Placename
Gaelic name: Toghsgaig
Name in Original Source: Toscaig
English meaning: How-strip
Placename feature: Township
Notes: Reverend John MacQueen writing in the Old Statistical Account, Volume XIV, 381: ... All those places, whose names terminate in ic, which, in the Danish language, is said to signify a bay, as Tosgic, Cuic, Dibic, and Shittic, hath each of them an inlet of the sea. <br /><br /><br /><br />From the writings of Kenneth Macrae, F.S.A. Scot.: [Toskag] This, too, is a low fertile strip of land through which runs a small river. The name is Norse and means The Bay of the Burial-mound. Its name shows it to have been inhabited in very ancient times for this mode of burial must have preceded the coming of the Christian monks in the seventh century. The burial-mound has disappeared but artefacts of the early Iron Age have been unearthed here from time to time. Unfortunately none of these has been preserved. Today the river runs through an artificial channel but there is no clue as to when this was made. Throughout the eighteenth century Toskag was tenanted by four families but in the general upheaval of 1800 to 1810 the land was aprcelled out among eighteen families. It was at Toskag the Sanctuary was violated about 1600. The name Lochan-a-Chath commemmorates the event although there is no loch there now and the cliff which played a part has been mutilated by quarrying.<br /><br /><br /><br />Also called Tuscag (Roy's Military Survey,, 1747-55; MacKenzie's The south part of Sky Island and the adjacent main of Scotland, 1775)
W. J. Watson's notes: 203: Toscaig - Toskag 1662; G. Toghscaig (close o); 't-hauga-skiki', how-strip; 'hauga,' a cairn, barrow, how. There is also Abhainn Thogscaig, the river of Toscaig, and Loch Thoghscaig, the loch of Toscaig.
Map name appears in: Sheet 1880 CIX-AHS
Feature Co-ordinates: 57.3797,-5.8082
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