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Lúcháir is Irish for 'delight', related to the Scottish Gaelic luachair - the soft rush juncus effusus (literally, 'glory, splendour') - and the Welsh llwych, 'lightmaker, a spark'.

The pith of this plant was soaked in tallow and used to make rushlights and so by association the word 'lúcháir' came also to mean 'the gleam of light on water' - a flash of beauty, a moment of enlightenment, and in Celtic tradition, a glimpse of the other-world. In early Christian times, churches in Scotland, and especially graveyards, were often sited at the reedy headwaters of lochs - the places where Heaven and earth are closest.