Language Notes

Element Meaning

Sources

Lochabar Iochdarach 1871 Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness, i, p. 109
Lochabar Iochdarach 1873 Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness, ii, 7

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).

Alternative Forms