Map Reference: Kilmoluaig 6
Name Type: loch
Meaning: Island of the promontory of the quernstone
Dwelly dictionary: brà, gen. bràthan pl. bràthntan, sf Quern, handmill
Other Forms: Eilean Àird na Brathan - ONB p72, significance "high lying island."
Related Places:
Information:This is a crannog. See Canmore ID 21419
"When new water mills were constructed in South Uist in 1836, in a further attempt by lairds to 'capitalise estates', tenants were ordered to use the new facilities and to destroy the querns they had used for hand-grinding. Given that the miller 'kept every 17th peck of grain in return for the service of milling', they were reluctant to do either, and many, 'particularly on the less fertile east coast of South Uist, continued to hand-grind their own grain'. The story is taken up by Angus MacLellan, a crofter in Loch Aoineart: "It was then that the ground officers began to go through the houses breaking the querns, and the querns were thrown into a loch down at Ormaclete beside the main road. The loch has never been called anything since but Loch nan Braithntean, the 'Loch of the the querns'." Moreland J 2012, Excavation of Early Modern, Early Historic and Prehistoric sSites in Kirkidale, in From Machair to Mountains, ed. Parker Pearson, Oxbow Books, 338
Local Form:
Languages : GaelicInformants: Iain MacKinnon (Iain Chaluim), Kilmoluaig, 4/1994
Informant 2: OS
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