Probably Tala in the 1878 six-inch map is a misprint not for talla "a hall" or tàladh "enticing", but for fàl "turf". Alexander Robert Forbes in Place-names of Skye (Paisley, 1923) suugests it should be Lòn Mòr Fàla nan Taighean, "the great water-meadow of the house-turf". So turf sods were cut from this water-meadow for roofing the old black houses.