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There is no reason why different people at different times should not have had different names for the same place. Toponymic options may express contrasting but not necessarily contradictory aspects of place. Places will also change over time. Vegetation can be subject to the most rapid alteration. A causal interpretation of the name changes might be as follows. We begin with an island wooded with mature pines, Eilean Giuthais. These are felled and deciduous trees and shrubs regenerate and fill the vacant space left in the canopy. Such species are more favourable to the roosting of crows than conifers. The island catches fire, perhaps because of the combustible nature of broom and gorse, which also have regenerated in the lighter conditions of the new woodland. The island becomes known as Eilean Loisgte. The writings of two travellers shed some light on the matter. Thomas Pennant, who journeyed through the Highlands in 1769, suggests that the island was wooded with ‘firs’, the vernacular for Scots Pine, whereas the geologist John MacCulloch, over fifty years later, mentions a scattering of trees and thickets of mixed species over the islands.