English / Map Form: Wemyss Bay
Gaelic Form: Bàgh Wemyss
Location: North Ayrshire
Post Town: WEMYSS BAY
Local Authority: Inverclyde
English / Map Form: Wemyss Bay
Gaelic Form: Bàgh Wemyss
Language Notes
Element Meaning
G bàgh ~ bay; uamh ~ cave
Sources
| Wemys Point, Wemys Bay | 1796 Ainslie/Renfrew |
| Wemyss Bay, Wemyss Point | 1820 Thomson |
| Weems Pt | 1856 Admiralty Chart 2159 |
Additional Information
Port Wemyss in Islay is as intelligible as Wemyss Bay on the Clyde. MacKinnon, ‘Place-names and Personal names in Argyll’ 1887
J. Boyd, Guide to Wemyss Bay, 1879 seems to be the source of the derivation of this name from uamh, ‘cave’, doubtless by analogy with Weems in Fife. It says, however, that it relates to subterranean Pictish dwellings, an idea now discredited. It also says no caves have been found in the area.
This name is most likely transferred from either the surname or another place-name.