Tarbat Ness (

Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic (, ; Endonym and exonym, endonym: ), also known as Scots Gaelic or simply Gaelic, is a Celtic language native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a member of the Goidelic language, Goidelic branch of Celtic, Scottish Gaelic, alongs ...

: ''Rubha Thairbeirt'') is a headland that lies at the end of the

Tarbat Tarbat (, meaning 'a crossing or isthmus'Place-names of Ross and Cromarty, by W J Watson, publ. The Northern Counties Printing and Publishing Co. Ltd., Inverness 1904; p.45) is a civil parish in Highland, Scotland, in the north-east corner of Ros ...

peninsula in

Easter Ross Easter Ross () is a loosely defined area in the east of Ross, Highland, Scotland. The name is used in the constituency name Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross, which is the name of both a British House of Commons constituency and a Scotti ...

, Scotland. The name is from the

Gaelic Gaelic (pronounced for Irish Gaelic and for Scots Gaelic) is an adjective that means "pertaining to the Gaels". It may refer to: Languages * Gaelic languages or Goidelic languages, a linguistic group that is one of the two branches of the Insul ...

''tairbeart'' meaning "

isthmus An isthmus (; : isthmuses or isthmi) is a narrow piece of land connecting two larger areas across an expanse of water by which they are otherwise separated. A tombolo is an isthmus that consists of a spit or bar, and a strait is the sea count ...

" and the

Old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...

''ness'', meaning "

headland A headland, also known as a head, is a coastal landform, a point of land usually high and often with a sheer drop, that extends into a body of water. It is a type of promontory. A headland of considerable size often is called a cape.Whittow, Jo ...

". It lies to the south of the entrance to the Dornoch Firth.

Geology and geomorphology

The Upper

Old Red Sandstone Old Red Sandstone, abbreviated ORS, is an assemblage of rocks in the North Atlantic region largely of Devonian age. It extends in the east across Great Britain, Ireland and Norway, and in the west along the eastern seaboard of North America. It ...

Devonian The Devonian ( ) is a period (geology), geologic period and system (stratigraphy), system of the Paleozoic era (geology), era during the Phanerozoic eon (geology), eon, spanning 60.3 million years from the end of the preceding Silurian per ...

period bedrock contains fish fossils. There are examples of a range of pitting, saltspray and honeycomb erosion and "some of the best examples of differential erosion processes on tilted sandstone strata in Scotland".Hansom, J.
"Tarbat Ness"
JNCC/''Geological Conservation Review''. Volume 28: Coastal Geomorphology of Great Britain. Chapter 3: Hard-rock cliffs. Retrieved 27 January 2014. The height of the headland reaches 17m above sea level in the south and east and 10m in the north and west. The

raised beach A raised beach, coastal terrace,Pinter, N (2010): 'Coastal Terraces, Sealevel, and Active Tectonics' (educational exercise), from 2/04/2011/ref> or perched coastline is a relatively flat, horizontal or gently inclined surface of marine origin, ...

es provide evidence of the post-glacial changes in sea level. Water depths offshore reach 10m at 300m offshore and 20m at circa offshore.

History

Tarbat ness lighthouse OS map 25inch Rosshire XXX

According to the ''

Orkneyinga Saga The ''Orkneyinga saga'' (Old Norse: ; ; also called the ''History of the Earls of Orkney'' and ''Jarls' Saga'') is a narrative of the history of the Orkney and Shetland islands and their relationship with other local polities, particularly No ...

'' the Norse

Earl of Orkney Earl of Orkney, historically Jarl of Orkney, is a title of nobility encompassing the archipelagoes of Orkney and Shetland, which comprise the Northern Isles of Scotland. Originally Scandinavian Scotland, founded by Norse invaders, the status ...

, Torf-Einarr "was the first man to dig

peat Peat is an accumulation of partially Decomposition, decayed vegetation or organic matter. It is unique to natural areas called peatlands, bogs, mires, Moorland, moors, or muskegs. ''Sphagnum'' moss, also called peat moss, is one of the most ...

for fuel, firewood being very scarce on the islands, at Tarbat Ness" (Torfness in the original). This is said to explain his nickname, ''torf'' meaning "peat", but it is clearly an absurd assertion. At the Battle of Tarbat Ness in the 11th century,

Thorfinn the Mighty Thorfinn Sigurdsson (1009? – 1058?), also known as Thorfinn the Mighty (Old Norse: ''Þorfinnr inn riki''), was an 11th-century Jarl of Orkney. He was the youngest of five sons of Jarl Sigurd Hlodvirsson and the only one resulting from S ...

defeated "

Karl Hundason Karl Hundason, also Karl Hundisson, is a personage in the ''Orkneyinga Saga''. The saga recounts a war between Thorfinn Sigurdsson, Earl of Orkney, and Karl, whom it calls king of Scots. The question of his identity and historicity has been debate ...

", possibly a Viking name for

Macbeth ''The Tragedy of Macbeth'', often shortened to ''Macbeth'' (), is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, estimated to have been first performed in 1606. It dramatises the physically violent and damaging psychological effects of political ambiti ...

. Further down the peninsula near the village of

Portmahomack Portmahomack (; 'Haven of My .e. 'Saint'Colmóc') is a small fishing village in Easter Ross, Scotland. It is situated in the Tarbat Peninsula in the parish of Tarbat. Tarbat Ness Lighthouse is about from the village at the end of the Tar ...

, in the 1480s the Clan Ross slaughtered a raiding party from the

Clan Mackay Clan Mackay ( ; ) is an ancient and once-powerful Scottish Highlands, Highland Scottish clan from the far north of the Scottish Highlands, but with roots in the old Mormaer of Moray, Kingdom of Moray. They supported Robert I of Scotland, Rober ...

by locking them in the Tarbat Old Church and setting fire to it. This event is known as the

Battle of Tarbat The Battle of Tarbat was a Scottish clan battle fought in the 1480s on the Tarbat peninsula, in Easter Ross. The Clan Ross cornered a raiding party of Clan Mackay near the village of Portmahomack and put many of them to the sword. The surviv ...

. On 14 October 1941 a Saro Lerwick flying boat assigned to No. 4 OTU ''L7268'' crashed into the sea near Tarbat Ness following failure of the port engine. The aircraft could not maintain altitude on a single engine. Six of the crew were killed, three recovered alive.

Modern day

Tarbat Ness from across the Firth - geograph

The

Tarbat Ness Lighthouse The Tarbat Ness Lighthouse is located at the North West tip of the Tarbat Ness peninsula near the Scottish fishing industry, fishing village of Portmahomack on the east coast of Scotland. It was built in 1830 by Robert Stevenson (civil engineer) ...

is located at the north west tip of the peninsula. It was built in 1830 by Robert Stevenson and has an elevation of and 203 steps to the top of the tower."Tarbat Ness Lighthouse"
Gazetteer for Scotland. Retrieved 27 January 2014. The restored Ballone Castle lies at the south east end of the peninsula north of the village of Rockfield.

Notes

References

* * * * * Thomson, William P. L. (2008) ''The New History of Orkney''. Edinburgh. Birlinn. {{Coord, 57, 51, 59, N, 3, 46, 27, W, type:landmark_region:GB_dim:2000, display=title Orkneyinga saga places Ross and Cromarty Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Scotland Headlands of Scotland Landforms of Highland (council area)