Blair Collection > Place names in Strathbogie, with notes historical, antiquarian and descriptive

Place Names in StratJibof^ie.
been conjectured, that the name originated in
consequence of four lairds' lands meeting on the
top ; but from any such chance circumstance, it
is almost certain the name could never have come
into popular use as ' The Fourman.' A second
conjecture is more plausible — that the name is de-
rived from Formartyn, one of the divisions of the
county of Aberdeen, which is supposed to have
included this hill ; but I think it is probable that
the hill name is the older of the two. Previous
to the 9th century, the divisions of the county
were jNIar and Buchan, and Fermartyn (as the
old spelling is) was only a thanage, of which the
boundaries are doubtful, but almost certainly
they did not include The Fourman (Celt, Scot.
1 1 1, pp. 43 and 250). A stronger objection is, that
it is contrary to usage to contract or corrupt such
a word as viartyn into man, otherwise the name
of the division would likely have suffered a simi-
lar change. I think the name comes ivomfuar,
' cold,' and monadh, 'a moorish hill.' The name
* Cold Hill ' is most descriptive of the Fourman,
which, during a great part of the year, presents a
bleak appearance from every point of viev/.
Fuar enters into place names, as in Meal-fuar-
vounie (Inverness-shire) the 'hill of the cold
moor ' ; in Fourknocks and Fourcuil (Ireland)
the ' cold hill ' and the ' cold wood '; and mfiiar-
hJieinn, an ordinary Gaelic phrase meaning ' cold
hill' In Fifeshire there are the Formanhills in