Findhorn Bay
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 ( 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 word 'Findhorn' is not absolutely clear. It may be a corruption of Invererne and mean 'at the mouth of the river Erne' or Fionn-Dearn, 'the white river Dearn’, or perhaps ‘Fionn’ simply referred to the white sands and breaking waves which dominate the shores. In the seventeenth century Findhorn was the principal sea port 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. Findhorn Bay witnessed a brief episode in the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion. In March 1746 the French brigantine ‘Le Bien Trouve´’ entered the tidal waters with dispatches for Bonnie Prince Charlie but her departure, with the Prince’s aide-de-camp on board, was delayed by the arrival of two British men-o’-war. Unable to enter the shallow bay, the two warships lay in wait in the Firth. Somehow ‘Le Bien Trouve´’ slipped out and away to safety on a dark night. The name is recalled in the modern-day training gig of the same name which is based at Findhorn. During the nineteenth century fishing predominated. During the 1829 floods known as "The Muckle Spate" five Findhorn fishing boats rescued Forres residents and for a few years (1860-9) there was a branch railway line to the
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