Genitive Form: Thobar Mhoire

Language Notes

Element Meaning

G tobar ~ ‘well’; Moire ~ ‘Mary’ personal name

Sources

capellania de Tibbirmore 1540 RSS ii no. 3397 [‘the chaplainry (or chaplaincy) of Tobermory’]

Tabbor moire 1654 Blaeu (Pont) Mull

Tabbor morie 1654 Blaeu (Pont) Lorn

Toubir Mory 1703 Martin Martin, A Description of the Western Isles of Scotland (Withers and Munro ed. (1999), p. 155) [“‘the Virgin Mary’s well’; because the water of a well of that name, which is said to be medicinal, runs into the bay.”]

Tipper Murray 1741 Johnson Map

Tobor Morar 1775 A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland [Samuel Johnson], 318

Tobermory 1795 OSA xiv, 144 et passim

Tobermorey 1804 Heather

Tobermory 1837 Anderson’s Tourist’s Guide through Scotland, 144 [“The Well of Our Lady St Mary.”]

Tobermory 1845 NSA vii, 354 et passim [““the Well of Mary,” takes its name from a well hard by the village, called after the virgin.”]

Tobermory 1854 OPS ii.i, 324 [“At Tobermory (Mary’s Well) are the ruins of a chapel, and a well, dedicated to the Virgin Mary”]

Tobar Mhoire 1868×1878 OSNB ARG OS1/2/43/58/2

Tobermory 1868×1878 OSNB ARG OS1/2/43/65/1 [““Its name means Mary’s Well,” and was taken from a fountain on the spot which was dedicated to the Virgin.”]

Tobar Mhoire 1912 Dwelly

Tobar Mhoire 1926 CPNS, 504 [‘Mary’s well’]

Our thanks to Dr Alasdair C. Whyte, University of Glasgow, for providing additional forms.

Additional Information

A plaque on the cross and drinking fountain erected in the cemetery on the outskirts of the modern town to commemorate the coronation of Edward VII in 1902 purports it to be the original referent of the place-name but OSNB entries and early OS maps locate the well at NM501552 on the opposite side of the modern road leading west out of the town.  *Capella Beatae Mariae ‘the chapel of the Blessed Mary’, located in Arros (Aros) in 1509 (ER xiii, 215), is almost certainly the contemporary name for the ruined chapel at NM501553 in this cemetery.

Local pronunciation of the place-name, its historical and modern forms, and the evidence of several sources indicate that the Virgin Mary is almost certainly commemorated in this place-name and rule out the possibility raised by T.S.Muir that the well was dedicated to Maol Rubha of Applecross (Muir, T.S., 1885, Ecclesiological Notes on some of the Islands of Scotland (Edinburgh: David Douglas), p. 25).  Muir’s statement that the “old church” at Tobermory was dedicated “either to the Blessed Virgin or to St. Maelrubha” has been interpreted by Maclean (Maclean, Charles, 1997, The Isle of Mull: Placenames, Meanings and Stories (Dumfries: Maclean Publications), 148) and Taylor (Taylor, Iain, 2011, Place-Names of Scotland (Edinburgh: Birlinn), 151) as evidence for an earlier dedication to Maol Rubha.  There is no known evidence for this.