Celtic Place-Name Explainer
See what Irish, Welsh, Scottish Gaelic, Cornish, Breton and Manx place names mean, how to say them, and where they are.
51 place names
“green hollow”, from an early British language
from a Pictish word for “bush, thicket”
probably from a Celtic word for “piglet”
“mouth of the River Ness”
from a Pictish word aber, “confluence”, and the River Don
“loch of the (River) Ness”, its main outflow
often read as “good fort”, from dùn “fort”; the second part is disputed and may be the personal name Daig
said to come from Fib, one of the seven sons of the legendary Pictish king Cruithne; it may instead be linked to Uip, a name in the Pictish king lists
likely from old words for “stream” and “pool”
“Ì of Saint Columba”
the first part is dùn “fort”; the rest is of uncertain origin
“clay bay”, from Old Norse Leirvík
“fort of the thicket”
“rudder bay”, from Old Norse Stjórnavágr
“little bay”
“church bay”: Kirkwall comes from Old Norse Kirkjuvágr
“place of Caled’s fort”
from Celtic words for “sea” and “settlement”
“coastland of the Gaels”, from Old Irish airer Goídel, “border region” or “coast” of the Gaels
“blue-green cairn”; the Cairngorms range takes its name from this mountain
“fort of the Britons”
perhaps “Saint Finbar’s island”
“king’s port”, or possibly “port of the flat land at the foot of a hill”
“(among the) foreign Gaels”, a term for Gaelic-speaking Norse settlers
“fat promontory”
possibly “Tyr’s abode”, from Old Norse Týrvist; it is also read as tìr “land” and iodh “corn”
from a British word for “tent, temporary settlement”
“headland”
“the red valley”
“short loch”
“pimple”
from Old British rhyn frwd, “point at the current”
“Erik’s island”, from Old Norse Eiríksey
from long “ship”
“nose of the fairy hill”
“town of the strait”
“animal island”, from Old Norse Dýrey
Keith probably comes from a Pictish word for “wood”
probably from Old Norse herað, “district”
possibly “little Ireland”
“mouth of the River Garry”
“foaming lake”
“valley of the River Coe”
“big head”
“cod bay”, from Old Norse
“the garrison”
“Mary’s well”
“large enclosure”
Common place-name elements
Many names are built from a few common words. Pick one to see every place that uses it.
- dùn · fort, fortress (4)
- loch · lake, loch (3)
- ceann · head, end (2)
- gleann · glen, valley (2)
- inbhir · mouth of a river, estuary (2)
- mòr · big, large, great (2)
- sròn · nose; promontory, point (2)
- baile · village, town (1)
- bàn · white, pale, fair (1)
- càrn · cairn (1)
- eaglais · church (1)
- lios · garden; enclosure; fortified place (1)
- muileann · mill (1)
- port · port, harbour (1)
- ruadh · red (1)
- tobar · well, spring (1)
Go deeper than the map
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Meanings and glosses are adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0) and the other sources cited on each page. Map and area data © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).