Place-names

Place-names: Spinningdale

Gaelic, Norse, Brittonic? A look into the history and origins of placenames around our area. Viking names around the Kyle of Sutherland

Silvia Muras

10 Dec 2019 — 1 min read

Gaelic, Norse, Brittonic? A look into the history and origins of placenames around our area.

According to the Old-lore miscellany of Orkney Shetland Caithness and Sutherland, Vol II, 1909, Spinningdale is of Scandinavian origin, Spenja-dalr, 'attractive dale'. From Spöng, spangar, a plot of ground, and Dalr, valley. It has nothing to do with Mr Dempster's spinning factory destroyed by fire in 1809. The Statistical Account states that the village and cotton manufactory were stablished there in the late 1700s.

Another name of Viking origin is Swordale, from Old Norse Sigurðar-dalr, 'Sigurd's valley'. The name may be related to Sigurd Eysteinsson or Sigurd the Mighty (d 892), which according to the Orkneyinga saga is buried in a mound on the bank of the river Oykel, probably Sidera, or Sigurðar-haugr (Sigurd's tomb) now known as Cyderhall farm near Dornoch.

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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

Gaelic, Norse, Brittonic? A look into the history and origins of placenames around our area.

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Is the current planning system for renewables sidelining communities?

Kyle Chronicle #23

Community meeting with Maree Todd to discuss concerns over more renewable developments in the area

Out-of-place names