NAIRN
[Description(s) from The National Gazetteer (1868)]"NAIRN, a parish, containing a royal burgh and post-town of its own name, also the village of Seatown-of-Delnies, on the coast of Nairnshire. It is bounded on the north by the Moray frith, and on other sides by the parishes of Auldearn, Calder, and Ardersier. It expands toward the ends, and greatly contracts in the middle, so as to have proximately the outline of an hour-glass. Its greatest length from north to south is upwards of 8 miles; its greatest breadth is 6 miles."
"NAIRN, a post-town, a seaport, a market-town, and a royal burgh, stands in the parish of Nairn, on the left bank of the river Nairn, immediately above that river's embouchure ... The town was long noted for standing so exactly on the boundary-line between the Highlands and the Lowlands, and being so completely bisected by the mutual repulsion of the Moray men on the east and the kilted Gael on the west, that the Lowland Scottish dialect was spoken at the one end of the street, and the Gaelic language at the other."
From the Imperial Gazetteer of Scotland, edited by John Marius Wilson, 1868.
Bibliography
The following books contain useful information about the history of Nairn and the surrounding area."A glimpse of old Nairn" by Charles Sellar, published at Inverness, 1969.
Church Records
The parish church (Established Church of Scotland) has records dating from 1705.
Description and Travel
Gazetteers
- The transcription of the section for Nairn from the National Gazetteer (1868) provided by Colin Hinson.