English / Map Form: Forsinain
Gaelic Form: Forsain Fhàn
Location: Forsinaird
Post Town: Forsinaird
County: Sutherland
Local Authority: Highland
English / Map Form: Forsinain
Gaelic Form: Forsain Fhàn
Language Notes
Element Meaning
Sources
duas Fursyis 1527 RMS iii, 477
duabus Forsies viz. Forsienane et Forsinaird 1633 RMS viii, 2230
2 Forsis, viz. Forsienairn et Forsienard 1681 Retours (Sutherland) 14
Forsain-fhàin*: Dwelly (Watson)
Fors an Fhàin: Mac an Tàilleir
Forsinard and Forsinain. These are made up of Gaelic and Norse. Fors is N. a waterfall: ard is G. high, and ain G. low, àine (from fhàine, comp. of fan down, now obsolete).
“Forsinain The first syllable of this word is evidently Norse, meaning a torrent; the last is a corruption of the Gaelic word “mhan,” or bhan, down, hence Fors-a-Mhan, “the lower torrent,” to distinguish from another higher up” MacKay
Additional Information
See also Watson 2002 (1906), 75. ‘upper and lower waterfall respectively’.
See also Robertson Bruichnain = Bruch an fhàin
See Henderson 159 which discusses ford as a Norse element in a so-called ‘hybrid’ name.
See also Uses of place-names, p. 21 for discussion of the usage of àrd and fàin