Place name of the week

Arthur’s Seat ~ Suidhe Artair

This well-known hill (Arthurissete in 1508) is naturally called Suidhe Artair in Gaelic, which has the same meaning as the English. One unreliable book gives the ungrammatical Àrd-thìr Suidhe, as if ‘high ground seat’, but this is nonsense. Salisbury Crags next to Arthur’s Seat are mentioned in a charter of 1128 as Craginmarf which is surely Gaelic Creag nam Marbh ‘the crag of the dead’, possibly relating to the dangerous cliff edge there which still claims lives to this day.

There are several other hills also called Arthur’s Seat in Scotland. The Cobbler or Ben Arthur at the end of Loch Long was also called Suidhe Artair (Suy arthire in 1591), although its map form suggests Beinn Artair ‘Arthur’s mountain’. Likewise, Suidhe in Glen Livet was Suiarthour in 1638. These names seem to relate to King Arthur, though in many cases the tradition behind the names has been lost. lfor more information visit www.ainmean-aite.scot