Note 306 — Copy of the Petition of George, Lord Rutherford, etc.[291]
Reading edition
Captain Alexander MacDonald, Ned Burke, and Miss Flora MacDonald agree in telling me that the name of Clanronald's house in Benbecula is Ballinnagallioch, i.e. the Carl's house, about five miles from Rossinish, which is a kind of a harbour. I told the said Captain Alexander MacDonald that I had asked at several Highlanders about the derivation and meaning of the word Benbecula, but I could never meet with any one that could give me an answer. I then begged him to satisfie me as to that. He answered that he looked upon Benbecula as a corruption of the original, which in Erse was Beinnmhaol (as to the true just spelling) but Beinviol (as to the vulgar way of spelling), i.e. a hummle or bare hill, there being such a hill in the island of Benbecula.—Robert Forbes, A.M.