Tarf Water, Wigtownshire
River in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Tarf Water is a river in the former county of Wigtownshire in south-west Scotland. It rises on the Ayrshire border (55.0048°N 4.7815°W) and flows in a generally southeastward direction to meet the River Bladnoch near the village of Kirkcowan (54.9103°N 4.5792°W). It has no major tributaries but is fed by several burns that drain an area characterised by drumlins and much of which has been afforested.[1]
The name Tarf derives from the Proto-Indo-European root *tauro- 'bull, aurochs'.[2] Bulls occur frequently in Celtic river names, and these names may have had a mythological rather than literal referent.[2][3] Like other examples of this name in southern Scotland, 'Tarf' is Gaelic in form but is likely to derive in turn from an earlier Cumbric cognate.[2][3]
