Carsaig

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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Carsaig, a place on the S coast of Mull island, Argyllshire, immediately W of the mouth of Loch Boy. Two natural archways in sea-cliffs here, known as the Carsaig Arches, have recently acquired much celebrity; one of them is a tunnel, 60 feet high, 55 wide, and 150 long, through a projecting mass of rock, crested with a basaltic colonnade, and overhung by a cliff which also has colonnades, and rises to an altitude of 983 feet. The other arch is only a few feet long, but 70 feet high; and it pierces an isolated rock about 120 feet high, crowned by a basaltic column. The freestone used in the restoration (1874-76) of Iona's ancient remains was taken from Carsaig Quarry, which, it is supposed, supplied the original materials.

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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