Lorn.
SOmewhat higher, towards
the North, lies Lorn, a Country producing the best Barley, and divided by Logh-Leave, a vast Lake, upon
which stands Berogomum.Berogomum a Castle, wherein the Courts of Justice were antiently
kept: and not far from it, Dunstafag,Dunstafag. that is Stephen’s Mount,
antiently a seat of the Kings; above which, is Logh-Aber,Logh-Aber. a Lake that
insinuates it self so far into the Land out of the Western Sea, that it would meet the Lake of Ness, which
empties it self into the Eastern Ocean, did not the hills, which lie between, separate them by a very narrow neck. The
chief place in this tract, is TarbarTarbar. in Logh-Kinkeran, where King James
the fourth, by authority of Parliament,1503. constituted a Justice and Sheriff,
to administer Justice to the Inhabitants of the Southern Isles; ⌈but now the Shires of Argile and
Tarbar are joined into one.⌉
These Countries, and the others beyond them, were, in the year of our Lord 605. held by those Picts, which Bede calls the Northern Picts; where he tells us,Lib.3. c.4. that in the said Year, Columbanus a Priest and Abbot, famous for the profession of Monkery, came out of Ireland into Britain, to instruct those in the Christian Religion, who by the high and fearful ridges of Mountains, were sequester’d from the Southern Countries of the Picts; and that they in requital, granted him the Island Hii, lying over-against them, now ⌈said to be⌉ I-comb-kill; of which in its proper place. ⌈But against the supposing this to be I-comb-kill, it is alledged, that it appears not that the Western Isles belonged to the Picts at that time (so that they could not dispose of any part of them;) and that it was more probably Hoia, one of the Orkney-Isles.⌉
Its Stewards, in the last Age, were the Lords of Lorn; but now by an heir-female it is come to the * * Earls, C.Dukes of Argyle, who always use this, among their other titles of honour.