Map Reference: Sandaig 48
Name Type: shore
Meaning: AS suggests the element smug comes from snot or mucus (see Dwelly).
The specific is likely to be ON smuga ‘a narrow cleft to creep through, hole’ (CV, 572): 'ON smuga means first a narrow passage, then a hiding place or refuge.' (Jakobsen 1897, 67) Phonologically, ON smuga had a fricative -g- (Richard Cox, pers. comm.), and in Caithness developed into Smoo (SP), while in Orkney it developed into Smoo Field (Sandnes 2010a, 246) and Geo of Smoo in Evie (SP). In Shetland, however, it developed into de Smogas, De Smog [and] de Pitta-Smog ... a passage down to a ledge in a rock facing the sea' (Jakobsen 1928, 844). This derivation suits the topography. The generic is ON berg (dative bergi) ‘rock’ (CV, 60): Smugubergi.
Smuga is an unusual element occurring only in Smugga of Setter on Fetlar, Shetland (SP), and a Smugurók in the Faroe Islands (KO). In contrast, berg is extremely common. On Shetland, bergi > berri as in Skelberri (Jakobsen 1936, 24), and this form is common elsewhere in Scotland too, as in Haberry, Caithness, and Melberry, Walls, Orkney (SP); it is a common generic in Iceland, as in Stakkaberg (SAM).
Other Forms: Smugabeireadh - AS
Smugaberidh - MMcA
Smugabearg - Bailtean is Ath-Ghairmean, Niall M Brownlie, Argyll Publishing, 1995, p159, Rock of the Narrow Cleft.
Row Smuckaberg - The map MVLA INSVLA in the Atlas of Scotland, Atlas Novus, by Joan Blaeu, 1654. These maps were largely based on work by Timothy Pont who mapped Scotland between 1583 and 1596. NLS, 123.
Related Places: See Bearg, Sandaig.
Information: McMA places this as to the south of Am Port Mòr and bewteen this an Port an t-Siobair.
Local Form:
Languages : GaelicInformants: Alasdair Sinclair, Greenhill, 11/1993
Informant 2: Mary MacArthur, Sandaig, 5/1994
Informant 3: Bailtean is Ath-Ghairmean, Niall M Brownlie, Argyll Publishing, 1995, p159
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