The Clue is in the name

Carry Farm: Named for a Hill or a Rock?

Place names are stories in miniature, carrying centuries of landscape, language, and local life. At Carry Farm, the name invites a question: does it come from the modest hill behind the farm that is 209 metres above sea level at its highest, or from the rocks at the point that mark the narrowing of the Kyles of Bute?

The Gaelic Clue: Cnoc na Carraigh

Looking at OS maps, you will find the hill behind the farm marked as Cnoc na Carraigh, Gaelic for “hill of the rock” (cnoc = hill, carraigh = rock).

It’s a rocky little hill, not particularly tall, but in a rugged landscape even a small rise can be a landmark. In Gaelic tradition, such descriptive names were practical, helping locals navigate and manage the land.

Now looking seaward, just off Carry Point, is a rocky outcrop, the eastern edge marked by the Carry Buoy (Northern Lighthouse Board No. 46). For anyone who has travelled up the west Kyles by boat, they significantly narrow the Kyle’s of Bute, and without the Carry Buoy (and actually even WITH the buoy) many a vessel has cut the point too fine and bumped the bottom. For people arriving by sea, these rocks were far more dramatic and memorable than the small inland hill.

Which Came First? A Hill or the Sea?

Here’s the mystery we can only guess. While the hill carries the Gaelic name we see on maps, the rocks may have been the original inspiration. Coastal communities often named places after navigational features. The rocks would have been known long before farms or maps documented the inland landscape. Over time, the name likely spread from the rocks to the headland, the hill, and eventually the farm.

This pattern of naming the sea first and the land second is common in western Scotland’s maritime landscapes.

A Name That Bridges Land and Sea

Whether it was the hill or the offshore rock that gave the area its name, Carry Farm is rooted in the landscape itself. Its name connects hill and headland, shore and sea, past and present. Every time we say “Carry Farm,” we echo centuries of local knowledge and Gaelic language.

The farm’s name is a reminder that in coastal Scotland, even a small hill or a lone rock can shape stories, guide journeys, and leave a lasting mark on maps and memory.