Loch
It look so easy and yet so many people pronounce it "lock" which is not correct. The Scottish 'ch' sound has parallels with German (as in achtung!), involving almost a clearing of the throat to say it. Even after demonstrating it to some folk, they find they cannot copy it as their voices have never come across a sound like it before! The little town of Avoch in Ross-shire is a perfect example - ignore the first two letters of its name and just say "Och" and you'll be speaking like a local! If you can manage to pronounce Avoch and Kinloch Rannoch correctly, the advanced course is probably the old chestnut "It's a braw bricht, moonlicht nicht, the nicht." The illustration here is of Loch Lomond.
Milngavie
Another of those names designed to separate the locals from the travellers! Pronounced, would you believe, "Mill-guy" (with the accent on the second syllable) it is often said that the name derives from "Gavin's Mill" but another possibility is that it comes from the Gaelic "muileann gaoithe" meaning windmill.
Oban
The stress is on the 'O' not on 'ban'. The Norse word 'hop' meaning a landlocked bay became 'ob' in Gaelic. Oban was a small village until Victorian times when the railway and steamships and its geographical location combined to turn it into the main town in Argyll and the main port for the Hebrides.
Penicuik
Pronounced 'penny cook' this is another town near Edinburgh. 'Pen' was the old Brittonic word for 'hill' and can be found all over Britain, particularly in Wales. In the case of Penicuik it is from 'pen y gog' or 'cuckoo hill'.
Poolewe Sanquhar Sauchiehall Street While the correct pronunciations of this famous shopping street in the centre of Glasgow may well be "Saughiehall" Street you will find that from many Glaswegians it will sound more like "Suckiehall" Street.
Wemyss
Pronounced "pool-you". Despite being further north than Moscow, the village of Poolewe on the west coast of Scotland, benefits from the effects of the Gulf Stream. It is also in the shelter of Loch Ewe where the shortest river in Scotland, the River Ewe, joins the sea less than a mile from Inverewe Garden, renowned world-wide for its subtropical plants.
Pronounced "Sankhar" this Dumfriesshire town has been a royal burgh since 1598. The name comes from two Gaelic words meaning "old fort".
Pronounced "weems" there are three places with this name - near Aberfeldy in Perthshire, in Inverclyde and on the coast of Fife. The name is derived from the Gaelic "uaimh" meaning "cave" and it has been incorporated into other Scottish placenames such as Pittenweem (also in Fife).
