It was tragic to hear about the tragic deaths of seven young people in two seperate avalanches recently, one on the slopes of Bidean nam Bian, in Glencoe, on the 19/01/2013, and the other in the Cairngorms, at The Chalamain Gap, near The Lairig Ghru on the 14/02/2013.These were no inexperienced tourists, but experienced mountaineers, amongst them,two female medical doctors and two R.A.F. Personnel.
There is also a forum, SWAP, (Scots Words and Place-Names), link to the Scottish Place Name Society at www.facebook.com/scotswap I attended the initial conference at The University of St, Andrews on the 17-Feb-1996, with my brother, Alasdair, and the Society was founded that very night, and has gone from strength to strength. Readers might also be interested that there is a Ainmean-Aite na-Alba ,Gaelic place-names of Scotland, the national advisory board for researching Gaelic forms of place-names in Scotland, AAA's research is being uploaded to the National Gazateer of Gaelic Place Names, a free online database available on www.ainmean-aite.org ,which has over a 1,000 entries at the moment, with links to digital maps, and sound files to aid pronunciation.
