But to affirm, on the other hand, that ‘far beyond the accepted Norse invasion of the early ninth century there is abundant evidence to show that the Norseman was a considerable factor in the historic dawn of the Western Isles and the West Highlands of Scotland’ is, to put it mildly, a bold utterance. Dr. Gillies does not produce a scrap of such evidence, nor does he tell us where it is to be found. Argyll and the Isles were, through the Dalriadic settlement and especially through the mission of St. Columba, brought into closest contact with Ireland. We know, in consequence, more of the early history of that district than of any other in Scotland. But the Annalists heard not a whisper of Norsemen being in these parts before 794 A.D. There is not a Norse name of person or place found in a book written by a Gael before the year 800 A.D. Accordingly, or at any rate until positive evidence to the contrary is furnished, we may with confidence rule out as non-Norse all names in such works as the Vita Columbae. Further with respect to the interpretations offered of the names of the islands, most of which are Norse with terminal -ey, ‘island,’ a syllable now sounded in the North Isles -aï, but in Argyll open a, we may at once dismiss as valueless all Dr. Gillies’s speculations regarding the meaning of Ile, Muile, Coll’asa, Colla, and Eige, all of which have the dull sound of the final vowel.
To the same cast of mind which strains after the picturesque and the original, but which frequently lands in the grotesque, must be due such explanations as are given e.g. of Davaar, Dr. Gillies hears of the island showing two ‘summits’ or bàrrs from seaward, but would prefer, if he could find them, two bàrrs, not on the island itself but within view from it on mainland Kintyre. He finds there, however, only one—Barraskomill—and dismisses the subject with the observation, ‘whether it (the second bàrr) is there, or was there in the past but not now, I am not able to say.’ Dr. Gillies does not know that the isle was formerly called ‘Sanct Barre’ (Orig. Par., II. (I.) p. 12), which would suggest do (thy) B(h)àrr as the meaning. One other example, out of several, must suffice. Etive is derived from ét, ‘cattle,’ for the following reason: ‘My defence of this interpretation, or rather my great witness, is that the grand Buachaill-étive, “the herdsman of Etive,” is there looking after his cattle in the fine valley below,’ to which is added, evidently in forgetfulness of the previous sentence: ‘The name comes, as is almost always the case, from the river.’ Are we to suppose also that the rocks and gulls and seals of our western shores, for whom the fancy of the Gael has provided so many buachaills, must have their names interpreted as meaning ‘cattle’ coming from ‘a river’ ?
The plan of the work, taking the various districts of the county and islands separately, and treating a number of names, selected more or less at random from the Ordnance Survey Sheets, under several headings has much to recommend it, especially from the point of view of the author, but the complicated arrangement is undoubtedly responsible for a large amount of the overlapping and repetition which abound. Explanations and expositions given in the Introduction and preliminary chapters are too often repeated
