Australia: The Land Where Time Began

A biography of the Australian continent 

Isle of Arran, Scotland

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The Isle of Arran, Scotland is the most southerly Scottish island and sits in the Firth of Clyde between Ayrshire and Kintyre. Arran is 19 miles long by 10 miles wide but has a remarkable diversity of landscapes and seascapes.

On Arran the villages are situated along the coastline. The interior is very mountainous, both rugged mountainous areas and green rolling hills.

The line dividing Scotland into highlands and lowlands also bisects Arran in almost equal halves. As with Scotland in general, the north of the dividing line is ruggedly mountainous, while the southern side of the line is more gently rolling hills. Scotland in microcosm, to see Scotland in a limited time, visit Arran, the scale model. The population is also concentrated mostly on the southern part of the island, the mountainous regions being sparsely populated.

For those interested in palaeontology Arran is the site of the earliest-known evidence of a Chirotherium, probably C. barthii, in Scotland. Their trackways are found in Lower Triassic rocks at several sites on the island.

http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/geol/sjg/2002/00000038/00000002/art00003

The earliest know human inhabitants of Arran arrived about 7000-4000 BC, in the Middle Stone Age. They are thought to have been hunters. Over the following millennia farmers populated the island. The Romans were known to be present along the Clyde, but no evidence of Roman occupation has been found on Arran. Were the Arran farmers so tough they didn't allow the Romans to land? By the 5th century Arran had become part of Dalriada, the Gaelic speaking Celtic kingdom stretching from the northern part of County Antrim, Ireland to Argyll in Scotland, the remainder of present-day Scotland being ruled by Pictish kingdoms. In the latter half of the 5 th century the royal family of Dalriada moved from Ireland to Argyll, making Dunadd and Dunolly its chief strongholds. Prior to the 5th century large numbers of people from Dalriada in Ireland had migrated to Argyll.

In 545 St Brendan, the patron saint of sailors, founded a monastery on Arran, it is thought it may have been at Kilpatrick.  Saint Columba is believed to have visited the island. Some time after 585 his disciple St Molois moved into a cave on Holy Isle. A Buddhist retreat now continues the religious association of Holy Isle.

By 800 Arran was dominated by the Vikings, and many battles between the Vikings and Celts occurred until 1263 when the Vikings were finally defected by a Scottish army led by King Alexander III. The fighting didn't end there. It was fought over for hundreds between various clans and the English. It also suffered during the clearances when many islanders were replaced by sheep.

Information about Arran can be found on Undiscovered Scotland

http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/areaarra/index.html