Turraraich is in Dundonnell.
During the Clearances, though some communities, notably in Sutherland, were forcibly moved from the hinterland to the coast, the southern and north-eastern boundaries of the Gàidhealtachd roughly followed the geological boundary Highland Fault (figure 1). Place-names either side of the line are distinguished by their conformity or otherwise with Gaelic spelling and grammar.
Easter Knockbae (NN837254) is northwest of Crieff. A little further north lies Cnoc Beithe – Birch Hillock (NN864268). Bae is a phonetic rendering of beithe, close enough to suggest some understanding of Gaelic amongst English or Scots speakers. Nearby lies Meall Tarsuinn – Rounded Transverse Hill (NN877297), with an outlying spur to its southwest called Mull Hill (NN883284). Mull is a rough attempt at the sound of meall. These instances suggest the existence of bilingual English and Gaelic communities living close to eachother either side of the Highland line. Similarly, in Reay Parish, in the north of Caithness, Cnoc Dachow (NC965645), whose meaning is obscure, lies close to The Knowes (NC965643). Knowe is a good translation of cnoc into Scots. Within 3 kilometres, correct Gaelic can be found at Cnoc na Mòine (NC940652) - the Knowe of Peat, and Cnoc an t-Samhraidh (NC977620), the Knowe of Summer. Near Lybster in the southeast of the county lies Airigh Hill (ND212381), where Gaelic is combined with English. Whilst 6 kilometres to the north lie Àirigh Bheag (ND213438) and Àirigh Mhòr (ND220442) - the small and the large sheilings. A line drawn between Reay and Lybster defines the northeast boundary of the Gàidhealtachd and can be traced by the distribution of the generic name for field - achadh.
After the first period of its linguistic retreat, the area of Gàidhealtachd stabilised. Between the early 16th century and the third quarter of the 19th century, it remained reasonably constant, despite government retributions after the Battle of Culloden. Various reasons have been advanced for the first period of decline in the Lowlands. The relocation of the Scottish capital of what was still a Gaelic-speaking kingdom from Perth and Dunfermline to the English-speaking Lothians; the introduction of feudalism to Scotland and its use of Norman French; and the growing dominance of English as the language of trade and commerce may all have contributed to a diminished use of Gaelic. After plantations of Scots were established in Ulster, compensating infusions of pan-Gaelic literary and bardic culture from Ireland would also have been severed.
The second period of decline happened after the passing of the Education Act in 1872, when primary schooling was brought under the control of central Government and made compulsory. Previously, education had been organised by the Kirk and the SSPCK, which had by now come to encourage the use of Gaelic. Centralisation occurred just 9 years before the 1881 census. This was the first survey of its kind to pose questions about Gaelic. Whilst earlier church schools had sometimes allowed for some education in the language, the 1872 act completely ignored Gaelic. Thus ideas of advancement through learning were dissociated from the language and its culture. A wooden board (maide-crochaidh) was hung around the necks of pupils if they were caught speaking Gaelic. It became the language of the playground, if not the classroom.
Consequences of this policy in action can be seen in a letter written by the Duke of Atholl to Lord Balfour, the Secretary of State for Scotland in 1901. The Duke had been trying to encourage the use of Gaelic amongst his estate workers. He complains about the attitude of the local schools inspector.
I find that this Mr Thomson, who has inspected the schools in this neighbourhood ... does all he can to oppose and cry down the Gaelic ...
(Ó Murchú 1989 56)
In a memorandum to the Secretary of State from Sir Henry Craik, the Secretary for Education in Scotland, attempted to explain the situation.
To encourage the children at the elementary school to waste time that might be better spent, on fantastic nonsense such as this, is about as pernicious a way of spending money as his Grace could devise.
(ibid 56)
The timing of the Act, can be examined in parallel with census data, which had begun to record information about Gaelic speakers from about the same point.
Year of Census
In 1881 and 1891, Gaelic was spoken throughout the Highlands. Only in Caithness and in towns bordering the Moray Firth, along the southeastern edge of the Grampians, in south Kintyre and on the east coasts of Arran and Bute, was there less than 50% of the population speaking the language. Nearly a quarter of a million Scots spoke Gaelic in Scotland in 1891, over 6% of the population. Between 1901 and 1931 the number of Gaelic speakers declined from 230,806 (4.5% of the population) to 136,135 (2.8%). By 1951, only in the Hebrides (excepting north and east Mull), Morar, Sunart and the western margins of mainland Inverness-shire, Ross and Sutherland did a majority of people speak the language. Less than 2% of the nation’s population were now Gaelic speakers. Of the four core counties in the Gàidhealtachd, Argyll and Sutherland proved the least resilient to linguistic erosion. Given the monoglot agenda of the education authorities, it is not surprising that parents did not think it worthwhile to pass on their language to their children. ‘Gaelic will get you no further than the ferry pier’ was a common admonition in the Hebrides.
Figure 2: Gaelic Speakers in UK Census Data 1881 - 2011
The rate of decline in Gaelic speakers appears to have decelerated in recent years. The 2001 census reported 58,652 people, having fallen by 11.1% from 65,597 in 1991. In 2011, the decline had slowed to 2.2% to 57,375. This represented 1.1% of the Scottish population recorded as having some ability in the language. Half of these lived in the Outer Hebrides, Highland Region or Argyll and Bute. Gaelic has continued to decline in these core indigenous areas, but this has been partly masked by an increase of speakers in the Lowlands. In 2001, nearly 50% of Gaelic speakers lived in the cities of the Central Belt. Kenneth MacKinnon termed the new distribution ‘a Gaelic archipelago in a Lowland sea’. The 2011 census also recorded the positive result that the number of speakers under twenty years in age had increased by 0.1% - presumably as a result of the growth in Gaelic medium education. In 2005, the language was officially recognised by the Scottish Government, but unlike Welsh, Gaelic is not recognised as an official language of the United Kingdom.
The most noticeable indicator of a Gaelic revival is the erection of bilingual road and rail signs throughout much of the Highlands. To the place-name enthusiast this is manna from heaven! Many names have had their Gaelic origins revealed. What was obscure and meaningless is now accessible. Semantic revelations have strengthened a sense of place and cultural identity, which, though sourced from the past, embraces the entire Gàidhealtachd. If we did not know the Gaelic spelling of Acharacle, for example, which is Àth Tharracail, we might mistake a field (achadh) for a ford (àth), and misunderstand the reason for the siting of the settlement near the narrow outflow of Loch Shiel (Loch Seile) and the significance for settlement history that it remembers a Norseman called Torcuil.
Most of the verification of the names on the bilingual signs has been undertaken by Ainmean-Àite na h-Alba (AÀA) - Gaelic Place-names of Scotland, the national advisory partnership for Gaelic place-names, based at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig (SMO) on the Isle of Skye (An t-Eilean Sgitheanach). SMO, now part of the University of the Highlands and Islands, was initiated in the humble setting of an old stone barn by Sir Iain Noble in 1973. He had bought the estate of Fearann Eilean Iarmain in Sleat (Slèite) from the impoverished Lord MacDonald. What started as a Further Education Establishment is now the Centre for Gaelic Language and Culture in Scotland. As Noble said at the time, this was the first new institution of its kind since Columba founded Iona Abbey.
About the same time, Sir Iain provoked the beginnings of a bilingual policy on road signs. The then County of Invernesshire wished to carry
