Galloway: The Lost Province of Gaelic Scotland

by Michael Ansell (Editor), Ronald Black (Editor), Edward J. Cowan (Editor)

Galloway and Carrick form the south-western corner of Scotland. Though cut of by the Lowlands and the sea from the rest of the Gaelic-speaking world, the area has a proud Gaelic past. In this mould-breaking book, ten scholars pool their research to answer some key questions. When was Gaelic spoken here? Where did it last longest? What was it like? What do we know of the people who spoke it? A startling new consensus emerges.

439 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2022

About the author

Michael Ansell lives in the foothills of the Rhinns of Kells, in Galloway, Scotland. He undertakes research into place-and field-names, particularly those of Galloway.

Reviews

[Graeme · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is valuable and groundbreaking material in this book. However, the chapters by Roibeard Ó Maolalaigh are pretty impenetrable to anyone without a background in Gaelic or linguistics and, their obvious scholarship notwithstanding, they are disappointingly inconclusive.

I was particularly taken with Ronald Black's chapter on the enigmatic song 'Òran Bagraidh', James Brown on the persistence of 'Nic' surnames for women, and the late Alistair Livingston on the baleful cultural impacts of Calvinism and the Galloway Clearances.

Despite the book's title, much of the evidence is stronger for Carrick in Ayrshire, on the 'Gaelic pond' of the lower Firth of Clyde, than for modern Galloway.