Ormsary - Kintyre - Scotland
Ormsary is on Kintyre, a peninsular of Argyle in Southwest Scotland. The area had been regularly visited or passed by Norsemen from the 8th century to the 11th century, so it is difficult to establish a date for an Orme being there.
In 1098 Kintyre officially became part of Norway under an agreement between the Norwegian King, Magnus Barefoot, and the Scottish King, Malcolm. The agreement was that if a boat could pass between an island and the mainland, the island would be considered Norwegian - to pass between Kintyre and the mainland, Magnus had a boat dragged over land.
This is recorded in the Saga of Magnus Barefoot:
"... Then men went between the Scottish king, Melkolm and King
Magnus, and a peace was made between them; so that all the islands
lying west of Scotland, between which and the mainland he could
pass in a vessel with her rudder shipped, should be held to belong
to the king of Norway. When King Magnus came north to Cantire, he
had a skiff drawn over the strand at Cantire, and shipped the
rudder of it. The king himself sat in the stern-sheets, and held
the tiller; and thus he appropriated to himself the land that lay
on the farboard side. Cantire is a great district, better than the
best of the southern isles of the Hebudes, excepting Man; and there
is a small neck of land between it and the mainland of Scotland,
over which longships are often drawn."
By 1156, Kintyre had come under the control of Somerled, a son-in-law of Olaf, King of the Isle of Man. In 1266 the Treaty of Perth returned the Western Isles and Kintyre to Scotland.
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