Disert is from the Latin deserta, waste-places; but the meaning was enlarged. There is a recorded Church of S. Ninian at ‘Disert’ in Moray, believed to be at Dyke. The place is no longer known by its first name. Disert, originally, meant any solitary place where the cleric might retire for a short time from the community for meditation and devotion. S. Martin had his Casa some miles away from Poictiers; and his cave on the Cher, well outside Tours; S. Ninian had his cave on the seashore some distance from the “Magnum Monasterium” at Candida Casa. This usage was even applied to the Cuculla or Hooded Garment which covered the Cleric. Sometimes it was called Capa, sometimes Casula. The hood of the Capa was the only head-covering of the Celtic Clerics; and it was used only in cold or storm. Those who seek an explanation of the unexplained word Cap should note this. Those, also, who wish a further example of how initial C was avoided in Pictland, should note the word ‘ Hap’ still applied there to any garment like the ancient Capa or Cuculla which was a wrap for the day and a blanket for the night.
S. Servanus had his cave at Dysart in Fife; S. Kentigern retired ‘ad deserta loca” where his dwelling was a cave; S. Finbar and S. Comgall had retreats in the ‘Holy Wood’; S. Cainnech had a solitude on an island in a loch. In these solitary places these leaders of men meditated on God and rejoiced in Nature. They made friends with the wild creatures around them; the wild swans came to S. Comgall at his call; S. Kentigern had a wolf and a stag for companions; and S.Cainnech was followed by a hind. n their monastic organizations the Picts and Britons left room for the anchoret as well as the cenobite. The Irish Christians at a later period recognized Diserts especially intended for men who had no external interests, religious or otherwise,who had imprisoned themselves ar Dia, ‘ for God,’ that is, for continued devotional exercises. The Irish also, in the late period, used Dithreabh, Wilderness, for Disert. Disert is still in use in Pictland, but only in secular place-names.
Bachall (Brit. bagl) from Latin baculum, was the pastoral staff of an Ab or bishop. When sent by a messenger who was the bearer of a verbal order from the Ab; the staff was a sign that the order had been authorized. The pastoral staves of SS. Moluag and Fillan are still preserved. The staff of S. Donnan the Great vanished at Auchterless Church at the Reformation. Certain lands at Kilmun went with the custody of S. Mund’s staff; and the property called ‘ Bachul’ in Lismore is still held by the hereditary keepers of S.Moluag’s staff. After the period of the Celtic Church the Bachalls of the saints were venerated as relics, used in healing the sick, and, to bring victory, were carried in front of the fighting-men as they marched into battle, which explains why the ‘Bachul’ of S. Moluag was in the custody of the standard-bearer of the lords of Lorn.
Cathair is a name associated with the sites of many cities and muinntirs in the territories of the Britons and Picts. Etymologists insist that it represents two words (i) Cathair (Brit. Caer, Latin Castrum), a fort; seen in ‘Caerleon,’ Fortified camp of the Legions; and in “CaerPheris”the thirteenth -century Dun-Fres (Dumfries), Fort of the Frisians. (2) Cathair ( Welsh Cadair, Latin Cathedra), a chair, particularly a bishop’s Cathedra or Chair. If the etymologists are right; mediaeval Latin translators of Celtic documents would be wrong ; because they call early monastic settlements ‘cities,’ not seats, and indicate, what is correct, that as a rule they were fortified. ‘Car-Budde’ near Forfar, for example, is known to be ‘Castrum Boethii,’ *Fort of S. Buidhe; not Chair of S. Buidhe. It was a gift from Nectan, the Sovereign of Pictland. Joceline writes ‘ad Cathures ‘ in the sense of ‘ad castra,’ that is, to the place that became known as the camp of S. Kentigern’s community, the first name of the city of Glasgow.
On the other hand, there are places in Pictland connected with the early Celtic missionaries called ‘Suidhe,’ a seat, and an alternative name among the people is ‘Cathair’ The Suidhe- Donnan in Sutherland, for example, is a deeply concave rock, associated with the fieldpreaching of S. Donnan the Great. Apart from the fact that it was one of S. Donnan’s preaching-places ; the tradition is that at the Suidhe Donnan he ‘judged ‘ the people. In Ireland the Suidhe is frequently associated with some Brehon or Lawgiver. It is also called “Cathair” and it is in a protected position. These stones called Cathair or Suidhe are not all associated with saints, the best known is the Lia Fail now in Westminster. ‘Cathair,’ if equivalent to Suidhe, appears in Pictland to have the simple sense of the original Greek kathédra, a seat. There seems, however, to have been but one word ‘ Cathair’ which in course of time took a secondary meaning, designating not the fort but the seat protected by the fort. In neither sense was ‘Cathair’ an episcopal word. It was used in Pictland centuries before the introduction of the monarchic or diocesan bishop with his official ‘cathedra’ It was not the Chair of the bishop, but the Chair of the Ab which was the seat of authority in Pictland for many long centuries. The writers who interpreted Cathair, when linked to a saint’s name, as referring to his ‘city’ rather than to an episcopal chair were conforming to historical truth.
Bangor. In Pictland this name takes the forms Bangor, Banchory, Banagher. Among the Britons are ‘Bangor Padarn”* ‘Bangor y Ty Gwyn ar Dav’ and many others. Among the Irish are The ‘Bangor of S. Comgall, ‘Lis-Banagher” and Church of ‘Ross Bennchuir,’ besides many others. One Irish writer refers to ‘Benncair Britonum,’that is, Bangor of the Britons. Also, among the Britons were the famous ‘Cor Tewdws” destroyed in the fifth century during a raid from the Irish coast and restored by S.Illtyd (died A. D. 512.) and, besides others, ‘Cor Tathan which originated in the beginning of the sixth century, and sometimes called Bangor Tathan.^ Associated with many of the Bangors among the Britons were the houses bearing the name ‘Ty Gwyn,’ that is, White House, a name already noticed at S. Ninian’s Candida Casa, Whithorn.
Legends have been invented, and etymological analyses applied to explain ‘Bangor ‘as a topographical name. The results have been amazing. The name has been discussedat length in this work in Connection with S. Comgall’s labours. It is sufficient to state here that ‘ Bangor ‘ was the name of an organization or institution. All the features of a ‘Bangor’ were present in S. Martin’s Magnum Monasterium, and in the daughter-house at * Padarn ap Pedredin. This place is now Llanpadarn Var in Cardiganshire.
Candida Casa, namely, the monastic community with means for training and discipline; a Church; Schools for the training of outsiders not intending the Church. Only in two features did the Bangors improve on S. Martin’s or S. Ninian’s establishments; the communities were more numerous, and the Laus perennis, the continuous course of Divine praise, was more perfectly celebrated by huge choirs, which were divided into large groups who took regular turns of the duty and sang with a refinement not possible when S. Martin was organizing his choir out of the raw converts in Gaul. So far as dates can be compared, they are in favour of the view that the name ‘Bangor’ was carried from the Britons to Ireland along with the perfected organization of the Laus ferennis,which was a feature of S. Comgall’s Rangor, by men educated among the Britons like S. Finian of Clonard and others who were Britons by birth as well as education. Columbanus also made it a feature of the daughter-house at Luxeuil.At Bangor Illtyd each group numbered one hundred, according to the Triads. Just as the monasticism of S. Martin in Gaul was for a long time regarded with disfavour by certain authorities in the Western Church, so in the Eastern Church the cenobiteswhogave themselves to the celebration of Lausperennis were regarded as a sect and were called ‘Acoimetae’ Their great centre in the East was at Constantinople, in the famous Studion founded c. A.D. 460.
The following names are Celtic, most of them are Pictish or Brito-Pictish.
Andat or Annat meant a Church whose staff ministered to outlying congregations,or a Church which provided ministerial supply to other smaller Churches when required. The word has been happily translated, Mother-Church. ‘Andat’ is still the name of the site of a Church at Methlick in Aberdeenshire founded by S. Ninian on his northern mission. The name alone indicates the antiquity of this place. ‘Andat’ and ‘Annat’ are found throughout Pictland, and mostly at sites dating from before the Roman Catholic period. In Ireland one oftheChurches*founded there by the earliest British missionaries was called ‘Ando6it.” Afters. 727, when veneration of ‘Relics’ began among the Irish Celts under Roman influence, the relics were enshrined at the Andat or Mother-Church. Relics were not venerated in the Church of Pictland until it had been overtaken by Roman influence in the eighth century. The original meaning of ‘Relig’ in Ireland was Cemetery.
Nemhidh is a name that came to be applied to a place rendered sacred by the existence of a Church or other sacred institution. It is, however, The Church of a certain Earnan regarded (c. 800) as one of S. Patrick’s disciples, a pre-Christian name, and is one of the oldest names in Pictland. It was originally applied to a sanctuary in a grove. The people pronounce it ‘Nevie and Navie. Professor Watson equates it with the Gaulish Nemeton, and quotes Zeuss, l de sacris silvarum quae nimidias vacant’* The Indo-European root of the word is seen in the name of the famous Nemivt the Alban mount in Italy, the ‘sanctuary of Diana Nemorensis or Diana of the wood.’ The wood where S. Comgall and S. Finbar had their ‘ retreats,’ now Holywood, was called ‘Nemus sacrum’ There is a parish Nevay in Forfarshire, and the name is frequent in Pictland.
Dair, genitive darach, means Oak. It is the original of the place-names Deer, Darra, and ‘Tear,’ the Caithness pronunciation of a Church founded from and named after Deer. Z^zV came to mean Oak-grove, as we know from the place where the Celtic fort of Derry originally stood. ‘Derteack 1 and ‘Deartaighe’ meant Oak-house, and also an oak-built prayer-house. Drostan, the anchoret of the heights of Brechin, was known as ‘Drostan Dairthaighe?\ that is, Drostan of the Oak-house cell.
Gomrie, Comrie, and in Ireland ‘Innis-Coimrighi! S. Maelrubha’s, Abercrossan (Applecross), is ‘Combrick* Maelrubha. Irish has also ‘Comairche! Modern Gaelic is Comraich. The Comraich was the defined area around the Church where the shedder-of-blood could claim the protection of the Church and fair trial. It was the Pictish ‘City of Refuge,’ and restricted the range of the blood-feud. If a refugee reached the comraich of a daughter-Church; he could claim the intervention of the Ab of the Mother-Church however distant he might be; and this ensured trial away from local prejudices. An Irish ruler’s son slew a man who had claimed sanctuary at the Church of one of S. Columba’s monks, for which act S. Columba organized armed hostility*against him. This was the battle of Cutl-Feadha, organized by S. Columba against Colman mac Diarmid because Cuimin, son of the latter, slew Baedan mac Ninnidh
Garth, seen in ‘Girth-Cross,’ Kingarth, and other names, is the Scandinavian rendering of Comraich. Garth originally meant an inclosure. ‘ Girth-cross ‘f is one of the Cross-marked stones that marked the boundaries of the Comraich.
Llan is a Britonic word. It originally meant a place marked off and inclosed, then it came to mean the fortified inclosure of the Church, and as finally applied to the Church itself. Llan is seen in Lamlash, the Church of S. Mo-Lias; in Lumphanan (Llan-Fhinan) the Church of Finan;in Lhanbride, Church of Brite. This name has nothing to do with S. Brigit. The two latter names, referring to a certain Finan and a certain Brite”, are in the area of Pictland worked by the British missionaries. The first name, Lamlash, is in the old territory of the Britons.
Lis (Brittonic llys, Breton Us) also originally meant an inclosure with a rampart. It afterwards came to be applied to the Church- inclosure, and in modern times to a garden. In Ireland/^ means a fortification. The name is seen in S. Moluag’s ‘Lismore’ and in many minor places throughout Pictland. The ramparts of S. Donnan’s Us at the Church of Auchterless used to be visible. The fortifying ditch and wall can still be seen at some of the early Church-sites in Pictland where they have not been disturbed. The sites of the Churches founded by S. Ninian on his northern mission at Dunottar, Navidale, and Wick Head were on sea-washed cliffs protected on the land side by ditches or natural ravines and approachable only by narrow footways. S. Ninian’s ‘ Tempul’ in the Great Glen at Glenurquhart was inclosed in the ‘Lis-ant-Rinianl S. Ninian’s inclosure.
Dabhach seen in ‘Doch-Fin,’ S. Finbar’s Davach at Dornoch, and in ‘Doch-Moluag,’ S. Moluag’s Davach, was a measure of land in Pictland.Wherever it is used with a Celtic saint’s name it indicates the old benefices and endowments of the Pictish Church.
Examples of secular names drawn from Pictish speech are
Pit as a prefix. Originally it meant Portion or share. From ‘share of land,’ it came to mean homestead and town. Pen, Head. Seen in Caer-pen-tiilach now ‘ Kirkintilloch.’ Tulach is Gaelic duplicate oipen.Dol, in Pictland as in Britanny, is Flat-ground on a higher plane than the mackairor plain-land.Oykel and Ochil, High. The Pictish pronunciation of the original word is indicated in the xella’ of the early Greek geographers. Rhos is Moor. Pefr is Clear (applied to water) Preas (-fhreas) is Bush. Cardenn is a Thicket. Gwydd is a Wood, seen in ‘ Keith.’ Gwaneg is a Wave of sea or loch, seen in ‘ Fannich.’ Pawr (-fhawr) is Pasture, seen in Bal-four;. Dr. Macbain stated that Stokes, Zimmer, and Giiterbock regarded this word as an early borrowing from Latin. The early nomenclature of monasticism, with which the Celts of Gaul were familiar, was mostly fromGreek and slightly from Chaldaic and Coptic. The Latin Church was at first opposed to monasticism.
It is not clear how inital Latin C was articulated; but the Gaidhealic scribes reproduced as ‘ Circ ‘ and ‘ Ciric ‘ the names which in Pictland were pronounced ‘Grig,’ for example, ‘ ” Ecdes-Grig 1 in Kincardine; and ‘Me Giric ‘ and ‘ Mai- Girc ‘ in the Book of Deer.