Arran Aran Aran Mhor

There are two islands and an island group off the west coast of Scotland and Ireland with similar names.

There is the Isle of Arran, which is here, the Aran Isles off the coast of Galway and Aran Mhor off Donegal.

No where is this confusion more evident than in the knitting world where Aran Sweaters have been closely identified with the fishing life of the Aran Islands off the coast of Galway in Ireland.

They became very popular with knitters worldwide around the time I came to live on this Arran in the 1970’s.

The three island groups share a common heritage, especially from the time when the monks were travelling by corracle to spread Christianity.

From 1999 to 2002 I was fortunate to be part of a research team for the European Union into the lives of women in island communities so I had the opportunity to travel to the Aran Islands and meet the knitters there on several occasions.

To honour the bond and the traditions I wove a wallhanging called “The Galway Shawl” which further inspired our knitting pattern by that name. You can see that on my weaving website Lynn Gray Ross and read more about the influence that Arran has on my work.

Holy Isle off the coast of Arran is now owned by the Tibetan Buddhists, but there was a time when Irish warriors and priests used Arran as a stopping off place to rest in their travels along the island coasts, St. Molio’s cave on Holy Isle being one of their retreats.

lighthouse on Holy Isle

The knitting traditions and patterns are similar, more varied in the Aran Isles, but equally important to Arran fishermen as they “followed the herring” and tried to keep the wind and rain out.

With a bit of research and many thanks to Lawrence McBride an Arran fisherman from Pirnmill who generously shared his memories and photos with me, I realised that there were patterns which were unique to our island.

The The Arran Sweater and the The McBride Gansey are two of the designs which came from this time with Lawrence.

The photo shows the “Barking House” in Lochranza where Lawrence and other fishermen preserved their nets by using vats of Cutch bark to prevent them from rotting at sea.