New book on Gaelic place-names launched in Inverness

Ainmean-Àite na h-Alba are delighted to announce the publications of Further Scottish Place-Name Papers of William J. Watson, edited by Dr Jacob King.

William J. Watson (1865-1948) was one of the most important figures in the study of Scottish place-names and Gaelic historical linguistics and literature. Best known for Place-names of Ross and Cromarty (1904) and Celtic Place-names of Scotland (1926), his work laid the foundations for modern Scottish toponymic scholarship.

Further Scottish Place-Name Papers aims to bring together, for the first time, all of Watson’s place-name material not already included in the above works or in the earlier volume Scottish Place-Name Papers (2002). The book includes previously unpublished articles from the Carmichael-Watson Collection, articles omitted from earlier collections, letters published in newspapers, extracts from the works of other authors incorporating Watson’s views, material from his fieldwork notebooks, private correspondence, and other assorted pieces. An appendix seeks to identify as many as possible of Watson’s informants.

Fully indexed and carefully contextualised, this book forms an essential companion to Scottish Place-Name Papers and an important resource for scholars of Scottish toponymy and Gaelic studies.

Dr Jacob King is Senior Researcher at Ainmean-Àite na h-Alba, the organisation responsible for providing authoritative forms of Gaelic place-names for use in media such as publications and bilingual signage. He is the author of a number of articles about place-names, as well as one of the authors of the NatureScot Gaelic in the Landscape series and is the editor of Scottish Gaelic Place-Names: The Collected Works of Charles M. Robertson (2019).

‘These papers form a treasury of gems of research and insight from Scotland’s greatest twentieth-century toponymist. Professor Watson’s authoritative scholarship is revealed within a broader historical, linguistic, geographical and cultural context, making this collection a ‘must-have’ for any student of Scottish place-names.’
Roddy Maclean, Gaelic landscape educator

The book was launched at the Scottish Place-Name Society spring conference in Inverness on the 2^nd of May 2026. It is quite poignant that the launch took place at this event as it was a special conference marking the centenary of W. J. Watson’s The History of the Celtic Place-names of Scotland.