Map of the Shetland Islands Place Names





Click here to return to homepage

Click here to view my Annual report

The Trust aims to:

Develop and maintain the Shetland Place Names Database
Promote the collection, understanding and use of place names

Shetland Place Names Project

The Shetland Place Names Project was established in 2001 with inaugural funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund, Shetland Islands Council, Shetland Enterprise Company and Shetland Amenity Trust.

 Members of the Cunningsburgh History Group at Fladdabister
Dua Well, Aith, Cunningsburgh Many old lists of names do not include grid references or maps. There is an urgency to record these before they die out altogether. Many names relate to fishing and crofting. Individual rigs, geos and rocks all carry names, which have been passed down through oral tradition. This is now a very fragile resource and our priority is to record these before another passing generation.

The project has stimulated tremendous interest throughout Shetland and beyond, resulting in considerable amounts of unrecorded information coming to our attention.


Current work

Local History Groups, schools and individual volunteers are recordingnames using tape and minidisc recorders, photos, maps and recording sheets. Older residents are helping locate these features on maps and on the ground.

Once mapped, the names are verified and entered on the database. Digital maps are then generated for further verification.

 Bairns from Cullivoe school study local maps

Database

Details of all names recorded are entered on the Shetland Place Names Database, available at Shetland Amenity Trust. This is linked to:

digital maps, to relate the names precisely to their locations;
the Scottish Place-Name Database available at the University of Edinburgh

Possible searches include:

all the names for a particular area;
all occurrences of a feature, eg all noosts or skerries;
all names that include a specific linguistic element eg all borg or stađir names

Recording in Otterswick, Yell

Interpretation


Shetland’s place names reflect our strong Norse heritage, together with subsequent Scottish and English influences. They tell us a great deal about the history, geography, and people who lived here. Many names stem from the Old Norse language and describe the landscape and show us where the Vikings lived and farmed.
Aerial photo of Aith & Greenmow, Cunninsburgh
Some place name elements
-a, -ay, -ey: island
firth, wick, voe, houb: bay
sound: stretch of water
ness: headland
ayre: sand or gravel beach
taing: tongue of land
brake, breck, lea: slope
hamar: steep rocky wall
kame, camb: comb or ridge of hills
dale: valley
wart, ward, vord cairn on a hilltop
burra, burgh, burgi, brough Iron age fort or broch
-bister, -sta, -ster, garth, gord farm

Below are two maps of Aith, Cunningsburgh. The map on the left show names that appear on the 1973 edition 1-10,000 Ordnance Survey Maps. The map on the right shows all names added through the Place Names Project.

        Map of Aith         Map of Aith


Newsletter

Click any of the icons below to view the relevant newsletter. You will need Adobe Reader to view these documents.

click to view pdf document issue 01

Can you help?


Can you help record place names for your local area or the place where you grew up?
Do you know folk we should talk to about place names?
Do you have any lists, maps or documents that record place names?

For further information about the Shetland Place Names Project, please contact:

Eileen Brooke-Freeman

Project Officer (Place Names)

Shetland Amenity Trust, Garthspool, Lerwick, Shetland, ZE1 0NY

Tel: 01595 694688

E-mail: eileen<at>shetlandamenity.org