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

230 Place Names in Strathbogie.
Some of my geological friends suggest that the
margin was the shore of the loch which at one
time occupied the Howe of Kinnoir, and I am
willing to allow this application of the name when
assured that there was a loch there in Gaelic
times. That the hollow in the centre of the
parish was in the far past a loch, I have no
doubt, but it is probable that the early inhabi-
tants found it full of clay mires and marshes,
unfit for habitation, as we have all the old names
on the higher ground. This is common to all
valleys which formerly abounded in bogs.
The earliest mention of Avachie, which I have
been able to discover, occurs in the ' Remission
for Correchie,' of date 1567, in which John
Gordon of Awachie appears among the followers
of the Earl of Huntly. In the ' Remission for
Glenlivet, 1603,' John Gordon apparent of Avachie
is mentioned. The Rental of \6oo gives Auachie.
On the 25th Jan., 1687, Henry Gordon is served
heir to his father John Gordon of Avachie. The
Poll-Book gives Avachy ; the Rental of 1677,
Abachie ; and the ' View of the Diocese of Aber-
deen' (1732), Abachie. This form, Abachie, has
no significance whatever, and is simply a mis-
reading of the letter z\ which in old writings
closely resembles our b. The same mistake
occurs in other two instances in the Rental of
1677, in which we first have this spelling. Over-
kirks is given Oberkirks, and Oven, Oben. The