Fairies and malicious spirits

Gaelic, Norse, Brittonic? A look into the history 
and origins of place names in and around our area

In Inveran, An Sìthean or ‘place of the fairies’, was recorded as being a small enclosure of pasture situated over a mile north of Inveran farm.

Nearby we find Sìthean Mòr, ‘the big fairy hill’, 1.5 miles north east of Invershin train station, which in turn has its own An Sìthean.

On the south east side of Claiseanglas in Spinningdale, there is Sìthean Dearg Mòr, the ‘big red fairy hill’.

Alltan nam Fuath through the Gearrchoille wood is the small burn of the Fuath, a malevolent water spirit whose name means ‘hate’ in Gaelic.

Allt A’ Bhodaich, ‘stream of the spectre or ghost’ flows into the river Carron forming the boundary between Wester Gruinards and Amatnatua.

The Gizzen Briggs, a bar of shifting sands at the mouth of the Dornoch Firth, is from Old Norse and means ‘leaky bridge’. In Gaelic the feature is called Drochaid an Obh, the ‘bridge of the malicious water spirit’.