Findhorn

Findhorn (Scottish Gaelic: Inbhir Èir or Inbhir Èireann) is a village in Moray, Scotland. It is located on the eastern shore of Findhorn Bay and immediately south of the Moray Firth. Findhorn is 3 miles (5 km) northwest of Kinloss, and about 5 miles (9 km) by road from Forres.

The Findhorn Foundation, an educational charity with its associated ecovillage, is located to the south of the village.

The existing settlement is the second village to bear this name, the original having been a mile to the northwest of the present position and inundated by the sea. This transposition was not an overnight catastrophe but a gradual withdrawal from the earlier site during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Some sources (e.g. Graham), claim it is the third village to bear the name, perhaps erroneously assuming that the seventeenth century destruction of the nearby Barony of Culbin by shifting sands resulted in an earlier relocation.

Although surely Gaelic in origin the derivation of the name of the River Findhorn is not absolutely clear. Its contemporary Gaelic name is Uisge Fionn Èireann, but ti has been suggested that Fionn Èireann may be a corruption of Fionn-Dearn, "the white river Dearn". There is also the possibility that Findhorn is Gaelic Fionn-dearna "white palm [of the hand]" or Fionn-dorn "white fist" or "white hilt".

In the seventeenth century Findhorn was the principal seaport of Moray and vessels regularly sailed to and from all parts of the North Sea and as far as the Baltic Ports. Changes to the narrow and shallow entrance to the Bay created obstacles to navigation and as the size of trading vessels increased so the volume of trade to the village declined.

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