English / Map Form: Linlithgow
Gaelic Form: Gleann Iucha
Location: West Lothian
Post Town: LINLITHGOW
Postcode area: EH49
County: West Lothian
Local Authority: West Lothian
English / Map Form: Linlithgow
Gaelic Form: Gleann Iucha
Language Notes
Element Meaning
G gleann ~ glen; iucha ~ obscure element
Sources
| Iarrla Litcu | c. 1500-1700 Rosg Gàidhlig 149 |
| Glenvchow alias Lithkow | c. 1542 Obituary Relating to the Highlands |
| Glenugh, Lithkow | 1666-99 Wardlaw MS, 64 |
| Glanwych | 1699 Edward Lhuyd MS.H.4.28, folio 71 Recto |
| drochaid Ghlinn-Iuch | 1900 MacTalla vol. ix |
| Gleann Iucha | 1903 Henderson ‘Gaelic Dialects’ ZCP, 267 [Gaelic form recorded local to Morvern] |
| Gleann-iuch | 1905 ‘True Stories’175, 186 etc. |
| drochaid Ghlinn-Iuch | 1906 Eachdraidh a’ Phrionnsa, 38 |
| ann an Gleann-Iuch | 1906 Eachdraidh a’ Phrionnsa, 39 |
| tobraichean Ghlinn Iucha (or Iuch) | Watson 1926, 384 |
Additional Information
‘Linlithgow, celebrated for its wells, is known in the Highlands as Gleann Iuch, and the Linlithgow measures are called tomhais Ghlinn Iuch’ Gregorson Campbell, Witchcraft and Second Sight, 1902, 279.
The Gaelic form is a reinterpretation of the British form into *Gleann Fhliuch Chu, ‘glen of the wet dog’ which later turned into the current Gaelic form.
See also Watson 1926, 384-5.
