Tarbert life is a project of Tarbert & Skipness Community Trust to help people understand and enjoy the story of our village. For more information on Tarbert & Skipness Community Trust please visit our website on www.tsct.org.uk.

If you’re ready, jump in and immerse yourself in Tarbert Life!

Tarbert Life

Welcome to the online home of Tarbert Life. Here you can enjoy stepping into the past and discovering more about Tarbert’s royal roots, follow the generations of fishermen who hunted for the silver darlings, the herring which made Tarbert famous and join us as we take you on a journey to meet some of the characters who made up village life.

As you will appreciate, covering so much, our history, heritage and life in Tarbert today is going to take time. Our new website is a work in progress, but we hope you’ll join us on this journey and keep coming back to see what’s new!

Yes, we have rich history which we’re very proud of, but we have so much to offer. While fishing remains at the heart of the village, new industries have emerged. The castle is no longer a stronghold for kings, but it is a magnet for historians and tourists alike. And with festivals and celebrations playing a huge part in our calendar you’re assured of a warm welcome.

Village Life

Village life in Tarbert has certainly changed across the centuries.

However, some things never change. Fishing is still an integral part of village life, the Castle still overlooks the village, our young people attend both primary and secondary school in Tarbert and we still have ‘sea bathers’ although we call them wild swimmers now.

Tarbert became a royal burgh after 1329. Close to the castle would have been a small settlement and church but very little is known about how it evolved. Future excavations at the castle might shine a light on Tarbert’s early history.

By the 18th century a small village had developed to the west of the castle. Documents suggest that this was a simple row of thatched cottages with earth floors (along what is now known locally as Back Street) with other cottages scattered on the outskirts and across the hillside.

Thatched cottages on Church Street (Back Street) with the parish church on the hill to the rear 1903

In 1775 a church was built, on the location of the present Church of Scotland and, there was a court house. Reverend Alexander Campbell in the First Statistical Account (1794) described the biggest challenges in the parish being the lack of proper schools, the scarcity of fuel, the state of the roads, high rents, disease and emigration.

Fishing

Fishing, at the heart of the community for generations.

It is no exaggeration to say that fishing has played some part in the history of every family who can trace their roots through the village. From the men who have fished Loch Fyne and beyond, to the fisher lassies waiting on the quay for the boats to return. To the people who worked in the fish factories and smokeries to the newest generation of fishermen – the village owes you a debt of thanks.

Let us take you on a trip through our fishing history.

The Silver Darlings
Herring made Tarbert famous. Known as the Silver Darling, it had long been a staple food due to its taste and ease of preservation by curing. The shoals thronged Loch Fyne and the heyday of this fishing spanned a century starting in the 1850’s. The little skiffs with their rakish masts and brown sails would fish the loch from June to January and then follow the shoals north to the Minch or south to the Ballantrae Banks to their spawning grounds.

Ring Net Fishing
The herring were originally fished using a drift net but Tarbert men pioneered a much more efficient method using two boats and a ring net to encircle the glistening shoals. Like all revolutionary methods it was both lucrative and controversial and a huge outcry from the drift net fishermen led to the ring net being declared illegal. For 16 years fish wars raged on the waters of Loch Fyne. The Tarbert fleet were in the thick of it, often clashing with the naval gunboats Jackal and Porcupine which had been sent to police the legislation by seizing nets and gear from offenders. In 1867 the ring net men triumphed and trawling with your ’neebor’ boat and a ring net became legal.

Catherine Anne and Maireared breasted up while pairing for herring.

Nets

Barking and Drying Nets and Sails

Barking was the process used to help preserve cotton nets and sails which otherwise would quickly deteriorate. Drift nets needed constant attention and maintenance. Until the introduction of synthetic fibre nets in the 1950s, fishermen spent a lot of time barking, drying and preserving their nets.

The barking of nets was done by immersing them in a hot preservative substance made principally from the bark of native oak and birch trees. From the middle of the 19th century ‘cutch’ from countries such as India and Borneo was used, one of the earliest examples of cheap imports replacing locally produced products.

Cutch was made from acacia or mangrove trees by stripping the bark from the trees and boiling it in water. The thickened extract was decanted into iron pots and boiled again until it attained a syrupy consistency. It was then poured into moulds and exposed to the sun and air until it hardened into a dark brown substance. This is why all the old sails were a tan colour.

The barking of the nets was carried out in large cauldrons heated by a fire underneath. Nets were usually barked at the start of the summer and regularly every few weeks during the fishing season to prevent damage or decay to the twine or the ropes of the nets.

The nets were barked in Leitch the Sailmaker’s premises on Garvel Road. They were taken ashore at the old Barking House Quay just below Leitch’s and manhandled up the path into tanks on the ground floor. Drying the nets after use was equally important to avoid decay. They were dried on rails attached to tall poles (croichs) set into the shore on all sides of the harbour.

Tarbert Harbour

Village life runs around Tarbert Harbour

Lined by shops, cafés, hotels and restaurants, the harbour is the hub of the village. Whether you live and work in Tarbert or are visiting, it’s impossible not to notice our glorious gateway to Loch Fyne.

The small inlet of Loch Fyne, known as East Loch Tarbert, forms a natural harbour. Used for shelter, fishing and trade for over a thousand years, it is undoubtedly the main factor in Tarbert’s existence.

In the 1320s Robert the Bruce arrived for his periodic sojourns in ‘the King's Great Ship’. The Exchequer Roll for 1328 records a fee of 7 shillings and eight pence for the making of a ’coket’ (a customs seal) for Tarbert to impose a levy on goods despatched through the port. Over a century later James IV provisioned Tarbert's Castle with guns and ammunition.

The Mary Jane steamship carrying passengers and goods to Glasgow. This type of vessel could only call in after the harbour entrance had been deepened

The Castle

Overlooking Tarbert for centuries.

Having overlooked Tarbert for centuries, Tarbert Castle has seen and heard it all. The castle is the enduring heart of the village and it is a ‘must see’ destination on your visit to Tarbert. Tarbert’s Royal Castle is built in a strategic location on a narrow isthmus only a mile wide between East and West Lochs Tarbert at the north end of the Kintyre peninsula.

In earlier times it is likely that a small hill fort existed on the high ground above the sheltered anchorage. The Annals of Ulster mention the burning of a fort at Tarbert in 712 and again in 731.

By sea Tarbert is only 40 miles from the River Clyde and 30 miles to the Ayrshire Coast in sheltered water. Across the isthmus, Tarbert is only 30 miles from the Inner Hebridean Islands.

These links by water enabled sailors to avoid the arduous journey around the dangerous Mull of Kintyre, a sea route with strong tidal streams and a rocky shoreline. Even today this is considered a challenging route for sailing small boats.

Goods would have been traded and boats hauled across the shortcut for many centuries, including during the Viking period as told in the Norse Legend, The Orkneyinga Saga

King Robert the Bruce hauled his own Birlins across this thin strip of land in the later Medieval period on his way to the islands of the Inner Hebrides when ‘portage’ over the isthmus would still have been common practice.

Tarbert Map

The Early Years

Village life runs around Tarbert Harbour

Strategic Location
A brief look at a map of Scotland’s Southern West coast in the twenty-first century might make the observer wonder why a large Royal Castle should be located a hundred miles by road from the country’s biggest city, in a relatively under populated rural area. Tarbert’s Royal Castle, is built overlooking a narrow isthmus between East and West Lochs Tarbert, at the northern end of the Kintyre peninsula. Tarbert derives its name from the Gaelic compounding of tarruing, to draw, and bata, meaning boat. The variations of spelling are numerous. In the oldest records it is Tarbart, then Tarbard. Later it is spelt as Terbert, Tarbert, Tarbett, Tarbet, Tarbatt, Tarbat, Torban, Tarbot, Tarbitt, Terbat, Turbet and Terbart. No date of its foundation can be traced.

By sea Tarbert is only 40 miles from the river Clyde and 30 miles to the Ayrshire coast, in sheltered water. Across the isthmus Tarbert is only 30 miles by sea from the inner Hebridean islands. These links by water avoided the arduous journey around the dangerous Mull of Kintyre, a sea route with strong tidal streams and a rocky shoreline. Even today this is considered dangerous water for sailing small boats

Earlier Times
In earlier times it is almost certain that a hill fort existed on the high ground above the sheltered anchorage. Goods would have been traded and boats hauled across the shortcut for many centuries, including during the Viking period, as told in the Orkneyinga Saga.

Early Thatched Cottages

Tarbert Churches

Past and Present

Tarbert Parish Church
The Minister of the parish of Kilcalmonell records that a Royal Bounty Mission Station had been established at Tarbert in 1775. The first minister of the mission was the Rev. John Smith, who went on to become minister of the church in Campbeltown. In 1837, Rev. Colin Fisher Campbell set down the earliest description so far found of the Tarbert Church, with an estimated building cost of £500. The church was enlarged in 1842, but it was not until 1864 that full parish status was granted. By 1885 the enlarged church of 1842 was dilapidated, and unable to cope with the needs of the growing community of Tarbert.

In August 1885 demolition began and work commenced on the construction of a new church, at a cost of £3,000 to seat 600 persons. The main feature of the church, situated behind the harbour, is its square tower which rises over 100 feet from the ground surmounted by an unusual crown and lantern structure.

The clock, manufactured by Gillet and Co. of Croydon, was gifted to the parishioners and Kirk Session of Tarbert Parish by James Elder McLarty. The church has a small stainedglass window designed by Harrington Mann, a member of the Glasgow Boys movement in the 1880s.

The church roof interior features striking colour decoration, with the lower part painted in a series of pillared arches and a myriad of coloured starry patterns above adorning the wooden ceiling. This is presumed to be the work of the architects of the church, Messrs J ,McKissock and W. G. Rowan of Glasgow.

Tarbert Parish church before the construction of the new tower

Marine Life

Loch Fyne and the Clyde

Marine Life
Tarbert’s inhabitants have access to two different seas: the Firth of Clyde and the Atlantic. Both are protected from the worst of the winter gales by the Kintyre peninsula and a variety of islands varying in size from Islay to tiny skerries.

Tarbert harbour opens out into the East Loch, an inlet of Loch Fyne, itself an arm of the Firth of Clyde. Loch Fyne was deeply gouged out by glaciers and is over 100m. deep in places, with big tides. Check out the interpretation board at Garval Road car park and the Earra Gael to see descriptions of the various bird species you are likely to see.

Seaweed and Plankton
If you look in the harbour at any state of the tide, you’ll see plenty of seaweed. Seaweed is a valuable food source for many animals including humans and is rich in minerals and vitamins. The base of the food chain, seaweed and plankton produce 70% of the world’s oxygen. Kelp – the largest of our seaweeds – grows profusely on our rocky shores below the low-tide mark. It is one of the fastest growing organisms on earth and can grow 5cms a day. Tarbert Harbour is also home to wig wrack, a rare species in Argyll. You can see this at the Co-op end of the harbour. The reason our seawater appears green rather than blue is because of the presence of plankton: a vast array of tiny creatures including algae, diatoms, jellyfish and the larval forms of many marine species, indeed any living thing that depends on the currents to get about

Tarbert Life

Village Life

Fishing

Nets

Tarbert Harbour

The Castle

The Early Years

Tarbert Churches

Marine Life

The Location of Tarbert Loch Fyne and some handy information.