Pittentrail ( gd, Bad an Tràill ''or'' Baile an Tràill, italic=invert) is a hamlet on the A839 road, in the

Rogart Rogart ( , , meaning "great enclosed field") is a small village in Sutherland, Highland, Scotland. The village was the home of Major Andrew MacDonald, who fought in the French and Indian War. It was originally a scattered crofting village, u ...

parish in east

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 ...

, in the

Scottish Highlands The Highlands ( sco, the Hielands; gd, a’ Ghàidhealtachd , 'the place of the Gaels') is a historical region of Scotland. Culturally, the Highlands and the Lowlands diverged from the Late Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Sco ...

. The River Fleet runs to the south. The settlement became better known in the area when

Rogart railway station , symbol_location = gb , symbol = rail , image = Rogart Station - geograph.org.uk - 1854168.jpg , caption = The station in 2010, looking west , borough = Rogart, Highland , country ...

was built in the village. The station is still in use and operates as a request stop on the

Far North Line The Far North Line is a rural railway line entirely within the Highland area of Scotland, extending from Inverness to Thurso and Wick. As the name suggests, it is the northernmost railway in the United Kingdom. The line is entirely single-trac ...

, but the station buildings have been converted into private residential use. The station yard has been made into gardens, with old signs and other railway memorabilia lying about. The original

siding Siding may refer to: * Siding (construction), the outer covering or cladding of a house * Siding (rail) A siding, in rail terminology, is a low-speed track section distinct from a running line or through route such as a main line, branch l ...

s have been retained, and the train carriages sitting on them converted into a novel independent

youth hostel A hostel is a form of low-cost, short-term shared sociable lodging where guests can rent a bed, usually a bunk bed in a dormitory, with shared use of a lounge and sometimes a kitchen. Rooms can be mixed or single-sex and have private or shared ba ...

, known as sleeperzzz.com (sic). The lively Pittentrail Inn is on the north side of the village, near the

war memorial A war memorial is a building, monument, statue, or other edifice to celebrate a war or victory, or (predominating in modern times) to commemorate those who died or were injured in a war. Symbolism Historical usage It has ...

Etymology

Etymologically speaking, the first element the name ''Pittentrail'' is ''pett'', a

Pictish Pictish is the extinct language, extinct Brittonic language spoken by the Picts, the people of eastern and northern Scotland from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages. Virtually no direct attestations of Pictish remain, short of a limited num ...

word borrowed into

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 ...

meaning "land-holding, unit of land". The second is Gaelic ''tràill'', another

loan-word A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because th ...

, from the

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 ...

for "thrall, slave".

Notes

Populated places in Sutherland {{Highland-geo-stub