Sources

Cūshĕnĭ Diack MS2276

“The district of Cushnie in Aberdeenshire, now part of Leochel-Cushnie parish, has long been noted for cold and frost; its hills were declared by Lochaber raiders of experience to be the coldest hills in Scotland. [note: Cushnie was reckoned the coldest place, next to Cabrach, in the diocese of Aberdeen. – Ant. of Aberdeen and Banff, i. p. 693. The adjective from cuisne is cuisnech, frosty (LL 293 b 30); as a noun cuisnech would mean ‘frosty place,’ with locative cuisnigh.]  The name doubtless comes from cuisne, ice, frost. Another Cushnie occurs in Gamrie parish, Banffshire, a little inland from Troup Head. The old name of the latter is probably found in Ross Cuissine, ‘Cushnie Point’ off which thrice fifty ships of the Piets (Picardmch) were wrecked in a.d. 729 (Tigern.).” Watson 1926, 507