as a result of this. Following the death of Captain MacLeod in 1790, the fishing declined, but there was another influx of population between 1828 and 1839 when the west coast was cleared. Many of the people went to Canada and Australia, but some went to live on the rocky and infertile east coast. Thus there are many Gaelic names along the course of the Golden Road, as the area was developed by the predominantly Gaelic-speaking population, who were living year-round in the area, and who became familiar with features on the land and along the coast.  

The Golden Road itself developed over a long period. One source suggests that it was completed in 1897, but it would have been a path rather than a road at that time, and I spoke with people from Harris who remember family members working on grading and tarmacing the road in the 1950s. The established population today, some of whom are native Gaelic speakers, will call this road “the Golden Road”, in English, even when speaking Gaelic; there isn’t a Gaelic name for the road, reflecting the influence of English on the area in time when the road was developed. 

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‘Telling Stories: The Ragna Islands Project’
Corinna Rayner University of Nottingham

A significant part of the Ragna’s Islands project was researching not only the place-names of The Saga of the Earl’s of Orkney, but also those of the three islands of Papay, North Ronaldsay and Fair Isle. Two of the outputs were the place-names database and a set of oral history recordings with islanders. The participants in the recordings included farmers, fishers, teachers, builders and more, and they were asked about their places, how their names are pronounced, stories about those places, lost places, place-name changes and new names – information not readily found anywhere but on those islands and with islanders. This talk will introduce you to some of the islanders and the place-names they talk about.

Corinna is a PhD student at the University of Nottingham working on the place-names of Orkney (including Eday, Rousay, Egilsay, Wyre and Stronsay) and was a member of the recently completed AHRC funded Ragna’s Islands project team working on the place-names of The Saga of the Earl’s of Orkney and the three north isles of Papa Westray, North Ronaldsay and Fair Isle.

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‘Kincurdy, Cuthilcurdy, Hill o’ Hirdie: The Scotticisation of an eighth-century saint?’
Fiona Campbell-Howes, The University of Glasgow

The area around Rosemarkie on the Black Isle has long been noted as a cult centre for St Curetán, a bishop who is reliably attested as being active in the Moray Firthlands around the turn of the eighth century. Three Black Isle place-names appear to preserve his name in Scotticised form: Kincurdy, Cuthilcurdy and Hill o’ Hirdie, suggesting that his cult survived into the late Middle Ages or later. This paper will examine whether these names do contain Scotticisations of Curetán, and what they can tell us about the longevity of Curetán’s cult.