Out-of-place names

Gaelic, Norse, Brittonic? A look into the history 
and origins of place names in and around our area

The Munros of Culrain renamed the estate of Carbisdale (from Balinoe to Ochtow) after the estate of Culrain in the parish of Rosskeen, which in turn had been given that name after Coleraine in Ireland, of which one of their ancestors had been the governor. The name comes from the Irish Cùil Raithin, meaning ‘nook of the ferns’.

Another incongruence would be the name Ardgay, from the Gaelic Àird Ghaoithe meaning ‘high wind’, belonging to a village which is neither high or particularly windy. After the building of the first Bonar Bridge, many people travelling that road stopped at the hotel on the Ross-shire side. The place grew until it became a village, taking its name from a nearby hill.

And not a name but a number, the Struie Road B9176 is completely out of area. This road in zone 8 was originally B864, then it became A836 until 1991, when the A9 was rerouted across the Dornoch Firth Bridge and the Struie Road was downgraded and given its present, out-of-zone number.