Map Reference: Balephetrish 70
Name Type: sliabh
Meaning: Cnoc 'hillock'
ON grœnn ‘green’, with ON hóll ‘rounded hill’ is topographically likely, but possibly also ON v?llr ‘field, meadow’ (see Manal)
If this derivation is correct, grœnn > the diphthong grian- six times on Tiree, possibly with lexical substitution under the influence of Gaelic. Place-names in Grian- and Greine- are common on the west coast of Scotland. Names with a Norse origin have to be disentangled from those deriving from the ScG grian fem. (genitive grèine ‘sun’); grianach ‘sunny’; grianan ‘sunny spot, summer house, green place where peats dried’ (Dwelly) and ScG grian masc. ‘gravel’ (Márkus 2012, 552). Grianan and An Grianan occur ten times as place-names in Argyll, and Grianach is a common specific, as in ScG An Camas Grianach ‘the sunny bay’ in Ardnamurchan. Names of the form X na Grèine are also common (SP), as in Cnoc na Grèine (Cox 2002b, 235). ON grœnn ‘green’ has become græn in Icelandic names (SAM). There is a Creagan Grianail on Islay (Macniven 2015, 155); there is an Eilean Grianal on North Uist, and a Grianal in Stornoway (SP); Grænhóll occurs five times as a farm name in Iceland (SAM).
Grianal occurs four times on Tiree.
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Languages : Norse, GaelicInformants: Angus MacLean, Scarinish, 2/1997
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