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Guys, maybe you're being a little too quick to judge here?

Even if you're correct and Hagg only means "a scrubby type land e.g covered in gorse" it's still interesting to consider how or why we use 'Hagg' to describe an infertile barren female/piece of earth that lies beyond the civilised/farmed. It's connotations feed back into Cope's idea of the sacred female being ostrasized or made 'of the heath' by an in-coming patriarchal religion. The act of naming being the prize given to those in charge.

Yes, and there's hoggs as well, just to complicate things further, which are the diminutive form of 'hoggetts' sort of female teenage sheep.

And I wouldn't say that the ability to nmae landscape features is necessarily a symptom of control - just of happenstance. (I've got two features to name eg, a connected long cairn and a sanctuary, but just 'interpreting what I've found'.

I agree. Once similar instance I can offer is the Irish placename 'Lugg', which means a hollow. However, I know quite a lot of hills with that in their name and most have Lughnassa celebration links, so a link to Lugh must be there. I haven't worked out where the 'hollow' meaning comes from yet, nor have I found many places with Lug/Lugg in the name that are hollows.


For a great Hagg link look at Agnes in the Scilly Isles.

That's an interesting perspective Captain. Many of the haggs are neither infertile or barren especially in comparison to the nearby moors and bogs. The haggs are gorsey and are used to graze sheep upon. I think the Hagg could possibly refer to the type of vegetation that is found on the land as opposed to it's fertility.
Close to the area Barry mentioned is a village called Boosbeck, I received an e-mail from someone who was excited about the name and it's connection with the deity Bu, unfortunately the name translates as 'stream by the cowshed'
When I'm home I shall have a look and see if any of the Haggs have been under cultivation in the past
Cheers
Fitz