Township: Skerryvore

Map Reference: Skerryvore 2

Name Type: sea

Meaning: The big skerry

Other Forms: Skerevore - Island Mull with Islands Tiri and Coll, M MacKenzie, 1775.

Sgeir Mhòr nan Ròn - Hugh MacLean, Barrapol, 2/97

Related Places:

Information:The natives of Tyree have many stories about chains and anchors and hidden treasures with which their fancy has filled every nook of the Rocks.” (p. 138) Account of the Skerryvore Lighthouse by Alan Stevenson, 1848 (AI 2001.144.1)

Sir Walter Scott “We took possession of the rock in the name of the Commissioners and generously bestowed our own great names on its crags and creeks. [Sir Walter Scott, Hamilton and Duff]” p.21.

'In Tiree it is said that when her age was asked by the Prior's daughter she said her memory extended back to the time when the Skerryvore rocks...were covered with arable fields and that she had seen the waters of Loch Phuill...before they had attained any size.
'Littlesharp old wife, tell me your age' / 'I saw the seal-haunted Skerryvore / When it was a mighty power / When they ploughed it, if I'm right / And sharp and juicy was its barley. / I saw the Loch at Balefuil / When it was a little round well / Where my child was drowned / Sitting in its circular chair.' Campbell JG 1915, The Sharp-Witted Wife (A' Chailleach Bheur) The Scottish Historical Review, 12, 413


Local Form:

Languages : Gaelic

Informants: Hugh MacLean, Barrapol, 2/97

Informant 2: Alan Stevenson, Account of Skerryvore Lighthouse, 1848

Informant 3: multiple