Place-name pronunciation of snow-patch sites in the Cairngorms

I make no claim of research in this short post. Pronunciation of the names listed below were gathered by my friend and colleague Adam Watson, widely recognised as the preeminent authority on the Cairngorms. Over the decades Adam has spoken to many local folk — some being the last indigenous Gaelic speakers in the area — and noted pronunciations which, for many geographical features, have either fallen out of use, or are in the the last throes of it.

This is from Adam himself, transcribed from a talk he gave recently at Glenshee ski centre:

‘One of the problems with names here, and in other parts of Scotland, was the Ordnance Survey engineers tended to ask the local minister or schoolmaster, or the general practitioner, what the names where. It was a kind of snobbery in the 1860s, where you didn’t ask the crofter or the deer-stalker, but rather the so-called educated folk. So, you didn’t get an accurate picture, and they didn’t check them (the names) against local indigenous folk. Because in this area (Braemar), in the 1860s, the Gaelic language was widespread. It died out in Braemar in the 1970s, when I interviewed the last speaker. She had been brought up speaking nothing but Gaelic, at Inverey.’

To the non-Gaelic speaker like myself, the language can often seem impenetrable, and also counter-intuitive. In fact Gaelic is fairly consistent compared to English. However, its pronunciation can leave non-speakers totally flummoxed. This is as true for Scots as it is for people in the rest of the UK. In fact, some of the worst Gaelic pronunciations I’ve heard have been from Scots!

There are now very few people left alive who can utter most of the Gaelic names in the Cairngorms as they used to be heard. It is thanks to the far-sightedness* of Adam that many of these names have been preserved.

The very brief list below gives the Gaelic name of best known long-lying snow patch sites in the Cairngorms, followed by an approximate phonetic pronunciation of how it sounds, as well as its English meaning. Stress of syllables is indicated by upper-case letters. A map location is given at the end.

Coire Bhrochain — corVROCHan. Corrie of the porridge. Location.

Coire Cas (Coire Chaish) — corCAs. Corrie of the steepness, or difficulty. Location.

Coire na Ciste — cornaKEESHT. Corrie of the chest. Location.

Coire Domhain — corDOHwain. Deep corrie. Location

Coire an Lochain — cornLOCHan. Corrie of the small loch. Location.

Ciste Mhearad — keesht-MEHRat. Margaret’s coffin (or box-shaped hollow). Location.

Coire an t-Sneachda — corn-TREHchki. Corrie of the snow. Location.

Feith Buidhe — feBOOee. Yellow bog-stream. Location.

Garbh Choire Mór — garachorMORE. Big, rough corrie. Location.

Garbh Uisge Beag, Garbh Uisge Mor — garOOSHKbeg, garOOSHKmore. Little rough water, big rough water. Location, location.

*The three books published by Adam Watson which deal with this subject are

• The place names of Upper Deeside. 1984. Aberdeen University Press.
• Place name discoveries — Upper Deeside and the far Highlands. 2015. Paragon Publishing
• Place names in much or north-east Scotland. 2013. Paragon Publishing.