Lost in translation
There are so many place names in Scotland that have similar prefixes which come from the Gaelic, the ancient Scots language. But what do they mean? For example Aberdeen, Aberlour and Aberfeldy all have the prefix “Aber”, which means mouth of a river. There are over 300 place-names with the prefix of “Pit”, which refers to a location where there were old Pictish sites and this includes the popular tourist village of today, Pitlochry.
So the next time you are thinking about a Scottish name and wondering what the prefix “Ard”, “Ken”, “Kin” or “Craig” signifies. It is in Gaelic and has a literal translation relating to the distinctive feature of the land.
By staying at this delightful walled garden cottage in the Highlands you will be passing through many historic towns and villages where you can discover more about their origins and their meaning.
June 5th, 2010 at 9:41 am
Hi, I just stumbled upon your blog (again!) so this time I thought’d I’d say thanks for the awesome site! Keep it up!