What is the correct pronunciation of Lerwick ?

Sorry nina not even close!

mcem

Froikhym ??

NotAGran55 If you enjoyed the Shetland setting, read Marsali Taylor's series also set in Shetland. That has a female heroine, for a change. Marsali Taylor lives in Shetland (which Ann Cleeves does not) so the local detail is very accurate, even down to tides and navigating marks for small boats. The first one of the series is called "Death on a longship".

Not conclusive then
I had no idea that the books had been televised and have downloaded Raven Black hoping to hear on there

How about Friockheim?

Smethwick in the Black Country is pronounced Smethick unless you live there when it’s Smerrick

Here in Northern Ireland we have Ahoghill.
Pronounced Ahaughil.... Strangers of course pronounce it A-hog-hill.

Try Gyllyngvase (my local beach). It comes out pronounced very creatively by visitors eg:
Jillingvaws
Jielingvaz
Geyelingvaz
Gillingvawsa
Etc etc
(It's actually Gillingvayz)

I was born and raised in Bearsden, right next door to Milngavie... ( Millguy )

Nothing could persuade my English granny (long resident in Scotland) to pronounce Kirkcaldy as anything other than kirk- call- dee; and Kirkcudbright was kirk-cud-bright. We never tried her on Milngavie. That would have been a step too far! And to add to the vagaries of place-names' pronunciation, there's Strathaven, pronounced Strayven. Considering granny was born in Leicester, you'd think she could have managed to get her tongue round the names of towns north of the border.

Just north of Pompey is a place called Southwick (Suthick - at least, that is how it was said in 1954 or so), but other places around the country are spelt exactly the same but pronounced South-Wick

Locally we have Winwick (Winnick), Daresbury (Darsbury) and the magnificently confusing Cholmondeley pronounced Chumley.

Who'd be a newsreader

To Fifers it is Ainster, of course.

How about Kilconquhar?

I’ve only ever heard it pronounced Lurwick. I haven’t been to Shetland, though!

Now, how about Anstruther?

Thank you Shropshirelass, I shall say Shreeewsbury now with confidence.

Barley was a very important crop - bread and beer, the essentials of life!

My ex was posted to the Shetlands, and whilst visiting up there, all the locals called it ‘Lurwick’.

Thanks Elegran. I went off to find my book of place names, but you got there before me. I think I'd be inclined to support the barley dene as an origin.

Wikipedia says of Bearsden -
"The current name Bearsden originated from the railway station built in 1863, but the origin of the name itself is unresolved. The station was named after a house near the station site (to avoid confusion with Old Kilpatrick station), but it was recorded as a name for the immediate area before that time. The meaning behind the name "Bearsden" may be one of the following:

A nickname given to the area of the Manse Burn by a Garscube heir
It relates to the barley (bear) that grew in the glen (dene)
It could be related to Gaelic, meaning "entrenchments of the fort"
The most common explanation is that the sons of a local laird once kept a pet bear in a den there, but there is no evidence to support this.

To quote James McCardel, the wisest course is frankly to admit that the derivation [of the name of Bearsden] is unknown.

Our local one is Coalsnaughton which thankfully is a peaceable place and seldom on the news. Anyway, older local people usually refer to the village as Calibar because most of the residents were miners in the days before pithead baths or PC language

It also jars when I hear Bearsden pronounced with the emphasis on the first syllable. I wonder how it got the name in the first place. I don't think there have been bears in Scotland for many centuries, if ever - and certainly no 'den'.

Crossed posts, Niobe!

There is a fairly douce suburb of Glasgow called Bearsden (pronounced as if bears live there) One day on a radio music programme I heard the compere announce a request for someone in what he clearly thought was a very upmarket area called Bee-arse-den. He may have been related to the car GPS speaker woman who once guided us past that other "upmarket" area, Glen rothes (to rhyme with Glen clothes)

Daddima, I lived in Bearsden for 40+ years and was always glad I lived in Bearsden rather than “Mulguy” every time I had to give my address to a non-Scot!

I think natives pronounce it Lerrick and others pronounce it to rhyme with Berwick. So I understand from several visits and from having family who stayed in Shetland for some time.

The thing that Northern Islanders find annoying, I believe, is when people say The Orkneys and The Shetlands, when the correct names are Orkney and Shetland.