Place-names – Scotland – By Area (Regional Digital Toponymic Resources Organised by Pre-1975 Counties + Glasgow)

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Compiled by Simon Taylor, with help from Liz Curtis, Jake King, Peadar Morgan and Eila Williamson (31 12 20)

Note: inclusion of a website in this list is no guarantee for reliability or accuracy.


ARGYLL

ARDNAMURCHAN and SUNART

  • see under Moidart, Inverness-shire.

TIREE

  • Tiree Place Names Click Here
  • Longships on the Sand by John Holliday (2nd edn.), an analysis of medieval place-names on the island of Tiree. Click Here

COLONSAY & ORONSAY

  • King, Jacob, with Eilidh Sgaimeal, n.d. [2017], Gaelic in the Landscape: Place-names of Colonsay and Oronsay / Gàidhlig air Aghaidh na Tìre: Ainmean-àite Cholbhasa agus Orasa ((Scottish Natural Heritage/Dualchas Nàdair na h-Alba and Ainmean-Àite na h-Alba/Gaelic Place-Names of Scotland) available free online on 188651876.23.pdf (nls.uk) [09 03]

ISLAY & JURA

  • King, Jacob, and Cotter, Michelle, n.d., Gaelic in the Landscape: Place-names in Islay and Jura/ Gàidhlig air Aghaidh na Tìre: Ainmean-àite ann an Ìle agus Diùra (Scottish Natural Heritage/Dualchas Nàdair na h-Alba and Ainmean-Àite na h-Alba/Gaelic Place-Names of Scotland) available free online on 216547541.23.pdf (nls.uk) [09 23]

AYRSHIRE

BERWICKSHIRE

  • The Berwickshire Place-Name Resource: by Carole Hough, Simon Taylor and Eila Williamson. Website and database constructed by Brian Aitken.
    Click Here

Partly Berwickshire, partly East Lothian

  • Place-names near the Whiteadder Water: messages from the past by Liz Curtis
    Click Here

CAITHNESS

DUNBARTONSHIRE

  • WEST DUNBARTONSHIRE. From the Introduction: ‘The source of some of the information is John Irving’s “Place Names of Dumbartonshire” (1928). He was not a linguist, and some of his derivations, particularly the Gaelic ones, may not be accurate.’
    Found at Place Names of West Dunbartonshire | West Dunbartonshire Council (west-dunbarton.gov.uk)
    Click Here

EAST LOTHIAN

Partly Berwickshire, partly East Lothian

  • Place-names near the Whiteadder Water: messages from the past by Liz Curtis
    Click Here

FIFE

  • Fife Place-Name Data by Simon Taylor with Gilbert Márkus. Website and database constructed by Brian Aitken
    Click Here

GLASGOW

  • Glaschu website: ‘A GROWING RECORD OF GAELIC IN GLASGOW TO GIVE A VISUAL SNAPSHOT OF WHAT GAELIC, PAST AND PRESENT, LOOKS LIKE IN THE CITY’. Includes sections on place-names of Gaelic origin or mediated by Gaelic-speakers, by Alasdair Whyte
    Click Here
  • Glasgow Place-Names by Simon Taylor (titled unhelpfully ‘Neighbourhoods’). Early 2000s.
    Click Here

INVERNESS-SHIRE

KIRKCUDBRIGHTSHIRE

  • BORGUE PLACE-NAMES VIDEOS by Calum Ansell and Alan McClure.
    Click Here
  • GALLOWAY GLENS Place-Name Database (parishes of Balmaclellan, Balmaghie Carsphairn, Crossmichael, Dalry, Kells and Parton) by Gilbert Márkus with Thomas Clancy and Simon Taylor. Part of the Heritage Lottery Funded ‘Galloway Glens Landscape Partnership’, in collaboration with the University of Glasgow. Note that this website also includes a series of blog-posts by Gilbert Márkus and Thomas Clancy on individual names and elements in Galloway place-names.
    Click Here

GATEHOUSE OF FLEET

  • Gatehouse and District Place Names/Old Maps & Place Names
    Click Here

Under this heading there are sections on:

Street Names
Place names: old & new
Place Names: linguistic origins, by Alan James
Farms & Field Names.

LANARKSHIRE

  • LESMAHAGOW Place Names Database: a ‘gazetteer developed by Dennis White, Michael Gaffney and Chris Fleet as a means of exploring and presenting historical place names of the Old Parish of Lesmahagow over time.’
    Click Here


NORTH-WEST HIGHLANDS

  • Scottish Northwest Highland Place Names – Part of a website created by Gordon C. Harrison, the place-name pages focus on Wester Ross but cover place-names of Gaelic origin more generally in the north-west, with links to digital versions of important texts such as W. J. Watson’s Place-Names of Ross and Cromarty (1904).
    Click Here

 
PERTHSHIRE

  • SOUTH-EAST PERTHSHIRE including Alyth, Blairgowrie, Glenshee, Kirkmichael and Kirkton of Glen Isla.
    Click Here

5 substantial Place-Name Booklets for the Cateran Trail by Peter McNiven

They are not easy to find. Go to ‘2017 Programme’ then scroll down.

CALLANDER (Menteith)

  • Detailed survey of the place-names of Callander by Peter McNiven
    Click Here

STRATHEARN

  • Detailed survey of the place-names of the parishes of Auchterarder, Dunning and Glendevon by Peter McNiven 2016. Part of the SERF [‘Strathearn Environs and Royal Forteviot’] Project.
    Click Here

The interdisciplinary report for which this survey was compiled is ‘Interdisciplinary approaches to a connected landscape: upland survey in the Northern Ochils’, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 148, pp. 83-111 (Given et al. 2019).
Click Here

ROSS & CROMARTY

  • The APPLECROSS Placenames Project
    Click Here
  • LOCH TORRIDON Placenames: a collection of Gaelic placenames, including their locations, translations, photographs and stories by Murdoch MacDonald, Donald MacDonald and Alice MacLennan.
    Click Here
  • COIGEACH Gazetteer. Donald MacDonald-Ross.
    Click Here

See also NORTH-WEST HIGHLANDS

SHETLAND

SUTHERLAND

ASSYNT