Talk:Ayre (landform)

message: If the primary meaning of the word is the body of water, as suggested by the opening of the article, it is unfortunate that the only pic is of the secondary meaning, especially since ayre as in tombolo has lots of pix and is fairly familiar, whereas a good pic of this body of water would be very instructive and interesting.  Would the Fleet in Chesil Beach be an example of an Ayre?  Since we already have articles on tombolo, spit, bar etc. I suggest that this example focuses on the body of water meaning and we build it with this in mind.
IceDragon64 (talk) 22:51, 24 February 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Primary and secondary meaning 

message: What, if any, is the difference between a lagoon and an ayre?  Lagoon is a common word, would it be true to say that that ayre is a scottish/british/celtic/whatever word for a lagoon? If so we should say so, whilst still explaining what it is and giving these examples, along with any subtle difference we can show evidence for.
IceDragon64 (talk) 23:00, 24 February 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: Well, "ayre" can also mean a tombolo.--MacRusgail (talk) 15:02, 25 February 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Lagoon? 

message: Ayre derives from the old Norse "Eyrr" (see Wiktionary)meaning a shingle beach or spit. It occurs in modern Icelandic as "eyri" and Norwegian as "øyr".
There are dozens of ayre names on the Ordnance Survey maps of Shetland and rather fewer in Orkney.  It also occurs in the Isle of Man, which was once a norse stronghold. All ayre names are associated with a beach, bar or spit, almost always of shingle.   Most of them are not associated with a loch or lagoon, but where there is one it usually has its own name.  On the 1:10,000 scale maps the name runs along or parallel to the beach or spit. On the smaller scale maps the ayre name is in black, indicating a terrestrial feature.  Aquatic features such as lochs and lagoons are named in blue.  
Examples (with grid references):
Simple shingle beach with no loch or lagoon - Shalder's Ayre (HU390397), Ayre of Atler (HU457611), Little Ayre (HY306919)
Cliff foot shingle beaches - Ayre of Deepdale (HU177549), Lang Ayre (HU288854), Ayre of Tonga (HP585145), Hinderayre (HY423195)
Shingle spit - Little Ayre (HU437435), Muckle Ayre (HU446445), North and South Ayres of Cunnister (HU523968 and HU526962)
Shingle tombolo - The Ayre (HY288892), Gluss Ayre (HU368774)
Bar with loch or lagoon - Muckle Ayre (HU365691)(the loch is called the Loch of North Haa), Ayres of Swinister (HU448723)(the lagoon is called The Houb), The Ayre(HY445112)(the loch, originally a lagoon, is calld the Peedie Sea)
It is clear from this that the primary meaning of the word is a shingle beach, whether simple, cliff foot, spit, bar or tombolo.  It is sometimes applied (incorrectly I would say) to sand tombolos, but I am not aware of any instances of its being used for a lagoon.
Nasty swimmer (talk) 16:30, 6 July 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Meaning of Ayre 

message: Would anyone be willing to confirm and provide a source for the language of origin and possibly meaning of the words 'oyce' or 'houbs' as used in this article?
--Thanks and Cheers! Elfabet (talk) 20:45, 26 October 2018 (UTC)
replies: text: Thanks a ton, ! Those are both brilliant and helped improve our project. Cheers! Elfabet (talk) 13:13, 19 November 2018 (UTC)
thread_title:  Meaning and language of ''oyce'' and ''houbs''