Lismore, Scotland
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Lismore Island (Lios Mòr in Scots Gaelic) is an island in Loch Linnhe, in Argyll, on the west coast of Scotland.
Lismore is associated with Saint Moluag (Old Irish Mo-Luóc) (d. 592), who founded a monastery on the island. It was a major centre of Celtic Christianity, and the seat of the later medieval bishopric of Argyll or the Isles. To modern eyes it seems an isolated location for such a centre, but in an era when the fastest and most reliable transport was by water, Lismore was ideally situated. Argyll was Scotland's most impoverished diocese, and the fourteenth century Cathedral was very modest in scale (see picture). Only the choir survives, in greatly altered form, the nave and western tower having been reduced to their foundations. The building is in use as the parish church of Lismore. The chief surviving medieval features are three doorways, one blocked, another originally the entrance through the pulpitum, a piscina and the triple-arched sedilia. Several late medieval graveslabs are preserved in the church or adjoining graveyard.
Other major antiquities on Lismore include the impressive broch of Tirefour on the south coast, and two ruinous thirteenth century castles, Castle Coeffin and Achadun Castle, the latter the seat of the Bishop until the early sixteenth century.
Lismore is linked to the mainland by two ferries. A vehicle ferry makes the crossing to Oban, while a foot ferry makes the shorter crossing from the northern tip of the island. Lismore is the home of the highland Clan MacLea, whose chief, the Baron Livingstone, is the keeper of the hereditary Staff of Saint Moluag (an early church relic known as the Bachuill).
The Gaelic name, lios mòr, means "great garden" or "enclosure", reflecting either the fertility of a relatively low-lying island amidst mountainous surroundings, or the presence of a defined sacred area round the early monastery. In the 2001 census, the population was 146, over 45% of whom were over 60 years old, thus making it the Scottish island with the oldest population. [1]