Township: Hough

Map Reference: Hough 15

Name Type: hill

Meaning: See Ròg in Longships on the Sand.

Other Forms:

Related Places:

Information:1. See Na Baird Thirisdeach ed. Hector Cameron, p 177. A poem by John MacLean the Balemartine bard explains the cloven shape:

Nuair rainig Tearlach Mairead-
Is ainmeil e 's gach aite-
Le eallach bhotal den deoch riomhaich
Chuir sa phriosan cach
Le'n bhuille fhuair Beinn Hogh 's an strith,
Bidh lag 'na druim gu brath.

When Charles came home to Margaret /It's well known everywhere /With his burden of bottles of lovely drink /Which put the rest in prison /From the thump Beinn Hogh received in the strife /It will have a hollow in its ridge for ever. [translated by Ronald Black, The Gaelic Otherworld, p387.]

2. Extracts from 'The Gaelic Otherworld' by John Gregorson Campbell, edited with commentary by Ronald Black, (Edinburgh; Birlinn, 2005):
Hough, Hough Hill (Tiree), page 131.
"It was deemed unlucky by east coast fishermen coming to Tiree (as several boats used to annually to prosecute the cod and ling fishing) to speak in a boat of a minister or a rat. Everywhere it wa deemed unlucky among seafaring men to whistle in case a storm should arise. In Tiree, Heynish Hill (the Highest in the island) was known as a’ Bhraonach, Hogh Hill (the next highest) as A’ Bheinn Bheàrnach no Sgoilte (the Notched or Cloven Hill), and a species of whale as cas na poite (the leg of a pot). It should not be said bhàthadh e ‘he was drowned’ but ishiubhail e ‘he journeyed’, not ceangail ròp ‘tie a rope’ but dean e ‘make it’. In the north it was held that an otter, while in its den, should not be called beist dubh (the ‘black beast’, its common name), but càrnag. It would otherwise be impossible for the terriers to drive it from its refuge."
Footnote 430; A’ Bhraonach is ‘the showery/drizzly/dewy female’ (because of the tendency of Heynish Hill to attract cloud). Beinn Hough, JGC’s ‘Hogh Hill’, is from Norse haugr ‘burial place’ (there are Viking graves there). [This is only part of the footnote].


Local Form:

Languages : Norse, Gaelic

Informants: OS

Informant 2: Alasdair MacDonald, Druimasadh, Balevullin, 3/1994

Informant 3: John Gregorson Campbell (see 'stories')