Travelling across Scotland you will notice hundreds of towns, villages and parks with names that can be hard to pronounce for English speakers unfamiliar with the locations.
Much of this difficulty can be attributed to the fact that some of these place names originate from other languages like Scottish Gaelic.
With so many places that are tough to pronounce (even for some Scots), we decided to round up some of the hardest pronunciations, along with how to say them.
Scotland's hardest place names to pronounce and how to say them
Here are Scotland's place names that are hardest to pronounce along with how to say them and their meanings.
Milngavie (East Dunbartonshire)
How to pronounce: Mul-guy
Meaning: Milngavie's name is of Gaelic origins meaning 'windmill' or 'windy hill'.
Ecclefechan (Dumfries and Galloway)
How to pronounce: Eck-el-feck-han
Meaning: Name of Brittonic (Welsh) origins which combines 'a church' (egles) and 'little' (fechan).
Auchtermuchty (Fife)
How to pronounce: Auch-ter-much-ty
Meaning: Scottish Gaelic name meaning 'upland of the pigs or boars'.
Freuchie (Fife)
How to pronounce: Froo-kay
Meaning: The name derives from the Scottish Gaelic word froach meaning heather.
Garioch (Aberdeenshire)
How to pronounce: Geer-ee
Meaning: Garioch comes from the Scottish Gaelic word gairbheach, meaning 'place of roughness'.
Findochty (Moray)
How to pronounce: Fin-ich-ty in Scots
Meaning: Transcribed as the Gaelic word fanna-guchti, the meaning is still unclear.
Wemyss Bay (Inverclyde)
How to pronounce: Weemss Bay
Meaning: Derived from the Scottish Gaelic word uaimh meaning cave.
Islay (Inner Hebrides)
How to pronounce: I-la
Meaning: Originally recorded as Epidion, the name is likely linked to a Brittonc or Pictish tribe - The name is not of Gaelic origin.
Chatelherault (Hamilton, South Lanarkshire)
How to pronounce: Chat-le-row
Meaning: The name is derived from the name of a French town called Châtellerault. The title of Duc de Châtellerault was granted to James Hamilton, 2nd Earl of Arran in 1548 for his role in arranging the marriage of Mary Queen of Scots to Francis, Dauphin of France.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel