The book Arran; - Cook Clan

14 THE BOOK OF ARRAN
Masters in Arran they no doubt were, with a subject
native population to labour and fetch and carry for them in
their boisterous halls, as we may infer from the masterful
method in which their names stand out upon the island.
A well-fixed earlier name they borrow and adapt, as they do
with Arran, ' the lofty or mountainous,' ^ of which they make
Herrey or Hersey, and in reducing Eilean Molaisi, ' the
island of Molaise,' to Melansay, where the final sound, in
both cases, represents the Norse word for an island. Otherwise
the outstanding features of the island are conspicuously
Norse, while there is an absence of the humbler domestic
names, which are as predominantly Gaelic. Even allowing
for a later re-naming, in contrast with the condition of things
in Lewis where all grades are represented, where township
names in host and stead abound, and the Norse names are
four to one, whereas in Arran they are but one in eight, and
no hosts or steads— ^we may infer a smaller Norse element in
the population, and that element as dominant over the rest.
Thus from the Norse we have Brodick and Goat Fell and
Sannox and Ranza, and glens as ' dales ' from the same source,
with Pladda and ' the Cleats ' and Markland ^ and Pennyland
and Feorlines or farthing-lands. The glens were no doubt
the homes of the Celtic population, as they mainly were till
late in history, and such names as Ormidale and Chalmadale
probably retain the memory of the Orm and Hjalmund who
took over these and their occupants as the perquisites of
conquest. Homely enough the Norse names are, from
natural features or plants or animals, and Brodick and
Loch Ranza are harbours.^ For they were not all warriors,
the Vikings ; they had their farms, and they turned in-
stinctively to trade. They were essentially a business
people, not more turbulent or cruel than their Christian pre-
' This seems the most probable explanation. For several others see Currie's
Place-Names of Arran. ' ' Markland '= 'boundary-land/ N. mdrk, march.
^ On the Norse names see Mr. Bremner's Appendix, D.