Pitlochry

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A small town in the Perthshire region of central Scotland, known as a resort beside the River Tummel and the Highland foothills
2. A Scottish market town located in Perthshire, set in the Grampian foothills near the River Tummel and famous for its whisky distillery
3. A settlement in the county of Perthshire in central Scotland, popular with tourists visiting the Highlands and the nearby Loch Faskally

Etymology: Many visitors assume "Pit" in Pitlochry means a hole in the ground, but the element is almost certainly the Pictish "pit-", meaning a portion or share of land. It appears across eastern Scotland in names such as Pitcairn and Pitmedden, and it records an early system of dividing territory rather than any feature of the landscape. The second element is harder to pin down. It is usually linked to a Gaelic root connected with stones, so the name may describe a portion of land associated with a stony place, but the exact sense is uncertain. Place-name scholars have proposed several readings, and none is settled enough to present as fact. What is clear is that the name is older than the town itself, which grew up as a stopping point in Highland Perthshire.