From the archives (ten years ago).
Glen Dessary
#Highlands #Scotland #photo #photography #landscape #outdoors
@fitheach Am Faclair suggests it is "Gleann Deasairidh"
Glen of the South Pasture perhaps? ainmean-aite.scot has nothing though 😦
@athairbirb
Ahh, that makes sense as a pronunciation approximation. However, I'm not sure it makes much logical sense, though. The area to the north is very mountainous. Who would be looking southwards to the pasture?
Thanks for the idea to check placenames in Am Faclair. I hadn't realised that was possible. I didn't know ainmean-aite.scot, either.
@athairbirb @fitheach Might it be Glen of the South Sheiling? I don't know enough grammar regarding the -gh vs -dh ending.
FYI, we group ruaidh and airigh names under Sheilings: https://www.assyntplacenames.net/collections/show/23
@withaveeay @athairbirb
"South shieling" or "south pasture" both have the same logical problem. The Glen Dessary area was traditionally (and mostly still is) Cameron of Lochiel land. Their centre was/is at Achnacarry, directly east of Glen Dessary. From their perspective the shieling/pasture would be in the west.
I usually prefer to use the original Gaelic placenames when describing locations. However, I'm a bit stumped with "Glen Dessary". The Anglified approximation of the Gaelic name leaves identification very difficult.
It might mean something like "open to the south" or "high to the south", which makes some sense linguistically (deas means south) and geographically. However, I really don't know.