Tarbert
Tarbert is a village in the west of Scotland, in the Argyll and Bute council location. It is developed around East Loch Tarbert, an inlet of Loch Fyne, and also crosses the isthmus which links the peninsula of Kintyre to Knapdale and West Loch Tarbert. Tarbert had a recorded population of 1,338 in the 2001 Census. Tarbert has a lengthy background both as a harbour and also as a critical point guarding access to Kintyre and also the Inner Hebrides. The name Tarbert is the anglicised form of the Gaelic word tairbeart, which literally converts as "carrying across" and also refers to the narrowest strip of land between 2 bodies of water over which items or whole watercrafts can be brought (portage). In hobbies freights were discharged from vessels berthed in one loch, hauled over the isthmus to the other loch, filled onto vessels berthed there and also shipped onward, allowing seafarers to avoid the sail around the Mull of Kintyre. Tarbert was anciently part of the Gaelic overkingdom of Dál Riata and secured by 3 castles-- in the village centre, ahead of the West Loch, and also on the south side of the East Loch. The ruin of the last of these castles, Tarbert Castle, still exists and controls Tarbert's sky line. Around the year 1098 Magnus Barefoot, King of Norway, had his longship brought throughout the isthmus at Tarbert to symbolize his ownership of the Western Isles. Despite its difference as a calculated garrison during the Middle Ages, Tarbert's socioeconomic prosperity came throughout the Early Modern period, as the port developed into a fishing town. At its elevation, the Loch Fyne herring fishery brought in thousands of vessels to Tarbert.