Luskentyre
Losgaintir

The final village that is a part of the West Harris Trust area is Luskentyre. Confusion surrounds the name with several theories of its origins with some saying it was a cry from vikings saying “Burn the land” (“Losg an tìr” in Gaelic). This is unlikely as the Vikings did not speak Gaelic, but may have been what native people thought they had said.

 

A potentially more likely root of the name comes from ‘Lusken’ meaning light coloured and ‘err’ meaning a stretch of sand spit. This makes sense geographically with the spit stretching from the headland. You will also not hear in Gaelic the ‘t' in 'tìr’ pronounced in ‘Losgaintir’ suggesting it may not have meant ‘land’ (‘tìr’).