- For the song by Paul McCartney and Wings, see Mull of Kintyre (song).
The Mull of Kintyre is the most southwesterly section of the long Kintyre Peninsula in southwestern Scotland, approximately 10 miles from Campbeltown. The name is an Anglicisation of the Gaelic Maol Chinn Tìre (Scottish Gaelic pronunciation: [mɯːlˠ̪ çiɲˈtʲiːɾʲə]), or in English "The rounded [or bare] headland of Kintyre".
The area is home to an historic lighthouse and has been immortalised in the popular consciousness by the 1977 hit song "Mull of Kintyre" by Kintyre resident Paul McCartney's band of the time, Wings.
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Etymology
The name comes from Gaelic Maol (or "Mull"), meaning a headland, signifying a jutting crag, promontory, brow of a hill or rock, and also baldness or bareness.[1][2]
Geography
The Mull is at the extreme south tip of the Kintyre peninsula, Western Scotland. It is about 8 miles beyond the southernmost village of the peninsula, Southend, and reached via a single track road.[3]
Both Ailsa Craig and the Antrim coast of Northern Ireland and Rathlin Island are clearly visible from the Mull, on clearer days it is also possible to make out Malin Head in the Republic of Ireland, County Donegal, and the Ayrshire coast on the other side of Ailsa Craig. Other islands in the Firth of Clyde are also visible when looking east, especially from further back along the single track road from Southend village. The Straits of Moyle (part of the North Channel) allow sea passage from the Irish Sea to the Atlantic Ocean. Notoriously strong currents plague the tip of the Kintyrean Penninsula, prohibitting swimmers and creating a hazard to unmotorised craft. At its closest point, mainland Northern Ireland is only 20 km (12 miles) from the Mull. Due to the low-lying level of Rathlin Island and the high elevation of the Mull of Kintyre it is also possible to see over the top of Rathlin Island and on towards the Antrim coastal town of Ballycastle, immediately behind. Visitors to the Mull may also see the individual houses of the Antrim coast and the cars travelling along the coast-road without the aid of binoculars, although this is dependent on having very good visibility, the area often being plagued with sea-mists.
This unique closness of lands makes the area one of the only two places in the British Isles where Britain and Ireland can be viewed simultaneously; the other being Mount Snaefell on the Isle of Man.
The steep sides rising out of the sea on all sides have made the area a hazard to flight. The remains of a number of Second World War planes litter the area.
History
The Mull has been an important landbridge throughout history. It is thought that it was used by early humans in their travels from continental Europe to Ireland. In more recent times it was used again by the Scotti when they travelled from Ireland to establish the kingdom of Dál Riata in modern-day Argyll.
The area has been the site of many air crashes throughout its history; one of the most notorious was the Chinook crash on Mull of Kintyre, June 2, 1994.
The Lighthouse
Mull of Kintyre Lighthouse was the second lighthouse commissioned in Scotland by the Commissioners of the Northern Lights. It was designed and built by Thomas Smith and completed in 1788. Smith had previously designed the light at Kinnaird Head, but Mull of Kintyre was to be a far more substantial project in a far more remote location.
The lighthouse was rebuilt in the 1820s, converted to electrical power in 1976, and automated in 1996. The lighthouse keeper's cottage is now run as a holiday cottage by the National Trust for Scotland.
The term 'mull'
Mull is derived from Gaelic maol "bare". The related derived noun itself refers to a land formation bare of trees, such as a rounded hill, summit, mountain or promontory. As a geographical term it is most commonly found in use in the southwest of Scotland, where it is often applied to headlands or promontories, and, often more specifically, for the tip of that promontory or peninsula. Other mulls include:
- The Mull of Galloway
- The Mull of Oa, a headland on Islay
- The Mull of Cara, a promontory at the south of Cara Island
- The Mull of Logan, a promontory on the Rhins of Galloway
- Mull Head, a headland on the Orkney Mainland
- Creachmhaoil in County Galway, in Ireland.
Mull, the Inner Hebridean Island's name has a different (pre-Gaelic) derivation.[citation needed]
Trivia
The Mull of Kintyre is used as a reference in the Mull of Kintyre test, an unofficial test for the propriety of images of naked men.
It is famously used by the Broadcasting Standards Commission to determine whether or not the male member may be shown on television: only penises of flaccidity similar to that of the Mull of Kintyre in relation to the mainland of Great Britain may be shown. Those in a state of greater extension are deemed to be inappropriate.
References
- ^ Mull in the Online Etymology Dictionary
- ^ Mull in Clan Macrae Gaelic language reference
- ^ Kintyre.org tourist information
External links
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