County town: Inveraray
Argyllshire, taking its name from the Gaelic 'Oirthir Ghàidheal' ('coastland of the Gaels'), was the heartland of the kingdom of Dál Riata from the 5th century, from which Christianity spread to Scotland and northern England.
Argyllshire is a vast and complex county of sea lochs, peninsulas, and islands — Islay, Jura, Colonsay, Seil, and others — stretching along Scotland's western seaboard. It was the kingdom from which Scotland took its Gaelic identity: Irish settlers established the kingdom of Dál Riata here in the 5th century, and Columba founded his monastery on Iona in 563, making the island the centre of Christianity for northern Britain. Kilmartin Glen contains one of the most important concentrations of prehistoric monuments in Scotland. The county was Campbell territory from the medieval period, with Inveraray Castle as their seat.
The Statistical Accounts of Scotland — the Old Statistical Account (1791–99) and the New Statistical Account (1834–45) — provide detailed parish-by-parish descriptions of Argyllshire at two moments of transformation. Aubrey draws on these accounts when generating reports for Scottish locations, providing historical context specific to the parish and county.
Scotland's 33 traditional counties, established as sheriffdoms from the 12th century onward, were the administrative framework of the country until the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1975 replaced them with regional councils. They remain the reference framework for historical records, genealogy, and cultural identity.
An Aubrey report for a specific location in Argyllshire draws on historical maps, archaeological records, Domesday data, Statistical Account records, and landscape history to tell the full story of any site in the county.
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