Coldbackie ( gd, Callbacaidh) is a crofting

township A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Ca ...

Sutherland Sutherland ( gd, Cataibh) is a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area in the Highlands of Scotland. Its county town is Dornoch. Sutherland borders Caithness and Moray Firth to the east, Ross-shire and Cromartyshire (later ...

and is in the

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

council area of

Highland Highlands or uplands are areas of high elevation such as a mountainous region, elevated mountainous plateau or high hills. Generally speaking, upland (or uplands) refers to ranges of hills, typically from up to while highland (or highlands) is ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

Geography

Coldbackie lies at the mouth of the Kyle of Tongue, north east of

Tongue The tongue is a muscular organ (anatomy), organ in the mouth of a typical tetrapod. It manipulates food for mastication and swallowing as part of the digestive system, digestive process, and is the primary organ of taste. The tongue's upper surfa ...

. It sits under

Cnoc an Fhreiceadain Cnoc an Fhreiceadain (Hill of Watching or Watch Hill) is a coastal mountain peak in northern Scotland. It is high with commanding views along the north coast of Scotland to Orkney in the east to Durness and Arkle in the West. It lies in the par ...

(the Watch Hill), looking north across

Tongue Bay Tongue Bay ( gd, Tunga from non, Tunga) is located in northwest Highland, Scotland, in the western part of the former county of Sutherland. Skullomie is a small fishing and crofting hamlet at the head of the bay, while Melness is a group of cro ...

to the Rabbit Islands. It is one of a series of townships, running from Tongue along the A836 to Blandy. The township of Scullomie is to the north.

Etymology

The name Coldbackie could have

old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and t ...

Gaelic Gaelic is an adjective that means "pertaining to the Gaels". As a noun it refers to the group of languages spoken by the Gaels, or to any one of the languages individually. Gaelic languages are spoken in Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man, and Ca ...

roots. The place name Coldbackie is not unique to the Kyle of Tongue, with there being two Coldbacks in

Shetland Shetland, also called the Shetland Islands and formerly Zetland, is a subarctic archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands and Norway. It is the northernmost region of the United Kingdom. The islands lie about to the no ...

(in Unst and Delting) and one in north west

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

, both areas where Norse roots would be more likely. Omand, in ''The Sutherland book'', translates Coldbackie as kula-bakki, bank with the bump, whilst Stewart, in ''Place names of Shetland'' says that Coldbacks is Cold Hill.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Coldbackie on the web

Section on Coldbackie
Populated places in Sutherland