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As a result of these periods of decline, Gaelic is now no longer spoken widely in either Scotland or, indeed, the Highlands. This is particularly evident on the Mainland. Only in the Western Isles and parts of Skye is the language spoken by the majority. When visitors to the Highlands try to interpret place-names from OS maps, they are often not in a current Gaelic-speaking area. There are usually no native speakers to advise about a map’s accuracy, or the local pronunciation and meaning of place-names. Paradoxically, in the Outer Hebrides, where Gaelic is most widely spoken, place-names, particularly for settlements, are sometimes more likely to be Norse than Gaelic. Given the huge area of the Highlands and the concentrations of Gaelic place-names distributed over the territory, what explains the rarity of the spoken language? Why is a landscape so richly named so empty of the people who named it? What has happened to them and their language, which is scattered so liberally over the map?