Placenames are a constant source of debate. Who was Edwin, whose name is said to live on in that of Scotland's capital city? Are the 'drum' and 'chapel' still to be found in Drumchapel? And which 'king' had a 'seat' in Kingseat in Perthshire? The answers to these and many similar questions are often not what might be expected at first sight and have their origins in many languages – including Gaelic, Pictish, Brythonic, Norse, Anglo-Saxon, Scots and Modern English – that have been spoken in Scotland. This is the essential companion to the fascinating world of Scottish placenames. It features more than 8,000 placenames, from districts, towns and villages to rivers, lochs and mountains, and also includes a comprehensive introduction and maps.

Place names act as historical and linguistic markers in the landscape and as such can tell us much about our past. There is no simple way to investigate place names and to wrest the story of their evolution from the scattered documentary sources, old maps and of course oral traditions of an area. Of course as language itself is a living, evolving creature, nothing is ever static making the job of the researcher as frustrating as it is fascinating. As the author himself comments, the study of place names is strewn with pitfalls and he engages our interest as he carefully winds his way through the maze to provide us with a comprehensively researched and fascinating little guide to the names on the island of Arran.

‘Celtic Places’ are typified by some several hundred townships and villages whose names still bear the imprint of their earliest Celtic roots, but the scope of the book is not restricted to human settlements; it is also true of the many mountains and rivers that they named, and to several thousand sites of standing stone monuments, Celtic high crosses, henges, hill figures, funeral barrows and hillforts, which are all included in the book. What they all have in common is that they reflect the rich cultural heritage that was implicit in the names of places in the British Isles and Ireland as it existed before the Romans arrived.

"Atlantic Canada" covers the provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland.

A bibliography of publications on place-names from 1920 to 1989.