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Shetland Place names


Njugle
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Beorg = rocky escarpment

 

Lake names ending in -water are still common in Shetland but the Scots term loch has gradually replaced water for the larger lakes (thanks to the OS) often making the name nonsensical, e.g. Loch of Gossawater. Today only two lakes remain with the ending vatn, Sandvatn and Virdavatn (o.n. varδa - a cairn on a hilltop) and just a few streams without the burn appendage e.g. Bretto (from o.n. brattr - steep and á - a river, n.p. o - a stream).

extract above from

http://www.chooseshetland.com/shetland-introduction/whats-in-a-name/

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Oh, and just one other point but you don't split the nanes as in your post Colla Firth.

 

It's all one name Collafirth and interestingly in Faroe there's Kollafjorðr.

 

Oops, one final point. Despite the aniallation of our place-names by the Ordinance Survey the name Beorgs should probably be Bjorgs and what you'll find tonnes of is the name(written wrongly) "geo" as in a coastal ravine which comes from the old norse Gjá and again should be written as "Gjo".

 

:D

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:oops: well the spellings I've used are either from of OS maps, which are obviously evil creations :wink: , or from Shetlopedia but I must admit to getting mixed up myself as there is Colla Firth (as in the Firth) as well as Collafirth...., just as there is Quey Firth and Queyfirth as in Loch of Queyfirth and Ness of Queyfirth.

 

Youse aren't the first to tell me that the OS and Scotts are responsible for all the wrong names of places :lol:

 

Bit of a steep learning curve here with language and origins :lol:

 

Any advance on Brogs? Or any other geographic descriptors?

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^^ Shetlopedia I believe chose to use OS terms to facilitate ease of finding locations, and in the interests of consistency.

 

Unfortunately few Shetland place names haven't been corrupted by the Scots and/or the OS in some way or another, and have been allowed to stand uncorrected in "official" literature for a considerable period of time, so there really wasn't much choice.

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Oh, and just one other point but you don't split the nanes as in your post Colla Firth.

:D

 

There is a convention used on maps – a place e.g. a village like Hamnavoe is spelt as one word where as a geographical area such as Hamna Voe is spelt as two words.

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There is a convention used on maps – a place e.g. a village like Hamnavoe is spelt as one word where as a geographical area such as Hamna Voe is spelt as two words.

More or less but you can not trust in the fact that Ordnance Survey keeps its own 'rules':

Hamnavoe - settlement in Esha Ness

Hamna Voe - inshore water close by

but

Hamnavoe - inshore water Orkney (Stromness) and elsewhere

 

Not sure about the actual situation in Shetland but for other parts of Scotland there was an agreement between Ordnance Survey, local authorities, Historic Scotland and others involved some years ago to use the old traditional spellings for certain place names again. I remember the return to the written form of 'Brodgar' instead of 'Brogar' although the letter 'd' ist not spoken locally. That was two or three years before in Shetland the 'norse' place name of Veensgarth was explained & signposted along the road ... second half of the 1980s or so.

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Just to muddy the waters a little more, here's a pic looking south into the Loomi Shun that Njugle mentions on the previous page - complete with oily loom and (although you probably can't make it out at this resolution) a raingös at the far side.

 

http://i700.photobucket.com/albums/ww2/rasmie/Tingon017.jpg

 

Both seem to be perfectly good explanations as to the origin of the name. I'd always thought it was the to do with the oily loom appearance but only because I didn't know that "lom" was norwegian for raingös until Dagfinn's post.

Yes, and ref. Bobby Tulloch's description:

 

The name 'Rain Gös' is used in Shetland today, but judging by the number of small lochs called 'Loomi Shun' (Diver tarn) the Norse name was in former use. Fairly common breeding summer visitor.

 

http://www.bobbytulloch.com/image.php?id=103&categ=9

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