Scottish Gaelic translator

Scottish Gaelic (Gàidhlig) is a Goidelic Celtic language with around 57,000 speakers in Scotland. It is related to Irish and Manx, but the spelling, vocabulary and grammar differ substantially. An Irish translator does not produce correct Scottish Gaelic, so we assign a translator who works specifically in this language.

Yes. The UK has no sworn-translator institute, so there is no "sworn translator" as a legal office here. For official acceptance we provide certified translation: a signed and dated statement of accuracy from the translator or the agency, with our contact details. Where a body asks for more, this can be escalated to notarisation by a solicitor or notary public, or to an apostille or legalisation through the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). Because few documents originate in Scottish Gaelic alone, certification often runs through the English of the accompanying source document; we confirm the route in the quote.

The most common requests are heritage and museum texts, academic work in Celtic studies, personal documents with a Scottish background and subtitling for media. UK bodies that feature in these cases include the Home Office and UKVI for immigration documents, the General Register Office for civil-status records, and HMCTS courts. We confirm the approach and any certification per document in the quote.

On working days you receive a reply within 1 hour. The lead time for the translation itself depends on document type, volume, variety and any required certification, and is confirmed in the quote. For tight deadlines we confirm a workable rush schedule up front rather than promising a fixed turnaround.

We work with a translator who follows the Gaelic Orthographic Conventions (GOC) and encodes the grave accents correctly, supported by a structured QA layer: a terminology list and a second review where the variety, register or volume requires it. CAT tools keep terminology and proper names consistent across your texts, and a translation memory keeps follow-up work aligned over time.

By default we work in the broadly current Hebridean–Highland variety with GOC spelling. For texts aimed at Nova Scotia we deliver Canadian Gaelic (Gàidhlig Chanada). We confirm the variety and register in the quote, matched to your audience. For media and subtitling we align with the BBC Alba register where that fits the brief.

A Scottish Gaelic translation agency takes the coordination off your hands. We select the translator who knows the right variety and the GOC-compliant register, match the certification route to your source document, and have the work checked by a second reviewer. You keep one point of contact for variety, terminology, scheduling and delivery, all under a single quote. A skilled freelance translator does excellent work too; with a minority language the difference an agency adds is bringing those moving parts together so you are not managing them separately. See [legal translation](/en/services/legal-translation/) for certified document work.