Sources

Culnagoure 1435-6 Sutherland Charters 33
Cawnagoure 1451 RMS ii, 443
terrarum de Culgour 1510 ER xiii 329
Culgour 1528 RMS ii 557
Cowlegowre 1563 RSS v 1463
Cwilgoure 1564 RSS v 1704
Culgour 1654 x Southerlandia
Culgour 1566 RSS v 2718
[Tan na coul marked nearby 1772 John Kirk’s Survey of Golspie ]

Culgower G., cuil na gabhair, the nook, or corner of the goats. [sic] McKay 1892, 332

“So called from the place-name near it, Culgower or from a fishing village being created here on the evictions of the small tenants, in forming the large arable and sheep farms in the parish, 1810 – 1812, and called Portgower after the title of Earl of Gower, the heir to the estates, and afterwards 2nd Duke of Sutherland.” McKay 1892, 332

“I quote from Alexander Polson’s “Brora and the Surrounding District”, published 1902: “….so called after Earl Gower, afterwards 2nd Duke of Sutherland. It is a fishing village, erected on the eviction of the small tenants, when the large arable and sheep farms in the neighbourhood were formed, between 1810 and 1812”.” A. F. M. MacLennan papers

“Portgower we believe to have received its name from the Gower family, arid to have nothing to do with the neighbouring Culgower, ” the goats’ corner.”  Geographical Notes, 1894 Scottish Geographical Magazine, 10:9, 484-492