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Torsa
Torsa (occasionally Torsay) is one of the Slate Islands in Argyll and Bute, Scotland. Lying east of Luing and south of Seil, this tidal island was inhabited until the 1960s. There is now only one house there, which is used for holiday lets. The underlying bedrock is slate but unlike Torsa's immediate island neighbours this has never been worked commercially. The island's name is of Norse origin but the most prominent historical structure on the island is the ruined ''Caisteal nan Con'' on the northeast shore, once held by Clan Campbell. The abundant sea life in the waters surrounding the island are protected by the Loch Sunart to the Sound of Jura Marine Protected Area. Geography Torsa lies just offshore from the east coast of Luing. A rough track leads down from the road to Ardinamir farm on Luing to a narrow strait, fordable at low water, and onto the south west corner of the island. This area is known as Torsa Beag ("Little Torsa"), which name implies a small island in its ...
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Torsa Island From Luing 2
Torsa (occasionally Torsay) is one of the Slate Islands in Argyll and Bute, Scotland. Lying east of Luing and south of Seil, this tidal island was inhabited until the 1960s. There is now only one house there, which is used for holiday lets. The underlying bedrock is slate but unlike Torsa's immediate island neighbours this has never been worked commercially. The island's name is of Norse origin but the most prominent historical structure on the island is the ruined ''Caisteal nan Con'' on the northeast shore, once held by Clan Campbell. The abundant sea life in the waters surrounding the island are protected by the Loch Sunart to the Sound of Jura Marine Protected Area. Geography Torsa lies just offshore from the east coast of Luing. A rough track leads down from the road to Ardinamir farm on Luing to a narrow strait, fordable at low water, and onto the south west corner of the island. This area is known as Torsa Beag ("Little Torsa"), which name implies a small island in it ...
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Slate Islands
The Slate Islands are an island group in the Inner Hebrides, lying immediately off the west coast of Scotland, north of Jura and southwest of Oban. The main islands are Seil, Easdale, Luing, Shuna, Torsa and Belnahua. Scarba and Kerrera, which lie nearby are not usually included. The underlying geology of the islands is Dalradian slate, which was quarried widely until the mid-20th century. Quarry working began in 1630 and at the turn of the 20th century, the quarries were yielding some eight million slates every year. The Garvellachs lie to the southwest. Definition Unlike some of Scotland's larger archipelagos such as Orkney and the Outer Hebrides, which are distant from other islands and also have their own local authority, the Slate Islands have no formal definition. The islands from which the slate that gives rise to the name was quarried on a substantial commercial basis are Easdale, Belnahua, Luing and Seil. The website of the Slate Islands Heritage Trust also promin ...
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Seil
Seil (; gd, Saoil, ) is one of the Slate Islands, located on the east side of the Firth of Lorn, southwest of Oban, in Scotland. Seil has been linked to the mainland by bridge since the late 18th century. The origins of the island's name are unclear and probably pre-Gaelic. Part of the kingdom of Dalriada in the 7th century, by the sixteenth century Seil seems to have been primarily agricultural in nature. It became part of the estates of the Breadalbane family and in the early 18th century they began to exploit the rich potential of the Neoproterozoic slate beds. The excavations from the island's quarries were exported all over the world during the course of the next two centuries. Today, the economy is largely dependent on agriculture and tourism. The "dangerous seas" of the Firth of Lorn have claimed many lives and there are several shipwrecks in the vicinity of Seil. Kilbrandon Church has fine examples of stained glass windows and an association with St Brendan. Etym ...
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Laithlind
In the modern Gaelic languages, () signifies Scandinavia or, more specifically, Norway. As such it is cognate with the Welsh name for Scandinavia, (). In both old Gaelic and old Welsh, such names literally mean 'land of lakes' or 'land of swamps'. Classical Gaelic literature and other sources from early medieval Ireland first featured the name, in earlier forms like Laithlind and Lothlend. In Irish, the adjectival noun (, 'person belonging to Lochlann') has an additional sense of 'raider' or, more specifically, a viking. Historical uses All uses of the word relate it to Nordic realms of Europe. While the traditional view has identified Laithlind with Norway, some have preferred to locate it in a Norse-dominated part of Scotland, perhaps the Hebrides or the Northern Isles. states that Laithlinn was the name of Viking Scotland, and that a substantial part of Scotland—the Northern and Western Isles and large areas of the coastal mainland from Caithness and Sutherland to ...
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Hebrides
The Hebrides (; gd, Innse Gall, ; non, Suðreyjar, "southern isles") are an archipelago off the west coast of the Scottish mainland. The islands fall into two main groups, based on their proximity to the mainland: the Inner and Outer Hebrides. These islands have a long history of occupation (dating back to the Mesolithic period), and the culture of the inhabitants has been successively influenced by the cultures of Celtic-speaking, Norse-speaking, and English-speaking peoples. This diversity is reflected in the various names given to the islands, which are derived from the different languages that have been spoken there at various points in their history. The Hebrides are where much of Scottish Gaelic literature and Gaelic music has historically originated. Today, the economy of the islands is dependent on crofting, fishing, tourism, the oil industry, and renewable energy. The Hebrides have less biodiversity than mainland Scotland, but a significant number of seals an ...
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Treaty Of Perth
The Treaty of Perth, signed 2 July 1266, ended military conflict between Magnus VI of Norway and Alexander III of Scotland over possession of the Hebrides and the Isle of Man. The text of the treaty. The Hebrides and the Isle of Man had become Norwegian territory during centuries when both Scotland and Norway were still forming themselves as coherent nation-states, and Norwegian control had been formalised in 1098, when Edgar of Scotland signed the islands over to Magnus III of Norway. In Norwegian terms, the islands were the ''Sudreys'', meaning Southern Isles. The Treaty was agreed three years after the Battle of Largs in 1263. Michael Lynch has compared the treaty's importance with that of the Treaty of York of 1237. The Treaty of York defined a border between Scotland and England which is almost identical to the modern border. Largs is often claimed as a great Scottish victory, but the Norwegian forces, led by King Håkon IV, were not fully committed to battle and the re ...
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Clan MacDougall
Clan MacDougall is a Highland Scottish clan, historically based in and around Argyll. The Lord Lyon King of Arms, the Scottish official with responsibility for regulating heraldry in Scotland, issuing new grants of coats of arms, and serving as the judge of the Court of the Lord Lyon, recognizes under Scottish law the Chief of Clan MacDougall. The MacDougall chiefs share a common ancestry with the chiefs of Clan Donald in descent from Somerled of the 12th century (and thus further of the Viking-born Norse-Gael dynasty of House of Ivar). In the 13th century the Clan MacDougall whose chiefs were the original Lords of Argyll and later Lords of Lorne was the most powerful clan in the Western Highlands. During the Wars of Scottish Independence the MacDougalls sided with the Clan Comyn whose chiefs rivaled Robert the Bruce for the Scottish Crown and this resulted in clan battles between the MacDougalls and Bruce. This marked the MacDougall's fall from power and led to the rise of t ...
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Kingdom Of The Isles
The Kingdom of the Isles consisted of the Isle of Man, the Hebrides and the islands of the Firth of Clyde from the 9th to the 13th centuries AD. The islands were known to the Norse as the , or "Southern Isles" as distinct from the or Northern Isles of Orkney and Shetland. In Scottish Gaelic, the kingdom is known as . The historical record is incomplete, and the kingdom was not a continuous entity throughout the entire period. The islands concerned are sometimes referred to as the Kingdom of Mann and the Isles, although only some of the later rulers claimed that title. At times the rulers were independent of external control, although for much of the period they had overlords in Norway, Ireland, England, Scotland or Orkney. At times there also appear to have been competing claims for all or parts of the territory. The islands involved have a total land area of over and extend for more than from north to south. Viking influence in the area commenced in the late 8th centu ...
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Norsemen
The Norsemen (or Norse people) were a North Germanic ethnolinguistic group of the Early Middle Ages, during which they spoke the Old Norse language. The language belongs to the North Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages and is the predecessor of the modern Germanic languages of Scandinavia. During the late eighth century, Scandinavians embarked on a large-scale expansion in all directions, giving rise to the Viking Age. In English-language scholarship since the 19th century, Norse seafaring traders, settlers and warriors have commonly been referred to as Vikings. Historians of Anglo-Saxon England distinguish between Norse Vikings (Norsemen) from Norway who mainly invaded and occupied the islands north and north-west of Britain, Ireland and western Britain, and Danish Vikings, who principally invaded and occupied eastern Britain. Modern descendants of Norsemen are the Danes, Icelanders, Faroe Islanders, Norwegians, and Swedes, who are now generally referred to as "Sc ...
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Lorne, Scotland
Lorne (or Lorn; gd, Latharna) is an ancient province (medieval Latin: ''provincia'') in the west of Scotland, which is now a district in the Argyll and Bute council area. The district gives its name to the ''Lynn of Lorn National Scenic Area'', one of forty such areas in Scotland, which have been defined so as to identify areas of exceptional scenery and to ensure its protection from inappropriate development. The national scenic areas cover 15,726  ha, of which 10,088 ha are marine seascape, and includes the whole of the island of Lismore, along with neighbouring areas on the mainland such as Benderloch and Port Appin, and the Shuna Island. The region may have given its name to the traditional Scottish breakfast dish Lorne sausage. Geography Lorn is bordered on the west by the Firth of Lorne, which separates it from Mull. The northern border is Glen Coe, and Rannoch Moor, which detach it from Lochaber, while on the east, the Bridge of Orchy hills, and Glen ...
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Loarn Mac Eirc
Loarn mac Eirc was a possible king of Dál Riata who may have lived in the 5th century. He was buried on Iona.J. M. P. Calise, Pictish sourcebook, Greenwood Press, 2002. Loarn's main significance is as the eponymous ancestor of Cenél Loairn, a kindred whose name is preserved in Lorne. The Duan Albanach and the Senchus Fer n-Alban The ''Senchus fer n-Alban'' (''The History of the men of Scotland'') is an Old Irish medieval text believed to have been compiled in the 10th century. It provides genealogies for kings of Dál Riata and a census of the kingdoms which comprised Dá ... and other genealogies name Loarn's father as Erc son of Eochaid Muinremuir. Loarn appears in Irish traditions as 'King of Alba' in the eighth- to twelfth-century tale "Of The Miracles of Cairnech Here" in the ''Lebhor Bretnach'', the Irish version of the ''Historia Brittonum'', and in the tenth- to twelfth-century tale ''Aided Muirchertach mac Erca''. In these tales, mac Erca spends time with Loarn, his g ...
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