Aros River

A historical perspective, drawn from the Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland: A Survey of Scottish Topography, Statistical, Biographical and Historical, edited by Francis H. Groome and originally published in parts by Thomas C. Jack, Grange Publishing Works, Edinburgh between 1882 and 1885.

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Aros, a village, an ancient castle, a rivulet, and a bay, on the NE coast of Mull island, Argyllshire. The village stands contiguous to the bay, 7 miles SSE of Tobermory, on the road thence to at once the south-eastern, the southern, and the western parts of the island; overlooks the central part of the Sound of Mull; is the residence of the Duke of Argyll's factor; and has a post office, with money order, savings' bank, and telegraph departments, under Oban, and an inn. The castle stands on a high basaltic promontory at the side of the bay; was built before the time of Robert Bruce, and inhabited by the Lords of the Isles; was defended, on the land side, by moat and drawbridge; has a spacious esplanade extending to the extremity of the rock, and probably enclosed by a wall; was itself no more than a massive oblong tower, about 40 feet high; and is now reduced to two of its walls and part of a third. The site of it is strong, and the grounds adjacent to it soar into wild cliffs, seamed by fissures and channelled by cascades. The rivulet drains Loch Eriza, a lake about 4 miles long, extending to within 3 miles of Tobermory; and it runs from the lake about 3½ miles south-eastward to the bayat the village. The bay has not much capacity, and is of half-moon outline; yet is made by Sir Walter Scott the rendezvous of the ships of the ` Lord of the Isles, '-

' Look where beneath the castle grey,
His fleet unmoors from Aros Bay.'

An accompanying 19th C. Ordnance Survey map is available, or use the map tab to the right of this page.

Note: This text has been made available using a process of scanning and optical character recognition. Despite manual checking, some typographical errors may remain. Please remember this description dates from the 1880s; names may have changed, administrative divisions will certainly be different and there are known to be occasional errors of fact in the original text, which we have not corrected because we wish to maintain its integrity. This information is provided subject to our standard disclaimer

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