Blaeu Atlas of Scotland, 1654
Name: | Blaeu, Joan, 1596-1673 |
Title: | Cantire |
Pagination: | 58 |
Zoom view: | Click on the image to view in greater detail |
70 / 162 Scroll through pages: |
Translation of text:
KINTYRE
FROM CAMDEN (Section Note)
Loch Fyne, at the proper time amazingly productive in herring, separates Argyll from the promontory, which over a distance of more or less thirty miles narrows into a cone and so eagerly throws itself towards Ireland, as if it were summoning Ireland, which is separated by a narrow channel of scarcely 13 miles, to itself. Ptolemy calls this the promontory of the Epidii (1); this name, it seems to me, is in some way connected with the Hebrides which lie close by. Today in the Irish language, which is in use over this whole area, it is called Kintyre, that is Head of land. It is inhabited by the family of MacConell, which has lordship here but at the pleasure of the Earl of Argyll; they regularly go off to Ireland for booty in their light ships, and have occupied the small provinces called Glens and An Rata/The Route. This promontory is attached to Knapdale by so narrow (scarcely a mile) and sandy a neck that sailors pull small boats over it for a short-cut. You may believe this more easily than that the Argonauts placed their Argo on their shoulders and carried it for fifty miles.