A new book, about Tiree, Longships on the Sand, has proposed that the West Coast island was mainly Norse for at least four centuries.
This conclusion comes from an analysis of place-names. The Ordnance Survey collected more than 600 place-names from Tiree – a higher density than on any other West Coast island.
GP John Holliday was, until recently, the island’s doctor for 30 years. In that time he collected more than 2,500 additional place-names. Of these, around 250 seem to come from the Norse, although some are cunningly disguised.