List of Iona place-names beginning with 'T'
Taigh an Easbuig | Bishop’s House
Kilfinichen & Kilvickeon (KKV), Iona (IOX)
Classification: Antiquity, Ecclesiastical
Grid reference: NM2872524571
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 16m
Elements: G taigh + G an + G easbaig
Translation: 'bishop's house'
Description:
The ruined building of this name stands about 30m north of the abbey buildings, on the far side of Sruth a’ Mhuilinn. The abbacy of Iona was granted to the Bishop of the Isles ‘in commendam’ in 1499, when John Campbell became commendator of the monastery in addition to being Bishop, but Taigh an Easbuig is certainly not as old as that. There was a later attempt to restore the abbey church as an episcopal see, and Neil Campbell held it, though not without resistance from the MacLeans of Duart who sought re-assert their rights in the island in the 1630s. It is possible that Taigh an Easbuig dates from this seventeenth-century period (Argyll 4, 252; Collectanea, 185).
Taigh nan Gall
Kilfinichen & Kilvickeon (KKV), Iona (IOX)
Classification: Antiquity, Settlement
Grid reference: NM2685121857
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 18m
Elements: G taigh + G an + G gall
Translation: ‘house of the foreigners’
Description:
One of the names used locally to refer to the accommodation quarters housing the workers at The Marble Quarry in the late 18th century, some of whom were brought in from the Lowlands, hence the name. The feature is also known as Tobhta nan Sasannach, for which see entry. David Viner’s (1992, p. 14) survey revealed the remains of two buildings, but one of them can be dated to the early 20th century and only the concrete foundation walls remain. The ruins of Taigh nan Gall are still visible (see image).
Presumably, the use of the element tobhta ‘ruins’ in Tobhta nan Sasannach implies that it replaced this name after operations at the quarry were discontinued. It is worth noting that these names are not recorded in historical accounts of the quarry, or on any maps, and appear to have only been used locally.
Peadar Morgan (2013, p. 238) has proposed that the nearby hillock of Cnoc Mòr nan Gall (for which see entry) has derived its name from this feature.
Teampall Odhrain | St Oran’s Chapel
Kilfinichen & Kilvickeon (KKV), Iona (IOX)
Classification: Antiquity, Ecclesiastical
Grid reference: NM2858624451
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 21m
Elements: G teampall + pn Odhran ~ Oran (St)
Translation: ‘Church or chapel of [Saint] Odhran’
Description:
The earliest references to this building are found in Latin sources where it appears as ecclesia, basilica or capella. It is impossible to know from these references what Gaelic word was used for the place locally, which these terms translate. It might have been cill, by far the most common medieval word for a church or chapel in Scottish Gaelic, or perhaps teampall (derived from Latin templum) as the eighteenth-century forms of the name give in the Book of Clanranald. The use of the word teampall for churches in Scottish Gaelic place-names is more or less restricted to the Hebrides, and its appearance may be fairly late – there are few if any teampall place-names recorded before the eighteenth century, and in some cases it is known that a church called teampall was earlier referred to as a cill.[1] (There are several earlier place-names containing Sc temple, with distribution on the Scottish mainland, but these names refer to the possession of properties by the Knights Templar, which is a very different kind of name.)
Teampall Odhrain as it now stands contains sections which appear to have been built in the twelfth century, with some later parts dating perhaps to the thirteenth century (RCAHMS Argyll 4, 249). It stands, however, in the burial-ground of Reilig Odhrain where several early medieval carved stones have been found, suggesting that the present building (perhaps built as a family mausoleum by Raghnall son of Somerled, king of the Isles) may be on the site of a now vanished earlier church building.
There is a strange story about Saint Odrhan which first appears in the twelfth century Irish Life of Columba (Betha Coluim Cille), probably written in Derry. In that story Columba and his companions have just arrived on Iona and are about to found a monastery when Columba declares that ‘Someone among you should go down into the soil of the island to consecrate it.’ Odhran volunteers to do so, and Columba blesses him, and promises him: ‘No one will be granted his request at my grave, unless he first seek it of you’ (Herbert, Iona, Kells and Derry, 237, 261). This promise seems to reflect the order in which medieval visitors to Iona would approach Columba’s remains at the west end of the Abbey church. Landing at Martyrs’ Bay, they would travel north along the early medieval road, Sràid nam Marbh (of which parts may still be seen) and before entering the monastic vallum they would pass the presumed tomb of St Odrhan at Teampall Odhrain, only then passing on to St Columba’s grave. This processiona via Odhran to Columba may explain Columba’s promise to Odhran in twelfth-century Derry story For further discussion of the cult of Odhrain, its background in Gaelic literature, and its relationship to the ritual landscape on Iona, see Gilbert Márkus, ‘Inventing Odrán: saints, pilgrims and politics in medieval Iona’, The Innes Review 73 (2022), 1-30; also idem ‘Replicating a Sacred Landscape: the Cult of Saint Odrán in Scottish Place-Names’, Journal of Scottish Name Studies 15 (2021), 10-31.
[1] See discussion of teampall names on Uist by Thomas Owen Clancy and Sofia Evemalm-Graham here: https://uistsaints.co.uk/north-uist/teampull-chriosd/.
Teampall Rònain | St Ronan’s Church
Kilfinichen & Kilvickeon (KKV), Iona (IOX)
Classification: Antiquity, Ecclesiastical
Grid reference: NM2850224127
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 13m
Elements: G teampall + pn Rònan (St) or pn Rónnat (St)
The Iron Well
Kilfinichen & Kilvickeon (KKV), Iona (IOX)
Classification: Water
Grid reference: NM2842424254
Certainty: 2
Altitude: 26m
Elements: SSE the + SSE iron + SSE well
The Marble Quarry
Kilfinichen & Kilvickeon (KKV), Iona (IOX)
Classification: Antiquity, Other
Grid reference: NM2687821795
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 9m
Elements: SSE marble + SSE quarry
Translation: ‘the marble quarry’
Description:
Located on the south-eastern coastline of Iona, this is one of several places on the island where marble can be found. The site consists of ‘a vertical band of forsterite tremolite-marble’ (Argyll vol. 4, p. 254). Although quarrying activities were discontinued in the late 18th century, some of the machinery is still present at the site (see image).
The Marble Quarry represents the only place-name in the corpus without a Gaelic (or Gaelicised) form on record as early as the 18th century, first appearing in 1790 in a report by Mr R.E. Raspé who refers to the site as the Marble Quarry, or simply the quarry. This may well relate to the fact that, for the periods of operation, the manager and some of the workforce were brought in from the Lowlands – hence the two local names for the accommodations above the quarry, Taigh nan Gall and Tobhta nan Sasannach (for which see entries). There is no firm evidence for an alternative Gaelic name specifically referring to the quarry, despite the fact that there is evidence for earlier quarrying at the site (see below). Nor do we have an abundance of topographical place-names in this area, on maps or in texts, which could have been used to refer to the site more generally.
There may, however, be a clue in a place-name mentioned in Raspé’s report; in it, he refers to the ‘road to the Quarry of Eunie nagowna in the South east point of the Island’ (p. 3) and later refers to ‘the Eunienagowna or Icolmkill Marble’ (p. 8), indicating that this may have been an existing name for the site. The meaning of this name is not entirely transparent, but it is likely a topographical name containing the element aoineadh ‘cliff, steep promontory’ (for further discussion see Eunienagowna). It is worth noting that in Argyll vol. 4, the site is identified as ‘Marble-quarry, Rubha na Carraig Géire, Iona’, despite the fact that it is located almost half a kilometre south of the Marble Quarry.
The earliest direct evidence for quarrying at the site dates to 1693 in the description of Iona found in Walter Macfarlane’s Geographical collections (p. 217), wherein it is stated that ‘In this Iland is marble enouch Whereof the late Earle of Argyle caused polish a piece at London aboundantly beautifull.’ (also see Argyll vol 4). Clarke (1797, p. 171) also refers to ‘the marble quarries, opened and occasionally worked by the Duke of Argyle’. Other early accounts make reference to the marble altar in the Cathedral, but do not explicitly mention the quarry (Sacheverell 1695, p. 101; Martin 1703, p. 257; Pennant 1774, p. 290). Both Martin and Sacheverell refer to the marble as some of the finest marble they had ever seen.
Raspé’s survey is what prompted the establishment of the ‘Iona Marble Company’ in the 1790s. This proved a short-lived venture, however; by 1794 ‘the Company’s storehouse in the village had been converted into a schoolroom.’ (Argyll vol. 4, pp. 254-6). The abandonment of the quarry is further supported by Rev Dugald Campbell who notes that:
A marble quarry was opened some years ago under the patronage of the Duke of Argyll in the island of I, which is his Grace’s property. A considerable quantity of marble was quarried, and sent to Leith and London; but after much money was laid out, the quarry was given up, for some time at least (OSA, p. 184).
Thomas Garnett (1811, p. 265), who visited in 1798, wrote that the quarry was ‘wrought for some time, but it was almost impossible to procure large blocks of it, and when they were procured, it was very difficult to convey them from the spot to a boat; on these accounts the work has been given up’.
As noted by David Viner (1992, p. 8), ‘although it seems obvious that the marble will have been quarried from at least medieval times onward, this was probably an intermittent process working to particular and often individual demands.’ (also see Viner for a full discussion of the archaeology of the site).
Threld†
Kilfinichen & Kilvickeon (KKV), Iona (IOX)
Classification: Antiquity, Settlement
Grid reference: NM2838923757
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 3m
Translation: Meaning uncertain, see discussion.
Description:
This was apparently a name in use to describe a collection of houses ranging south along Martyr’s Bay in the mid-19th century. The OS Name-Books entry in 1878 strikes a suitably uncertain note. They first cite the Imperial Gazetteer of Scotland: 'On the bay of Martyrs, near the ruins which constitute the grand attraction of the place, stands the village of Threld - a collection of miserable huts and the scene of much poverty and filth'. The OS Name Books then go on: ‘Very little is now known regarding this village. The houses have been all swept away, but it is known to have stood round where the present Free Church stands, and included a small part of the north end of what is now known as Sligneach.’ The 1st edition OS map records only ‘site of Threld’.
It may be that this was an ephemeral village, connected with the considerable build-up of population in the earlier part of the century, going out of use consequent on various developments mid-century, such as emigration (see MacArthur 2002, esp. p.34 for graph). Certainly, Reeves does not mention it at all in 1857. An important witness may be H. D. Graham’s ‘View from Port Sligeanach’ from 1848–49 (Christian and Stiller 2000, 22-3, fig. 19), which shows a few houses at Sligeanach in the foreground, and some houses at the village in the middle distance, but there is no sign of what is indicated by the mentions of Threld. A further consideration is that the reference in 1827 to a place of worship being built there is curious and hard to explain. It cannot be the Free Church, though its site is identified with that of Threld. Altogether, there is more than a sense that something is not quite right in these descriptions.
Additionally, some of the descriptions suggest that visitors occasionally (mis)applied the name to Am Baile Mòr, and it does sometimes seem as if there is some confusion with descriptions of the main village (with which it may have been continuous). Note that the citation from the Imperial Gazetteer cted by the OS Name Books, while saying the village was by the Bay of Martyrs, also says it was 'near the ruins which constitute the grand attraction of the place', which must mean Am Baile Mòr. This is clearly the case for the description from the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland in 1899, since they mention the post office. That confusion is evident in more modern accounts as well, for instance, in the Canmore entry on Threld (https://canmore.org.uk/site/21626/iona-threld) which cites Thomas Pennant’s account from 1774, which undoubtedly refers to Am Baile Mòr, as if it described Threld.
The most puzzling aspect of this village is its name. It is quite unclear what language it is meant to be, but it is certainly not Gaelic as it stands (unless it represents some word that has been misheard, though nothing is immediately suggestive). This is despite Botfield’s assertion in 1830 that the village was populated virtually entirely by monoglot Gaelic-speakers. Richmond noted in 1849 that it was ‘sometimes called Threld by such as do not reside in it; for to the Ionians this name is unknown’, but he does not tell us what, if anything, the local name was. The OS Name Books state that ‘The name is considered to be Danish, but the meaning cannot be ascertained.’ There is no good Scandinavian derivation for the name, and one suspects this suggestion is really just a guess. Given the name exists almost exclusively in traveller accounts, its authenticity, or at least its accuracy, may be doubted, and a quest for its meaning may be destined to be fruitless.
Tigh Fhinn †
Kilfinichen & Kilvickeon (KKV), Iona (IOX)
Classification: Antiquity, Relief
Grid reference: NM2846124358
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 27m
Tobar a’ Ceathain
Kilfinichen & Kilvickeon (KKV), Iona (IOX)
Classification: Water
Grid reference: NM2872724450
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 12m
Elements: G tobar +
Translation: 'well of ?Ceathan'
Tobar a’ Cheapaich
Kilfinichen & Kilvickeon (KKV), Iona (IOX)
Classification: Water
Grid reference: NM2791523149
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 12m
Elements: G tobar + en (A') Ceapach
Translation: 'well of (an) Ceapach'
Tobar a’ Ghlinne
Kilfinichen & Kilvickeon (KKV), Iona (IOX)
Classification: Water
Grid reference: NM2780324313
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 24m
Elements: G tobar + G an + G gleann
Translation: 'well of the glen'
Tobar aig a’ Bhruthas
Kilfinichen & Kilvickeon (KKV), Iona (IOX)
Classification: Water
Grid reference:
Certainty: 1
Altitude: m
Elements: G tobar + G aig + en Am Bruthas
Translation: 'well at Am Bruthas'
Tobar Choinnich
Kilfinichen & Kilvickeon (KKV), Iona (IOX)
Classification: Water
Grid reference: NM2884324351
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 2m
Elements: G tobar + pn Coinneach
Translation: 'well of (St) Cainneach or Coinneach'
Tobar Druim an Fhaing
Kilfinichen & Kilvickeon (KKV), Iona (IOX)
Classification: Water
Grid reference: NM2753122838
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 51m
Elements: G tobar + en Druim an Fhaing
Translation: 'well of Druim an Fhaing'
Tobar Glac a’ Choilich
Kilfinichen & Kilvickeon (KKV), Iona (IOX)
Classification: Water
Grid reference: NM2646121900
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 18m
Elements: G tobar + en Glac a’ Choilich
Translation: 'well of Glac a' Coilich'
Tobar Magh Luinge
Kilfinichen & Kilvickeon (KKV)
Classification: Water
Grid reference: NM2916925829
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 6m
Elements: G tobar + en Magh Luinge
Translation: 'well of Magh Luinge'
Tobar na Gaoithe Deas
Kilfinichen & Kilvickeon (KKV)
Classification: Water
Grid reference:
Certainty: 1
Altitude: m
Elements: G tobar + G an + G gaoth + G deas
Translation: 'well of the south wind'
Tobar na Gaoithe Tuath
Kilfinichen & Kilvickeon (KKV), Iona (IOX)
Classification: Water
Grid reference: NM2763325183
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 28m
Elements: G tobar + G an + G gaoth + G tuath
Translation: 'well of the north wind'
Tobar na h-Aoise
Kilfinichen & Kilvickeon (KKV), Iona (IOX)
Classification: Antiquity, Water
Grid reference: NM2837925256
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 77m
Elements: G tobar + G an + G aois
Translation: 'well of age'
Description:
Analysis here.
Tobar na Leacaich
Kilfinichen & Kilvickeon (KKV), Iona (IOX)
Classification: Water
Grid reference: NM2788023077
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 15m
Elements: G tobar + en (An) Leacach
Translation: 'well of (an) Leacach'
Tobar Odhrain †
Kilfinichen & Kilvickeon (KKV), Iona (IOX)
Classification: Water
Grid reference: NM2864524385
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 14m
Elements: G tobar + pn Odhran ~ Oran (St)
Translation: 'well of (St) Odhran'
Tobar Port Aoinidh nan Sruth
Kilfinichen & Kilvickeon (KKV), Iona (IOX)
Classification: Water
Grid reference: NM2536522509
Certainty: 2
Altitude: 13m
Elements: G tobar + en Port Aoinidh nan Sruth
Translation: 'well of Port Aoinidh nan Sruth'
Tobar Port Càrnan a’ Ghille
Kilfinichen & Kilvickeon (KKV), Iona (IOX)
Classification: Water
Grid reference: NM2693821919
Certainty: 2
Altitude: 14m
Elements: G tobar + en Port Càrnan a’ Ghille
Translation: 'well of Port Càrnan a' Ghille'
Tobar Port Làraichean
Kilfinichen & Kilvickeon (KKV), Iona (IOX)
Classification: Water
Grid reference: NM2597021754
Certainty: 2
Altitude: 5m
Elements: G tobar + en Port Làraichean
Translation: 'well of Port Làraichean'
Tobhta nan Sasannach
Kilfinichen & Kilvickeon (KKV), Iona (IOX)
Classification: Antiquity, Settlement
Grid reference: NM2685121858
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 19m
Elements: G tobhta + G an + G Sasannach
Translation: ‘ruins of the Lowlanders (Englishmen)’
Toll an Tàilleir
Kilfinichen & Kilvickeon (KKV), Iona (IOX)
Classification: Antiquity, Ecclesiastical
Grid reference: NM2865624509
Certainty: 2
Altitude: 19m
Elements: G toll + G an + G tàillear
Translation: 'the tailor's hole'
Tòn a’ Mhanaich
Kilfinichen & Kilvickeon (KKV), Iona (IOX)
Classification: Other
Grid reference: NM27302294
Certainty: 2
Altitude: 55m
Elements: G tòn + G an + G manach
Translation: 'the bottom of the monk'
Description:
The place represented by the name is rough ground off the pass (Bealach nan Tuilmean) leading up to the high ground called Blàr nam Manach (‘the plain or field of the monks’). Like many names, this first appears on the Ritchie map and the accompanying list by D. Munro Fraser, though the discrepancy in the form of the second element (mananaich v manaich) is hard to account for, and the map form seems likely just to be a mistake. The element tòn ‘bottom’, has an accent; as often with forms on the Ritchie map this is missing, but we have supplied it in the head-name. Since tòn means ‘bottom, rump, arse’, it is possible that the name has a humorous meaning (see also the unlocated Bealach Bristeadh Tòin ‘break-bottom pass’), but in proximity to Blàr nam Manach, it may have topographical significance instead.
Tòrr an Aba
Kilfinichen & Kilvickeon (KKV), Iona (IOX)
Classification: Antiquity, Ecclesiastical, Relief
Grid reference: NM2861524529
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 23m
Elements: G tòrr + G an + G aba
Translation: 'mound of the abbot'
Description:
This name applies to the small rocky hillock which lies about 40 m. west of the abbey church doors, and west of Columba’s shrine-chapel. Although it rises only a few metres above the flat ground to its east, it creates the slight sense of a natural amphitheatre between the hillock and the abbey buildings, a sheltered and enclosed flat area which was probably the focal point for some outdoor rituals associated with the church. This was the area that Adomnán, in his Life of Columba (c.700) referred to as the platea. This is where the largest early medieval crosses stood; it is the area bounded on the north and east by the shrine-chapel of Columba and the abbey church; it is the end-point of the early medieval roadway called Sràid nam Marbh | Street of the Dead. Parts of its ground were covered in early medieval grave-slabs. All this makes it likely that Tòrr an Aba was a significant place in the early monastery.
The name as it stands however, is not early. Our earliest forms are in fact in English (Abbots Mount, The Abbot’s Mount); the Gaelic forms do not look early. If the underlying word is tòrr ‘mound, eminence, hillock, conical hill’, this meaning is not attested in Old or Middle Irish, and may have entered Scottish Gaelic from one of its neighbouring languages (compare Welsh tor ‘breast, slope, side of a mountain’). The earliest Gaelic form in fact suggests tùr ‘tower’, a later medieval loan-word from Anglo-French into the Gaelic languages, but the modern and current usages reflect tòrr. The form of the genitive of the word aba ‘abbot’ also seems comparatively late. As can be seen, the article before ab(a) comes and goes. Place-names lacking a definite article before the modifying noun can sometimes be an indication of earliness, but in this case it is hard to be confident that ‘Torr Abb’ is a faithful reflection of what contemporary Gaelic speakers were saying.
Although the name as it stands can only be traced back to the eighteenth century, it nonetheless may be a survival of a name that long pre-dates its earliest surviving forms, and the association with Iona’s abbot can be confirmed by our earliest extended sources. In the seventh-century Life of Columba by Adomnán there are several references to Columba sitting in a little hut or tegoriolum. Sometimes he is described as writing in a little hut (VC ii, 16; iii, 15; iii, 23), but at another time he is described as having a vision of angels in a hut (iii, 22). This latter hut may not have been the same one which the saint used for his writing. It is specifically stated of this latter hut that it ‘was built on a higher spot’ (in eminentiore loco erat fabricatum). As Adomnán has already mentioned Columba writing in a hut more than once before this, we might ask why he only feels the need to state now that this hut is on higher ground. It may be that Adomnán is using this phrase to distinguish this hut on higher ground from Columba’s writing hut. If so the most obvious reading of his description of a hut in eminentiore loco is that it was on Tòrr an Aba. We cannot rule out, however, that this was the same hut as the one which he had earlier been described as using as a writing-hut. In any case, one of the huts was on this site, and so here, perhaps more than any other single spot on the island, one can be confident of standing somewhere where St Columba once stood.
Excavations since 1956 have shown that the top of Tòrr an Aba was built on in various ways. A flat area of mortared stone, a slab with a hole in it (apparently a cross-base), and traces of a building to the south of the cross-base have been found. Most excitingly, some pieces of burned wattle discovered by archaeologists on the spot, part of a building that once stood here, have been radiocarbon-dated to the period around AD 600, clearly showing the possibility that this really was the site of Columba’s hut ‘on a higher spot’ (Columba died in 597). The presence of a cross-base might also suggest that this little hillock was treated with some devotion by subsequent generations of monks, and perhaps its association with the saint was monumentalised by the erection of a cross (HES ID 21650; Campbell and Maldonado 2020, 18-19).
One other early source may mention this place, but with a different name. Martin Martin, writing of his tour in 1695, says ‘At a little further distance is Dun Ni Manich, i.e. Monks-Fort, built of Stone and Lime, in form of a Bastion, pretty high. From this Eminence the Monks had a view of all the Families in the Isle, and at the same time enjoy d the free air’. While there is a resonance with Tòrr an Aba in this description, it seems likely to refer to some other feature. See entry on Dùn nam Manach.
The Ordnance Survey Name Book describes it as ‘A very small rocky Knoll, close to and west of the Cathedral. Meaning “Abott’s [sic] Knoll”’ (OS1/2/37/7).
Tòrr Lochain
Kilfinichen & Kilvickeon (KKV), Iona (IOX)
Classification: Relief
Grid reference: NM2730323458
Certainty: 2
Altitude: 17m
Elements: G tòrr + G lochan
Translation: 'hill/mound of (the) small loch'
Tràigh an t-Suidhe
Kilfinichen & Kilvickeon (KKV), Iona (IOX)
Classification: Coastal
Grid reference: NM2883325989
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 3m
Elements: G tràigh + G an + G suidhe
Translation: 'strand of the seat'
Tràigh Bàn
Kilfinichen & Kilvickeon (KKV), Iona (IOX)
Classification: Coastal
Grid reference: NM2927025876
Certainty: 1
Altitude: m
Elements: G tràigh + G bàn
Translation: ‘white beach’
Description:
A stretch of sandy shoreline located at the northern end of Iona. The name almost certainly refers to the colour of the sand here. It is sometimes referred to as Tràigh Bàn nam Manach ‘white beach of the monks’. Antiquarians in the nineteenth century took the reference to the monks to be to the Christmas Eve massacre of 986, although the name could have other less violent origins. It is described in the OS Name Books (OS1/2/37/5) as ‘A sandy beach on the west shore of the Sound of Iona, a short distance north of Arduara.’
The spelling of this name in early sources is inconsistent. Since G tràigh is typically a feminine noun, we would expect the specific element bàn to be lenited, and hence Tràigh Bhàn (Dwelly s.v. tràigh; Armstrong s.v. traigh; Macalpine s.v. traigh). However, several sources do not lenite it, implying a masculine noun, perhaps indicating local dialectal patterns. OG tráig ‘strand, shore’ occurs both as feminine and masculine (eDIL 41572), and one possibility is that our Iona example reflects a fossilised variant of tràigh or that Tràigh Bàn reflects an early coining preserving an Old Gaelic masculine form of tràigh.
Locally, the name is consistently pronounced as Tràigh Bàn. Dugald MacArthur gives the name as Tràigh Bàn (TAD ID 84012 part 1, 5:45). In the same recording, W.F.H. Nicolaisen points out the map spelling of Tràigh Bhàn, but MacArthur is certain that it is Tràigh Bàn (not lenited). Similarly, locally informed sources like Ritchie and Reeves consistently record bàn without lenition. In light of this, we have opted for the spelling which best reflects local use in the headname, Tràigh Bàn. It is worth noting that Tràigh Mòr, located in the south-eastern part of Iona, is also recorded without lenition in multiple sources. Comparative evidence from Colonsay, where we find Tràigh Bàn (NR401980), implies the existence of a similar pattern in other parts of Scotland. In Mull, however, tràigh is consistently recorded as feminine, as in Tràigh Bhàn (NM436183), Tràigh Bhàn na Sgùrra (NM422187) and Tràigh Gheal (NM422187) (see Whyte forthcoming), indicating that the absence of lenition is likely not solely the result of dialectal variation.
As noted, the affix nam manach ‘of the monks’, present in several sources, has been connected with one of the various massacres during the Viking Age, specifically with the attack by a group identified as Danes (Danar) on Christmas Eve in 986 (see Clancy 2013 for further context). Skene (1877, p. 89) writes that it is ‘a stretch of the purest white sand, which was destined to be afterwards the scene of a cruel slaughter of the monks by the Danes’. Trenholme (1909, p. 75) echoes Skene, writing that:
At the end of the year 986 a plundering host of Limerick Danes descended on Iona in the night before Christmas, and ‘slew the abbot and fifteen Religious of the church.’ The rest probably escaped into the round tower, but the unnamed abbot and his companions were cut off, and died by the hands of their captors. Skene records it as a tradition in Iona that the victims of this final heathen massacre were killed on the sands known as Tràigh Bhàn nam Manach (White Beach of the Monks), near the north end of the Sound. The story of a slaughter of monks there is still current in the island, and they are said to have been killed on the dark steep-sided rock that bounds this particular stretch of sand on the north.
Trenholme further adds that the nearby name Sgeir nam Màrt ‘Rock of the Cows’ was the ‘dark steep-sided rock’ on which the monks were killed (see Sgeir nam Màrt). This looks like it is based on a misunderstanding of the meaning of that name.
The tradition of the monks being killed at this site is also recorded orally. Dugald MacArthur (TAD ID 84012 part 1, 5:45) notes that this is where ‘one of the Norse attacks on the monks took place’.
The site is now a popular tourist spot, frequently cited in guidebooks and websites, likely as a result of the famously white sands in combination with the traditional association of this area with the martyrdom of the Iona monks. For example, Visit Mull and Iona (visitmullandiona.co.uk) describes it as ‘the site of yet another massacre of the resident monks by raiding Vikings’ and according to The guide to mysterious Iona and Staffa (2007, p. 84) it was ‘the scene of the third consecutive slaughter of Iona monks by Vikings, when the Abbot and fifteen brethren were martyred in 986’.
Tràigh Mhòr
Kilfinichen & Kilvickeon (KKV), Iona (IOX)
Classification: Coastal
Grid reference: NM2798322926
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 1m
Elements: G tràigh + G mòr
Translation: 'big strand'
Tràigh na Crìche
Kilfinichen & Kilvickeon (KKV), Iona (IOX)
Classification: Coastal
Grid reference: NM2818025920
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 1m
Elements: G tràigh + G an + G crìoch
Translation: 'strand of the boundary'
Tràigh nan Sìolag | Sandeels Bay
Kilfinichen & Kilvickeon (KKV), Iona (IOX)
Classification: Coastal
Grid reference: NM2779722790
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 9m
Elements: G tràigh + G an + G sìolag
Translation: 'strand of the sandeels'
Traill a’ Ghairt
Kilfinichen & Kilvickeon (KKV), Iona (IOX)
Classification: Other
Grid reference: NM2673023157
Certainty: 1
Altitude: 14m
Elements: G traill + G an + G gart
Translation: 'trough of the enclosed field'
Turglas †
Kilfinichen & Kilvickeon (KKV), Iona (IOX)
Classification: Antiquity, Ecclesiastical
Grid reference: NM2872624546
Certainty: 2
Altitude: 16m
Elements: G tùr + G glas
Translation: 'green tower?'
Description:
We only have one mention of this name. When the 1771 account refers to the ‘College’ he evidently means the cloister buildings. As he describes Turglas as a ‘chapel’ to the east of those buildings, it may have been a local name for what is now called The Michael Chapel – a name which can be dated back only as far as the restoration of the abbey ruins by the Iona Community in 1959 (Argyll 4, 131), though there is a reference to a burial vault dedicated to St Michael – ‘St Michellis crwist’ – in the will of Bishop John Campbell dated in 1580, which may have been the same place (Argyll 4, 149).
Whatever the building referred to, the name is a bit unusual. Although tùr, an Anglo-French loan-word into Gaelic from Fr tour ‘tower’, was used in medieval and early Gaelic, and although it can be found also in local topographical names, its use to describe a chapel building seems odd.