Tarbert
Tarbert is a town in the west of Scotland, in the Argyll and Bute council area. It is constructed around East Loch Tarbert, an inlet of Loch Fyne, and also extends over the isthmus which links the peninsula of Kintyre to Knapdale and West Loch Tarbert. Tarbert had actually a recorded population of 1,338 in the 2001 Census. Tarbert has a lengthy history both as a harbour and as a calculated point guarding access to Kintyre and also the Inner Hebrides. The name Tarbert is the anglicised form of the Gaelic word tairbeart, which literally equates as "bring across" and describes the narrowest strip of land between two bodies of water over which products or whole watercrafts can be carried (portage). In cargoes were discharged from vessels berthed in one loch, hauled over the isthmus to the other loch, loaded onto vessels berthed there and also shipped forward, allowing seafarers to avoid the sail around the Mull of Kintyre. Tarbert was anciently part of the Gaelic overkingdom of Dál Riata as well as safeguarded by 3 castles-- in the village centre, ahead of the West Loch, as well as on the south side of the East Loch. The ruin of the last of these castles, Tarbert Castle, still exists as well as controls Tarbert's sky line. Around the year 1098 Magnus Barefoot, King of Norway, had his longship lugged throughout the isthmus at Tarbert to symbolize his belongings of the Western Isles. Regardless of its distinction as a tactical garrison throughout the Middle Ages, Tarbert's socioeconomic prosperity came throughout the Very early Modern period, as the port developed into a fishing town. At its elevation, the Loch Fyne herring fishery attracted hundreds of vessels to Tarbert.
