Gaelic : I murder the pronunciation. But at least I try.

My mother is from Wales, and visiting the places where she grew up used to bring me face to face with road signs in two languages. Some of the names made me laugh, and I didn’t really understand why another set of words mattered so much. I was a visitor, reading the signs for directions rather than identity. These days, travelling around the North Highlands, I often find myself explaining that distinction to guests when Gaelic appears beneath a familiar place name. What can look like an inconvenience to somebody passing through means something rather different to people whose language belongs here.

Guests frequently ask whether I speak Gaelic, and the answer is no. I attempt the place names, probably murder a fair few, but at least I try. Ardvreck Castle provides a useful introduction to why the spelling can puzzle an English reader. Its Gaelic name, Àird Bhreac, contains a bh where we hear a sound like v. Gaelic’s traditional alphabet has eighteen letters and no v, but it has its own ways of representing that sound. Once you stop expecting English spelling rules to work, the words begin to look less mysterious, and their descriptions of hills, waters and settlements offer another way of reading the landscape.

The language has deep connections with Ireland and the early medieval kingdom of Dál Riata, whose territories crossed the sea between north-eastern Ireland and western Scotland. Over centuries, Gaelic spread through much of the country and became a language of the kingdom of Alba, long before English dominated Scottish public life. Its later decline involved political pressure, education, poverty and the dispersal of communities, including during the Highland Clearances. English offered opportunities for work and advancement, but too often those opportunities came with the message that the language spoken at home was something to leave behind.

Today, Gaelic-medium education and adult learning give children and adults opportunities to learn and use the language. Scotland’s 2022 census recorded nearly 70,000 people able to speak Gaelic, an increase on 2011, and it gained explicit official status in November 2025. That doesn’t make its future secure, but it does help explain the importance of seeing it acknowledged in public. I understand those Welsh signs differently now. Learning English can open opportunities, but it shouldn’t require people to give up the language that connects them with home.

To learn more, book one of our North Coast Explorer private tours.