Translation according to P. W. Joyce:
Turloughour in Galway; dark-grey turlough (odhar, vol. ii. p. 285 [reproduced below]).
Pale Grey. The word odhar [oar, our] signifies a dun colour, a pale grey, or light brown. It is found in our oldest writings (odar; Cor. Gl.), and it continues in use as a living word. It usually occurs in names in the anglicised forms of ore, oar, ower, our, and ora; as in Ardore in Fermanagh, and Ardour in Galway, grey height; Corrower in Mayo, plae-grey hill; Moanour, the name of a hill near Galbally in Limerick, grey bog. Derroar in the parish of Termonmaguirk in Tyrone is called in the map of the plantation, Dergowre, i.e. Doire-odhar, grey oak-wood: - Seskinore, a village in Tyrone, is called in the same map and in early grants, Shaskanoure, pointing clearly to Sescennodhar, grey marsh. Turloughour south west of Tuam in Galway is grey turlough (see 1st Vol. for Turlough). There are two townlands in Galway called Ower, which is nothing but the simple word, and signifies dun coloured land; and Ouragh near Tullow in Carlow is an adjective form with the same meaning. Sometimes the simple word Ora is applied to a hill, as in case of Ora more and Ora-beg (great and little grey-hill) near the north shore of Upper Lough Macnean in Fermanagh; from the former of which the adjacent lake, Lough Ora, has its name. The d becomes restored (see 1st Vol., Part I., c. ii.) in the name of Odder near Tara in Meath, which is called in the annals, Odhra, the plural of odhar, signifying pale-grey spots of land. The word odhar was sometimes used to designate streams, to express probably the brown colour of water that flowed through bogs. In our most ancient authority, the account of the cattle spoil of Cooley in the Lebor na hUidhre, a river is mentioned called Odras, which is an abstract noun: - odar, pale-grey; odras, pale-greyness; (see p. 13 for the termination s). This river is stated to be at Slieve Baune in the east of the county Roscommon; and as the name would be pronounced Oris, the Odras is probably the same as the river now called the Feorish, which flows from the slopes of Slieve Baune, and joins the Shannon opposite Cloondara in Longford; f being prefixed to the name as is done so often in other cases (1st Vol, Part I., c. ii.). There is another Feorish farther north in the same county joining the Shannon near the southern end of Lough Allen. We have another example of this application in the name of the river Nier in Waterford, which rises from a group of lakes in the Comeragh mountains, and flows into the Suir below Clonmel. The n is merely the article, attracted to the name in the manner already explained (N'ier, the grey [river]: 1st Vol., Part 1., c. ii.); and the people carefully separate them when speaking Irish, and give each its proper declension. It appears clear that this name is an oblique form of odhar (which they pronounce, nom. Our, gen iera, dat, ier); for as I have shown, 1st Vol., Part I., c. ii.), the custom of using oblique forms as nominatives has grown into a sort of law in the Irish as well as in other European languages; and hence we call Ara, Aran; Teamhair, Tara, etc. That this is the true interpretation of the name is further shown by the fact that Camalough or Cumalough, one of the group of small lakes from which the Nier flows, is sometimes called Cumalough odhar, grey lake, by the natives ("Cumaloch odhar a's Com-na-gcapall"; old song). Here I am drawing on information supplied by Mr. John Fleming of Rathgormuck, of whom I have spoken in the Preface to the second edition of 1st Volume. The fine valley through which the river flows is called Gleann-na-hUidhre [Glanahiery], the glen of the Odhar or Nier; which has given name to the barony of Glenahiry. And this is a further proof of the correctness of the preceding etymology; for na-huidhre is exactly the genitive of an-odhar. There is a Glannaheera in the parish of Ballinvoher, east of Dingle in Kerry, which the people correctly interpret, the glen of the brown stream. The word odhar, with the same oblique pronunciation, but without the attracted article, gives name to the little stream, now called the Ire, which flows eastward from the well-known mountain lake of Coumshingaun (two miles from the source of the Nier), and joins the Clodiagh river. This word odhar is often applied to a cow; and several places have derived their names from legendary cows with this designation. Names of this kind may be known by their terminations; for they almost always end in naheery, naheera, or nahoora; as in Kilnaheery near Clogher in Tyrone, and Kilnahera near Dromdaleague in Cork, Coill-na-huidhre, the wood of the dun cow. Under the eastern face of Slieve Beagh on the boundary of Tyrone and Monaghan, there is a small lake called Loughnaheery, which the mountain of Essnaheery rising over it, which took its name from an ess or waterfall; and the hill of Monahoora lies on the north side of Slieve Croob in Down, Moin-na-huidhre, the bog of the dun cow. There is also the origin of the name of the ancient book so often quoted in these pages called Lebor na hUidhre, [Lower-na-heera], the book of the brown cow; for according to the legendary account, it was written by St. Kieran of Clonmacnoise, and the vellum of which it was composed was made from the hide of his favourite dark-grey cow.