Unusually we do have an early form for the name courtesy of Timothy Pont whose work was eventually published by Blaeu in 1654, the surveying having been done c1600. The problem is that this name is significantly different to the modern one. Even the Blaeu name has a problem - it appeared on two adjacent maps in the Blaeu Atlas and a scribal error led to two names appearing: Dunamich and Dunainich. Confusing an /m/ with an /in/ is easy to do but the first is the one that appeared on the Uist map, the second as the extract on the Harris and Lewis map so logic would say that Dunamich was the ‘proper’ name and Dunainich the one with the scribal error.
Topographically the nearby bay at Port nan Long is a good fit but intriguingly the presence of Dùn an Sticer is intriguing as the putatively named stronghold, possibly implying that the Norse used it themselves as such. It has certainly been used after the Iron Age when it was constructed.
One might also have expected the name ON vík to have been attached to a feature closer to the bay itself although it is not impossible to be attached to the dùn. Without any more evidence, we won’t know.
As for the second name Dùn an Sticer, there are two points of interest. One is that the loch is called Loch an Sticir and the dùn is called Dùn an Sticer. The second is the late addition in the OS name book of the article ScG an in the name of the dùn.
However the word ‘skulker’ would then fit this story well as Hugh skulked in the dùn. So going from /shikar/ to /sticir/ makes some sense as the name is now justified by the story.
Interestingly this story happened in the 1590s, just when Pont was doing his survey work and so the ‘new’ name would not have taken hold yet. As ever without more early forms we will not realy know - it has the advantage of offering more interestin options!
With thanks as ever to the National Library of Scotland for their fantastic map resources.