A place a bit like Nairn/Narin/Narann

Over in Donegal there’s a place called Narin with big sandy beaches and a caravan site. They were having a mixture of sun and rain while this observer passed through. In fact there’s more than one choice of how you spell Narin. One of the signs on the pub (closed) is actually spelt Nairn – twinned with the Regal? You can see from the Gaelic name for the community however that perhaps there is a bit of a different origin to the name as far as the Celtic roots go.

An Fhearainn is the same as Fearainn(land) in Gàidhlig but seems to indicate “township” as well in Gaeilge (Irish). Here the convential theory is that Nairn’s Gaelic name Inbhir Narann comes from a shortening of Inbhir nam Feàrna (the River of Alders) and no shortage of alders on the River Nairn up to the present day that’s for sure despite the onward march of Japenese Knotweed, etc.

Interesting to note also that in Britanny and Wales there are places spelt Gwern/Gwern and a commune elsewhere in France with the name Verne with perhaps the same origin, i.e.from the Brythonic Celtic language word for Alder “Gwern”. Nirn/Nurn twinned with Verne?

Some more pictures of Narin coming soon on the Gurn flickr pages.