This gazetteer of the Ochil Hills, the range running from Stirling to the southern bank of the Tay, is a welcome addition to place-name study in Scotland. At a time when place-names are beginning to attract far more attention from both scholars and the interested public alike, this type of book fills a major gap. The classic texts on Scottish place-names. W.J. Watson's Celtic Placenames of Scotland, first published in 1926 with a recent, welcome reprint by Birlinn Press, currently available, and W.F.H. Nicolaisen's Scottish Place-names, Batsford 1976/79, are by their nature incapable of being used intensively at a local level. Recent academic work, such as Simon Taylor's efforts in Fife, which provided the basis of a recent enlightening Pictish Arts Society talk, are a step in the direction of an eventual definitive database of Scottish place-names which is currently being mooted at the School of Scottish Studies. Until that can be brought about the approach followed by Angus Watson is a more than acceptable stop-gap. By restricting himself to a definable geographical area he has provided a work which will be of interest to local inhabitants, hill-walkers and other outdoor enthusiastists, and all those with an interest in our nation's past. The scholarship is to be commended -- the author appears to have been assiduous in his pursuit of old sources -- a necessity in dealing with place-names which are susceptible to all the vagaries of a constantly changing linguistic situation with all its attendant complications of dealing with several languages which have influenced this area. The languages are Pictish -- although the author is careful to refer to P-Celtic forms which I find an admirably cautious approach (e.g. "The Ochil Hills:... derivation:'Ochil' is generally accepted as deriving from P-Celtic 'Ochel'. earlier 'Uxellos', high") -- Gaelic (which provides a great deal of the original nomenclature), Scots and lastly English.

The layout, in standard gazetteer form, refers to most early forms of the individual names and their sources, whether literary or cartographic. and is backed by short notes on history and folklore. Toponymy, the study of place-names, is, like all language studies, dependant on a great deal of interpretation and, as Professor Nicolaisen said at our recent conference, definitive readings are not guaranteed. It is therefore with no sense of attacking Angus Watson's work that I mention a couple of the instances where my own interpretation differs from his. He has Aitkenhall (p.18) as'derivation: from the surname? Scots "Hall" was usually applied to a reasonably substantial dwelling.' That is fine - as far as it goes, but another reading of the Scots form, based on a great many other instances in aa' the airts o' Scotland, would suggest Aikenhall as deriving initially from something like Aiken Haugh - meaning the low-lying flat-land by the river where the oaks grow. The most famous "re-interpretation'' of this type is Sauchiehall, where the original is Sauchie Haltgh with Sauchie meaning 'willows'. On p. 88 he has Kerlynlyrt as deriving from Scots 'carlin', an old woman. Again fine, but the term Carlin also has a very significant aspect of association, not only with witchcraft, but with the ancient worship of the Mother Goddess. It corresponds very clbsely with a similarly used word in Gaelic, Cailleach. Given that the earliest mention of Kerlynlyn is from 1320, there is a strong possibility that the name means more than just 'an old woman':

A reference to Craig Bran (p.32) says 'This is one of the very few surviving Ochils Gaelic names that may contain a mythological reference'. I must beg to differ as I find a great many hints to mythological and legendary material (e.g. Carlin, above). The fact that the author does not draw attention to the pre-Christian original of St Bride - the Goddess Bride, who seems to have existed amongst the P-Celtic peoples as well as in Gaelic tradition, being the most obvious. However, this admirable book provides those of us with a particular interest in this field with opportunities for fascinating research and it is a welcome source-book indeed.

The presentation of the book is excellent -- one slight cavail being the lack of place-names on the map of the Ochils on the endpapers (but. as I am assured that this was due to a mix-up at the printers. no fault should accrue to the author or his able illustrator, Ken Laing). Nor should any opprobrium be attached to Perth and Kinross District Libraries whose archives have provided interesting old photographs throughout the text. The new District Librarian, Mike Moir, is to be congratulated on continuing the publishing policy of his predecessor, F.J. Guthrie and The Ochils will, I hope, serve as a model for future publications. A wee bonus for Pictish enthusiasts is the back page photograph of the Abernethy symbol stone by the author himself.

Stuart McHardy