Isle of Arran in the context of "Highland Clearances"

King's Cave (Scottish Gaelic: Uamh an Rìgh) is the largest of a series of seafront caves north of Blackwaterfoot on the Isle of Arran in Scotland. The caves were formed around 10,000 to 6,000 years ago during an ice age when the weight of an advancing glacier forced the land downward, so the sea was higher relative to the location of the cave, with high tide around 4 metres (13 ft) up from its present level. When the ice melted, the land rose due to the isostatic rebound effect, thus forming a raised shoreline or raised beach with relict sea-cliffs. The hillside above the cliffs has a shallow slope resulting from a much earlier raised beach, nominally 30 metres (98 ft) above present high tide.

Kilmory Parish church records suggest the cave may have been used for church meetings in the eighteenth century, and it is also said to have been used as a school. Before being known as the King's Cave it was known as Fingal's Cave after Fionn mac Cumhaill, a figure in Irish mythology.

The Firth of Clyde is the estuary of the River Clyde, on the west coast of Scotland. The Firth has some of the deepest coastal waters of the British Isles and is sheltered from the Atlantic Ocean by the Kintyre Peninsula. The Firth lies between West Dunbartonshire in the north, Argyll and Bute in the west, and Inverclyde, North Ayrshire and South Ayrshire in the east. Kilbrannan Sound is a large arm of the Firth, separating the Kintyre Peninsula from the Isle of Arran. The Kyles of Bute separates the Isle of Bute from the Cowal Peninsula. The Sound of Bute separates the islands of Bute and Arran.

The Highland Boundary Fault crosses the Firth. The Firth also played a vital military role during World War II.

Ailsa Craig (/ˈeɪlsə/; Scottish Gaelic: Creag Ealasaid) is an island of 99 ha (240 acres) in the outer Firth of Clyde, 16 km (8+1⁄2 nmi) west of mainland Scotland, upon which microgranite has long been quarried to make curling stones. The now-uninhabited island comprises the remains of a magmatic pluton formed during the same period of igneous activity as magmatic rocks on the nearby Isle of Arran.

The island, colloquially known as "Paddy's Milestone" because it is halfway between Belfast and Glasgow, was a haven for Catholics during the Scottish Reformation in the 16th century, but is today a bird sanctuary, providing a home for huge numbers of gannets and an increasing number of puffins.

Alexander MacMillan (Scottish Gaelic: Alasdair MacMhaolain; 3 October 1818 – 25 January 1896), born in Irvine, Ayrshire, Scotland, was a cofounder, in 1843, with his brother Daniel, of Macmillan Publishers in Covent Garden, London. His family were crofters from the Isle of Arran.

Alexander was the partner who developed the literary reputation of the company, while Daniel took charge of the business and commercial side. Originally called Macmillan & Co., the firm started as a successful bookshop in Cambridge. The brothers soon started publishing books as well as selling them. After Daniel's death in 1857, Alexander continued to run the firm. He expanded the company into a worldwide organization and also started publishing magazines, including the prestigious scientific journal Nature. Macmillan assigned George Edward Brett to create the New York office in August 1869 and hired American firm Messrs. Pott & Amery to assist in the marketing and distribution of Macmillan's books.

The Highland Boundary Fault is a major fault zone that traverses Scotland from Arran and Helensburgh on the west coast to Stonehaven in the east. It separates two different geological terranes which give rise to two distinct physiographic terrains: the Highlands and the Lowlands, and in most places it is recognisable as a change in topography. Where rivers cross the fault, they often pass through gorges, and the associated waterfalls can be a barrier to salmon migration.

The fault is believed to have formed in conjunction with the Strathmore syncline to the south-east during the Acadian orogeny in a transpressive regime that caused the uplift of the Grampian block and a small sinistral movement on the Highland Boundary Fault.

Blackwaterfoot (Scottish Gaelic: Bun na Uisge Dubh lit. 'foot of the black water') is a village on the Isle of Arran in the Firth of Clyde, Scotland. The village is within the parish of Kilmory. It is located in the Shiskine valley in the south-west of the island. It is one of the smaller villages of Arran and home to one of Europe's two 12-hole golf courses. Nearby Drumadoon Point is home to the largest Iron Age fort on Arran. Further north is the King's Cave, reputed to be a hiding place of Robert the Bruce.

Kilmory (Scottish Gaelic: Cill Mhoire) is a small village on the south coast of the Isle of Arran, located on the coastal road between Lagg and Kildonan. Kilmory is also the parish of the western side of the Isle of Arran.

The Islands of the Firth of Clyde are the fifth largest of the major Scottish island groups after the Inner and Outer Hebrides, Orkney and Shetland. They are situated in the Firth of Clyde between Argyll and Bute in the west and Inverclyde, North Ayrshire and South Ayrshire in the east. There are about forty islands and skerries. Only four are inhabited, and only nine are larger than 40 hectares (99 acres). The largest and most populous are Arran and Bute. They are served by dedicated ferry routes, as are Great Cumbrae and Holy Island. Unlike the isles in the four larger Scottish archipelagos, none of the isles in this group are connected to one another or to the mainland by bridges.

The geology and geomorphology of the area is complex, and the islands and the surrounding sea lochs each have distinctive features. The influence of the Atlantic Ocean and the North Atlantic Drift create a mild, damp oceanic climate. There is a diversity of wildlife, including three species of rare endemic trees.

Maerl (also rhodolith) is a collective name for non-geniculate coralline red algae with a certain growth habit. Maerl grows at a rate of c. 1 mm per year. It accumulates as unattached particles and forms extensive beds in suitable sublittoral sites. The term maerl originally refers to the branched growth form of Lemoine (1910) and rhodolith is a sedimentological or genetic term for both the nodular and branched growth forms (Basso et al., 2015). The terms rhodolith and maerl are used in very similar ways. A study in 2023 clarifies that maerl refers to only living, branched coralline thalli, while rhodolith includes unattached coralline red algae, both dead and alive.