CLIMBERS and hillwalkers are being offered lessons to help them pronounce and understand the Gaelic names of Scotland's hills and mountains.
The often mystifying experience for English-only speakers venturing out to the country's wild and windy places is to be deciphered thanks to a partnership between the Fort William Mountain Festival and Sabhal Mor Ostaig, the National Centre for Gaelic Language and Culture.
Native Gaelic speaker and scholar Cailean Maclean will lead the two-hour session during the festival, at the West Highland College UHI in Fort William, and help walkers learn the correct way to say Glas Mhaol, Beinn Dearg and other natural features.
Cailean was born and brought up in the Hebrides and has lived in Skye for 30 years, and has a wealth of knowledge about Scotland's Gaelic history and place names.
Mountain with Gaelic names include Buachaille Etive Mor which, in its Gaelic spelling, means The Great Herdsman of Etive.
But many have less romantic monikers and are simple descriptions of the physical landscape, such as and Bein Narnairn, which means 'hill of notches', and Beinn Mheadhain, which means 'middle mountain.
Glas Mhaol means the Green/Grey Rounded Hill, An Stuc the Pinacle and Beinn Dearg means The Red Mountain.
The class will be held on 20 February.
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