10 fascinating facts about… Argyll

Argyll is a fascinating and beautiful part of Scotland, to the point of being immortalised in song by Paul McCartney.

We present you with 10 fascinating facts about one of the most stunning areas in the land.

Kenneth MacAlpine, the first king of a unified Scotland, was crowned at Dunadd Fort in Kilmartin Glen.

The Argyll coastline is longer than that of France.

Inveraray Bell Tower has the second heaviest peal of ten bells in the world.

Campbeltown has 40% less rainfall than the rest of the west of Scotland.

The Gaelic term for Argyll is Earra Ghaidheal, meaning ‘the boundary of the Gaels’.

Mull of Kintyre was written by Paul McCartney as a tribute to the Kintyre peninsula and the farm he bought there in 1966.

Loch Craignish doubled for Yugoslavia in From Russia With Love

Some of the scenes of the 1963 James Bond film From Russia with Love were filmed in the hills of Argyll, with Sean Connery and Daniella Bianchi being chased, as the location stood in for Yugoslavia.

During Roman times, Argyll was home to a tribe called the Epidii, or ‘horse people’.

Queen Victoria described Oban as ‘one of the finest spots we have seen’.

In 2005 a paranormal investigation of Inveraray Jail revealed a number of unusual phenomena, including drops in temperature, orbs and voices recorded on tape.

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