Nether Lochaber
Loch Abar Ìochdarach
Meaning
nether Lochaber
Location
Inverness-shire
Highland
PH33
NN115751
English / Map Form: Nether Lochaber
Gaelic Form: Loch Abar Ìochdarach
Location: Lochaber, Highland
Post Town: FORT WILLIAM
Postcode area: PH33
County: Inverness-shire
Local Authority: Highland
Nearest Main Roads: A82
English / Map Form: Nether Lochaber
Gaelic Form: Loch Abar Ìochdarach
Language Notes
Element Meaning
Sources
Lochabar Iochdarach
Lochabar Iochdarach
Additional Information
Our informants could not offer any Gaelic form of this name, and did not recognise it as an entity as such. Loch Abar Ìochdarach was chosen for two reasons.
Firstly, on analogy with Lorne. Brae Lochaber (Bràigh Loch Abar) corresponds to Upper Lorne (Bràigh Latharna) whilst Nether Lorne is Latharna Ìochdarach. These terms for Lorne seem to be much older than those for Lochaber.
Secondly, the proposed form is mentioned twice in TGSI. In 1871 in a speech made in Gaelic by Rev. Mr Macgregor of Inverness, discussing how much Ollamh Ian Stiùbhart Blackie knew of the ‘affairs and customs of the land of “Nether Lochaber”’ (cùisibh agus cleachdannaibh na tìre ri “Lochabar Iochdarach”). The second mention seems to be by Prof. Blackie himself. In both contexts the name is in inverted commas, suggesting this was perhaps a neologism (newly-coined term).