A Guide to Islay Place Names and Meanings

As a first time visitor to Islay you are sometimes puzzled by the difficult place names you see on road signs or on maps. A lot of place names originate from Gaelic and others have a Norse background. Specially people from other parts of the world often have problems pronouncing Islay, Eye-la, in the proper way, let alone all the others, more difficult names. I made that same mistake as well and pronounced Islay the way it's written, which sounds rather strange. After a few visits to Islay you learn how to pronounce some of these names properly while others remain a mystery. And it's not only the pronunciation that's intriguing but also the meaning of these names. The names often refer to certain landmarks in the area nearby or have a more historical background.

For a good understanding it's important to take a closer look at Islay's history when the Vikings raided the west of Scotland around 800AD and left their marks, also on Islay. Several burial grounds from the Vikings were found and most Norse people who stayed on Islay were converted to Christianity and mixed with the local population. Some place names therefore have a Norse background and those are usually the places that end with bus, meaning farm, like Scarrabus or Persabus. Most place names on Islay however originate from Gaelic which is still spoken by almost 50 percent of the Ileach.

A couple of years ago I visited the Museum of Islay Life and found a little booklet which explained in great detail how to pronounce these difficult names and where they originate from. Suddenly the pronunciation of place names like Bunnahabhain, pronounced as Boo-na-ha-ven, and Beinn Bheigeir, pronounced as Bane-vic-ar, were no longer a mystery. Together with an explanation of the meaning of these place names the little booklet was very much fun to read and gave an interesting view in the meaning and historical background of these place names. This little book is, as far as I know, only available at the Museum of Islay Life so it's a bit hard to be well prepared with your pronunciation when you visit Islay for the first time. It's therefore that I created a new web page on the Islayinfo website with an extract of the most common Islay place names, meanings and pronunciation.