Portal:Scotland/Selected article/Week 37, 2009

The harbour in Tobermory, Mull

The Isle of Mull or simply Mull (Scottish Gaelic: Muile, pronounced [ˈmulə]) is the second largest island of the Inner Hebrides, off the west coast of Scotland in the council area of Argyll and Bute.

With an area of 875.35 square kilometres (337.97 sq mi) Mull is the fourth largest Scottish island and the fourth largest island surrounding Great Britain. In the 2001 census the usual resident population of Mull was 2,667; in the summer this is supplemented by many more tourists. Much of the population lives in Tobermory, the only burgh on the island until 1973, and its capital.

It is widely understood that Mull was inhabited shortly after the end of the last ice-age, from around 6000 BC. Bronze Age inhabitants built menhirs, brochs and a stone circle with examples of burial cairns, cists, standing stones, stone circles, pottery and knife blades providing compelling evidence. Between 600 BC to 400 AD Iron Age inhabitants were building protective forts, duns and crannogs.