Placename
Gaelic name: Cùl na Cille
Name in Original Source: Kalnakill
English meaning: Beyond the Church
Placename feature: Township
Notes: This place name has been misrepresented on many occasions but oral tradition states that it should properly be Cùl na Cille - the back of, or behind, the church - as the people of this district walked over the hill to worship at Clachan. Even W.J Watson appears to be wrong. According to Kenneth Macrae, F.S.A. Scot.,: This is a Gaelic name and its present form misled Dr Watson in his 'Place-names of Ross and Cromarty' to give its meaning as 'Harbour of the Cell or Cell of the Harbour'. There is neither a harbour nor a cell here, and the older forms of the name show it to have been Beyond the Church. As no other place-names are given there Cuil-na Cille must have been the name of that open stretch now known as The Coast, including Sand, Sallachar (The Willows), Lonbain (The White Meadow), the central part now known as Callakille, Saorach (Freeland), Cuaig (Cow Bay), Riaulay (Aulay's Strip), and Fearn (The Alders). All there are modern Gaelic names with the exception of Cuaig which is Norse and would originally be applied to the bay only.<br /><br /><br /><br />Calum MacKay (27/10/2006) said that it really meant Beyond the church, or the back of the church, because it related to the direction that the people of that coastal district would have to travel in to attend church at Clachan, information he got from his father-in-law Alister Gillies.<br /><br /><br /><br />Also called: Calnakil (Hermann Moll's map, 1718); Calnakill (Jansson's map, 1659); Caolnakill (Le Rouge's map, 1746); Cullakin (Roy's Military Survey, 1747-55); Calla Kelle (Admiralty Chart, 1850)
W. J. Watson's notes: 206: Calnakil - Culnakle 1662 - Harbour of the cell; an old church name. G. Cal na cille.
Map name appears in: NG 65 SE; OS 1880 Sheet XCIA
Feature Co-ordinates: 57.522006,-5.855553
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