Argyll is a large county of breathtaking scenery. It is deeply cut by sea lochs, and divided into peninsulas and scattered islands stretching into the Atlantic.
Oban in Lorne, on the Firth of Lorne, is the main ferry port for the Hebrides, of which many of those isles lie within Argykshire. The county embraces the Isles of Jura, Islay, Mull (off which lie Ulva and Iona), Colonsay, Coll and Tiree and many others; the greater part of the islands of the Inner Hebrides.
The lochs of the mainland part of Argyll divide it into distinctive districts, including Ardnamurchan (on which Ardnamurchan Point is the westernmost point in mainland Great Britain), Morvern, Lorne, Argyll, Cowal, Knapdale and Kintyre, reaching southward. The mainland and most of the islands of Argyll are mountainous.
The name of Argyll is an ancient one; the ‘Borderland of the Gael’. It approximates to the first Kingdom of the Scots, Dalriada, which through later conquest and accretion spread to become Scotland. The Queen and the Duke of Argyll can trace their descent from the chieftains of Argyll and of Lorne respectively in modern Argyllshire.
County Facts
County Town: Inveraray
Main Towns: Argyll, Bowmore, Campbeltown, Connel, Dunoon, Furnance, Kiloran, Kinlockleven, Lochgilphead, Lochgoilhead, Oban, Inverary, Port Ellen, Tarbert, Tighnabruaich, Tobermory.
Main Rivers: Urchay, Awe.
Highlights: Glen Coe; Isle of Mull; Fleming’s Cairn, Rannoch Moor; Iona; Kilchurn Castle; Staffa (Fingal’s Cave); West Highland Line.
Highest Point: Bidean nam Bian, 3773 feet.
Area: 3,110 sq miles
Flower: Foxglove
