TAIN  . a royal and

police burgh of the county of Ross and Cromartv . Scotland . Pop . (1901) 2076 . It is situated on rising ground within a mile of the southern shore of Dornoch Firth, 25; M . N.E. of Dingwall by the Highland Railway . The name, of which the Tene, Tayne and Thane are older forms. is derived from the Icelandic thing, " assembly " or " court." Among the principal buildings are the town hall, court house, public hall, Easter Ross combination poorhouse, and the academy (opened in 1812) . The industries include distilling, the making of aerated waters, and woollen manufactures, and the town is important as a market and • distributing centre . The rainfall is one of the lowest in the kingdom . Duthac (locally called Duthus), a saint of the 11th century, is believed to have been a native, and the old ruined chapel near the station is supposed to have been his shrine . To the collegiate church of St Duthus, a Decorated building, founded by James III. in 1471, James IV. made several pilgrimages in penance for his father's death . The building was used as the parish church till 1815, when it fell into disrepair, but it was restored between 1871 and 1876 .

It has monuments to

Patrick Hamilton, the martyr, and Thomas Hog (1628-1692), the Scottish divine, for some time a prisoner on the Bass . Three and a half miles S.E. are the remains of the Early English abbey of Fearn, founded at Edderton in 1230 by Farquhar, 1st earl of Ross, and transferred hither in 1338 . The chancel, nave and two side chapels exist, and it still serves as the parish church . Patrick Hamilton became titular abbot in 1517, and after his martyrdom the abbey was added to the bishopric of Ross .