Page "Hebrides" Paragraph 36

The earliest written references that have survived relating to the islands were made by Pliny the Elder in his Natural History, where he states that there are 30 " Hebudes ", and makes a separate reference to " Dumna ", which Watson ( 1926 ) concludes is unequivocally the Outer Hebrides.

Writing about 80 years later, in 140-150 AD, Ptolemy, drawing on the earlier naval expeditions of Agricola, also distinguished between the Ebudes, of which he writes there were only five ( and thus possibly meaning the Inner Hebrides ) and Dumna.

Later texts in classical Latin, by writers such as Solinus, use the forms Hebudes and Hæbudes.