ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to explain why some Gaelic names persisted outside the zone, in ‘middle Britain’, a term that conveniently encompasses northern England and southern Scotland. It argues that the Gaelic names were not merely fossils of an earlier naming system, but that their continued presence reflects contemporary contacts between ‘middle Britain’ and the Gaelic-speaking world. Indeed, the twelfth century was the high watermark of Gaelic, which was widely spoken in the Scottish heartlands and enjoyed increasing currency in the Isles, the Hiberno-Scandinavian settlements and south-west Scotland. The chapter offers a counterweight to the image of total disjunction between the ‘barbaric’ Gaelic world and the ‘civilised’ Normans, a picture that some contemporary writers drew luridly. South-western Scotland was a true Gaidhealtachd with a varied and appropriate naming pool, while other parts of ‘middle Britain’ enjoyed continuing links to Gaeldom.
