Most of the mountain and hill-names are in Gaelic because until recently all of the Highlands was Gaelic -speaking My father attended Kingussie High School in Strathspey in the early 1930's. He boarded there term time, because he could not afford to go home to the Isle of Harris at the weekends He said that all local people aged 30 or over were native Gaelic speakers.We know that Gaelic was spoken in Luss, Loch Lomond until the late 19th. Century by everyone.
Therefore the Ordnance Survey cartographers in the late 19th and early 20th. centuries would have been able to record the local's place-names, but not correct spelling,(i.e. Rhum. ). In the Western Isles the Gaelic or Gaelicised -Norse names were corrupted into English spellings-( Steornabhagh became Stornoway, and Drinisiadar became Drinishader ). Gleann Mór Albainn, became Glen More, or even worse, The Great Glen. Some of the peaks in The Cairngorms, correctly, Am Monadh Ruadh, for example, Sgor an Lochain Uaine, 4,128 ft., ( now a Munro),NN954976, became "The Angels Peak", which has nothing to do with the Gaelic name, meaning, Sharp peak of the green lochan,( small loch)-corrie. At lest some corrections have been made by the O.S- Ben Attow has returned to Beinn Fhada, and Ben Sgriol > Beinn Sgritheall. The second part of the name comes from the Old Norse for scree which she has on her steep slopes from Loch Hourn, ( my first Munro, in 1962, aged 9 yrs.).
There is no such name as The Grampions. The mountains are Am Monadh Ruadh, Am Monadh Liath. the Red Mountains and the Grey Mountains respectively Some Classicists borrowed it from The Battle of Mons Grapius in AD 84 between The Caledonians,( The Picts ), and the invading Romans.Some older maps have the awful Cuillin Hills. The Cuillin are not hills, and the term should be in the singular, meaning the whole ridge, as its Norse name denotes. A Times Atlas I own has the awful, Mount Clisham in The Isle of Harris.
An Cliseam ,The Clisham always has the definite article in Gaelic and English. The Norse named it"Klifshamra".
Therefore the Ordnance Survey cartographers in the late 19th and early 20th. centuries would have been able to record the local's place-names, but not correct spelling,(i.e. Rhum. ). In the Western Isles the Gaelic or Gaelicised -Norse names were corrupted into English spellings-( Steornabhagh became Stornoway, and Drinisiadar became Drinishader ). Gleann Mór Albainn, became Glen More, or even worse, The Great Glen. Some of the peaks in The Cairngorms, correctly, Am Monadh Ruadh, for example, Sgor an Lochain Uaine, 4,128 ft., ( now a Munro),NN954976, became "The Angels Peak", which has nothing to do with the Gaelic name, meaning, Sharp peak of the green lochan,( small loch)-corrie. At lest some corrections have been made by the O.S- Ben Attow has returned to Beinn Fhada, and Ben Sgriol > Beinn Sgritheall. The second part of the name comes from the Old Norse for scree which she has on her steep slopes from Loch Hourn, ( my first Munro, in 1962, aged 9 yrs.).
There is no such name as The Grampions. The mountains are Am Monadh Ruadh, Am Monadh Liath. the Red Mountains and the Grey Mountains respectively Some Classicists borrowed it from The Battle of Mons Grapius in AD 84 between The Caledonians,( The Picts ), and the invading Romans.Some older maps have the awful Cuillin Hills. The Cuillin are not hills, and the term should be in the singular, meaning the whole ridge, as its Norse name denotes. A Times Atlas I own has the awful, Mount Clisham in The Isle of Harris.
An Cliseam ,The Clisham always has the definite article in Gaelic and English. The Norse named it"Klifshamra".
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