Kintyre
-> Scotland
-> Argyll
-> Kintyre
But for the mile-long isthmus between West Loch Tarbert and the much smaller East Loch Tarbert, the little-visited peninsula of KINTYRE (www.kintyre.org) - from the Gaelic ceann tire, "land's end" - would be an island. Indeed, in the eleventh century, when the Scottish king, Malcolm Canmore, allowed Magnus Barefoot, King of Norway, to lay claim to any island he could circumnavigate by boat, Magnus succeeded in dragging his boat across the Tarbert isthmus and added the peninsula to his Hebridean kingdom. During the Wars of the Covenant, the vast majority of the population and property was wiped out by a combination of the 1646 potato blight and the destructive attentions of the Earl of Argyll. Kintyre remained a virtual desert until the earl began his policy of transplanting Gaelic-speaking Lowlanders to the region. They probably felt quite at home here, as the southern half of the peninsula lies on the Lowland side of the Highland Boundary Fault.
Public transport around Kintyre is slow, though services have improved. There are regular daily buses from Glasgow to Campbeltown, via Tarbert and the west coast, and even a skeleton service down the east coast. Ferries run to Tarbert from Portavadie on the Cowal peninsula, and Campbeltown has an airport, with daily flights from Glasgow.
Copyright Rough Guides Ltd as trustees for its authors. Published by Rough Guides. All rights reserved. The Rough Guides name is a trademark of Rough Guides Ltd. |
back