Laira

The English Place Name Society suggests that this name derives from the Celtic 'Llaeru' - to ebb or grow shallow and certainly this notion is supported by the neighbouring Efford or Ebb Ford - that stretch of water which can be crossed or forded when the tide ebbs or recedes.

The vast expanse of exposed mud at low tide has also led to the suggestion that the name perhaps comes from the Old Norse 'leirr' meaning clay - hence leira 'a clayey place'. Early spellings of Laira include Leurie, Leeri, Lary and Lara. Commenting on the latter in 1832 we find the compilers of Britton and Brayley's Illustrated Guide to Devonshire and Cornwall suggesting that this 'lake-like expanse' is probably derived from the 'larus' or gull 'by which its lucid waters are still numerously frequented, though not so abundantly as in 'olden times''.

Interestingly enough there is tenuous support for this idea because there is a suggestion that the whole of the Plym used to have this name Laira, or its ancient equivalent, and one of the rivers that flows into the Plym - the Meavy or Mewy - is also said to have derived from a word for gull, hence also the Mew Stone.