Tiree
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Image:Tiree, Balephuil Bay.jpg Image:Tiree, spotted house.jpg
Tiree is an island in the Scottish Inner Hebrides southwest of Coll. It has a population of around 800 people. The low-lying island is highly fertile, and crofting, alongside tourism, are the main sources of employment for the islanders.
The main village on Tiree is Scarinish, from which ferries sail to Arinagour on Coll and to Oban on the mainland. There is also a small airport near the village. The island's other settlements include Hynish and Sandaig, both of which boast small museums.
Tiree is known for the first century BC Dùn Mòr broch, for the prehistoric carved Ringing Stone and for the birds of the Ceann a' Mhara headland. Tiree is also popular for windsurfing and has a radar station which tracks civil aircraft.
In 1770, half of the island was held by fourteen farmers who had drained land for hay and pasture. Instead of exporting live cattle (which were often exhausted by the long journey to market and so fetched low prices), they began to export salt beef in barrels to get better prices. The rest of the island was let to forty-five groups of tenants on co-operative Joint Farms: agricultural organisations probably dating from clan times. Field strips were allocated by annual ballot. Sowing and harvesting dates were decided communally. It is reported that in 1774, Tiresians were 'well-clothed and well-fed, having an abudance of corn and cattle'.
The island is known for its vernacular architecture, including 'blackhouses' and 'white houses', many retaining their traditional thatched roofs, as well as its unique 'pudding' or 'spotted houses' where only the mortar is painted white.
Its name derives from Tireth, 'land of the corn', for from the days of the 6th-century Celtic missionary and abbot St Columba (d. 597) Tiree provided the monastic community on the island of Iona, south-east of the island, with grain. A number of early Christian monasteries once existed on Tiree itself, and several sites have stone cross-slabs from this period, eg. St Patrick's Chapel, Ceann a' Mhara (NL 938 401) and Soroby (NL 984 416).
The island is located at Template:Coor dm.
External link
- Computer-generated virtual panoramas Summit of Tiree Index
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