Scottish Gaelic Road Signs

Road signs in the Highland region of Scotland have now adopted Scottish Gaelic as well as English.

This follows a similar move in Wales, where road signs are displayed in both English and Welsh. Thus the sign below on the scenic A82 from Inverness to Glasgow is rendered as Inbhir Nis in Gaelic as well as Inverness in English.

Inbhir Nis (Inverness)

Sir Iain Andrew Noble

Road signs in Scottish Gaelic owe much to Sir Iain Andrew Noble, whose pressure for bilingual signage on a road through his land on the Isle of Skye lead to the first Gaelic road sign in Scotland in 1973. Bilingual road signs in Scotland are now commonplace in the Highlands and many other parts of Scotland.

Several universities in Scotland now offer Gaelic as a degree or as part of a course. There are courses at the University of Edinburgh, the University of Glasgow, the University of Aberdeen, and Sabhal Mòr Ostaig. The latter is the National Centre for Gaelic Language and Culture based in Sleat on the Isle of Skye. It offers courses in Gaelic language and literature as well as music and art.

Read about road signs in England.

Gaelic road sign in Mallaig in the Western Highlands of Scotland

Map of the Scottish Highlands

Scottish Highlands Map

The Highlands includes the Western Isles (Skye, Mull, Benbecula, Harris and Lewis), Fort William, Inverness, Loch Ness, Cairngorms National Park, and Aviemore.