Scotland in the Early Middle Ages to be adopted for house building, often combining layers of stone with turf. Place-name evidence, particularly the use of the prefix "pit", meaning land or a field, suggests that the heaviest areas of Pictish settlement were in modern Fife, Perthshire, Angus, Aberdeen and around the Moray Firth, although later Gaelic migration may have erased some Pictish names from the record. Early Gaelic settlement appears to have been in the regions of the western mainland of Scotland between Cowal and Ardnamurchan, and the adjacent islands, later extending up the West coast in the 8th century. There is place name and archaeological
Firth of Clyde each other. Sometimes called the Clyde Waters, this water body is customarily considered an element of the Irish Sea. The ferry services are run by Caledonian MacBrayne and by Western Ferries and many of the routes are lifeline services for communities living in remote areas. A great number of sea lochs adjoin the Firth, the largest being Loch Fyne. The Cowal peninsula extends into the Firth of Clyde and forms the main upper firth west shoreline. The main town on the Cowal peninsula is Dunoon. These routes across the Firth of Clyde save time, rather than traveling "round by road",