Blair Collection > Celtic monthly > Volume 2, 1894

THl?: CKI/l'lC MONTHLY.
95
TONGUE AND ITS HISTORIC
SURROUNDINGS.
By John Mackay. C.E., J. P., Hen-ford.
tVi
'N the defeat, of the Norsenien in Strath-
tll'^J) "aver in 1196, and the retreat (jf Iliirold
yS~ifo into the Orkneys, Rej^inald in a few
uiontlis pacified the distracted country, appoint-
ing three noblemen to rule the district for the
King of Scots — one in the southern, one in the
eastern, and another in the northern portion.
Tongue, or, as it was then called, Strathnaverniti.
It is nut very well known who was the noble he
appointed to rule the northern part, but it is
mentioned that he had in liis army a strong
party of Gallowegians, commandeil by their own
chief, Alexander, and his two brothers. It is
very probable it was to this Alexander and his
brothers that Reginald entrusted the expulsion
of the Norsemen fiom Strathnaver and the ad-
joining districts ; aud this Ale.xauder liaving
executed the trust given liini, wa.s, two years
thereafter, confirmed in the possession of the
territory he had .subdued by William the Lion,
when Harold was finally disposed of by the
King of Scots at Eystendal, on the confines of
Caitiiness, in 1198. With this warrior from
Galloway began the race of the Mackay chiefs
who ruled in Tongue for upwards of six cen-
FlillM 'IIIIC FEI'.UY roINT
turies, and attained to a high degree of influ-
ence by their own powers and the fidelity and
hearing of their clansmen.
The Norsemen were soon expelled from
Strathnaver and Tongue, their two ja'incipal
settlements, yet leaving their footprints behind
them in place-names round about Tongue, with
which in this paper we have to do. In them
we see that the names of jjlaces, however much
corrupted by the lapse of ages, are, like those of
the streets of a town, endowed with extraonli-
nary vitality, frequently surviving, as in this
case, the race, or the nation that imposed them,
and often defying alike the accidents of con-
quest and of time, while furnishing information
of a most unexpected character.
in Tongue, there must have been a numerous
colony of Norsemen, as tlie names of ])laces
reveal. Blandy, blanda (meeting-place) ; Borgie,
byrgi (enclosure) ; Coldbackie, Kidd bakki (cold
ridge) ; Caonasaid, Kvenna-setr (tlie lady's resi-
dence) ; Falside, fellsetr (the residence on the
fell, or moor) ; Hysbackie, husa-bakki (houses
on the ridge) ; Kirkiboll, kirkja-bol (kiik town)
— baile-na-h-eaglais ; IMelness. mel-nes (the
benty-grassed promontory) ; Modsary, nioda-
seyra (muddy moorland) ; Riliigill, rygjar-bol
(the lady's home-farm) — this word in Mackay
charters is spelled riga-bol and rege-bol— bal in
Icelandic is in meaning equivalent to the Gaelic
baile, residence, township, hamlet — setr in
Norse is applied to a single residence or farm ;