Online Gaelic Place-Names Database

[Lianachan]

Originally Posted by PeterSandy

Note also that Timothy Pont spells the name as Lyon as he does the similarly named lake in Perth-shire. Think in terms of the French pronunciation of Lyon.
http://www.nls.uk:8080/StyleServer/c...e&plugin=false

Indeed. Even leaving aside the older pronunciation, Leamhna just doesn't seem satisfactory. Why would lochs and rivers be named after an elm tree?

On the offchance you're not aware - Colin Livingstone's paper can be seen online here.

[wullie m]

Loch a Claidhimh, in Livingstone's wee book, near the railway has, strangely, a beach at either end of different colours. wullie m

[PeterSandy]

Lianachan -
Thanks for the link to The Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness. That is an excellent resource.
Note the paper (vol. 23) about the MacDonalds of Achtriachtan (various spellings). Transactions It seems to have inspired Iain S. Macdonald to write Glencoe and Beyond - The Sheep-Farming Years, 1780-1830. (John Donald, 2005).

In 1998 a book entitled The MacDonalds of Glencoe was written and published by Alexander MacDonald, a local man. On page 13 Alexander has included a map of the Glencoe lands showing the old estate boundaries. Note that the lake in the glen is called Loch Triachtan. Local Gaelic speakers never refer to the lake as Loch Achtriochtan, a name which has wrongly appeared in modern O.S. maps, including the O.S. map in your Gazetteer of Gaelic Place-names. Ainmean-Àite na h-Alba - Gaelic Place-Names of Scotland - Mapa

To confirm the point, in a Timothy Pont map (c.1590) it is called Loch Trychardan. Cairdean is the Gaelic word for friends or relatives. Hence, presumably, the adjacent Three Sisters of Glencoe. Also, 'Try' is pronounced as 'tree' in English. Clearly, the letter y represents, for Timothy Pont, an 'ee' sound confirmed by his use of the letter y in nearby Loch Lyon (Lee'on) in the same map. http://www.nls.uk:8080/StyleServer/c...e&plugin=false

The lake is still being called Loch Triochatan in an O.S. map surveyed in 1867-72 and reprinted in 1987.

[Lianachan]

Incorrectly rendered Gaelic place names are breathtakingly common, and are the result of the way the names were collected. Sadly, it's whatever appears on maps that tends to survive. That's why early resources are so important at getting down to the proper names. The database I linked to in the opening post is purely concerned with modern Gaelic names, whether they are historically accurate (or relevant) or not, so it will repeat those errors.

[PeterSandy]

Lianachan -

True!