Arran

A Scottish historian provides an original, fascinating, and comprehensive account of the Isle of Arran from the prehistoric era to the 20th-century.   Arran is an archaeological and geological treasure trove of stunning scenic beauty. Its history stretches back more than five thousand years to the great stone circles, whose remnants still decorate the plains of Machrie. Runic inscriptions tell of a Viking occupation lasting centuries.   Later, in 1307, King Robert the Bruce began his triumphant comeback from Arran. Subsequently, the island was repeatedly caught up and devastated in the savage dynastic struggles of medieval Scotland. After the 1707 Parliamentary Union, came a new and strange upheaval: Arran became a testing ground for the Industrial Revolution. The ancient 'runrig' style of farming gave way to enclosed fields and labor-saving methods, which eventually lead to the socially disastrous Highland Clearances.   The misfortune of the times was culminated by the Great Irish Potato Famine of 1845. At last, the area settled into a stable mixture of agriculture and tourism in the 19th and 20th centuries.