The newly privatised Western Scottish was successful in securing all the tendered services on the Isle of Arran, putting the future of the small Brodick-based operator Arran Transport in jeopardy and drawing howls of protest and criticism from locals and the local media.

However, Arran Transport managed to stay in business by competing against the larger operator on its home island, and also the neighbouring Isle of Bute.

Stagecoach wasted no time in expanding its operations in the west of Scotland, and in October 1994 purchased the small Arran Transport business based in Brodick, on the Isle Of Arran.

An example at Monamore on Arran has been dated to 3160 BC, although it was almost certainly built earlier than that, possibly c. 4000BC.

After Somerled's death in 1164 his kingdom was split between his three sons, Ragnall in Islay and Kintyre, Dughall in Lorne and the other Argyll islands, and Angus holding Arran and Bute.

On the 1787 trip to the Isle of Arran he found his first example of Hutton's Unconformity to the north of Newton Point near Lochranza, but the limited view meant that the condition of the underlying strata was not clear enough for him, and he incorrectly thought that the strata were conformable at a depth below the exposed outcrop.

He was the eldest son of Claud Hamilton, 1st Lord Paisley ( 4th son of James Hamilton, 2nd Earl of Arran ), and of Margaret, daughter of George Seton, 7th Lord Seton.

While Baum was touring with The Maid of Arran, the theatre in Richburg caught fire during a production of Baum's ironically-titled parlor drama, Matches, destroying not only the theatre, but the only known copies of many of Baum's scripts, including Matches, as well as costumes.

As progress at the siege was slow, James sent Hans the royal gunner in Robert Barton's ship and then the Earl of Arran with provisions and more artillery.

* James Hamilton, Earl of Arran ( c. 1517 – 1575 ) ( from 8 February 1548, Duke of Châtelherault ) was Governor and Protector of the Kingdom ( 3 January 1543 – 12 April 1554 ) for Mary, Queen of Scots.

The dispute between husband and wife was set to dominate Scottish politics for the next three years, complicated even more by a bitter feud between Angus and James Hamilton, 1st Earl of Arran ; with bewildering rapidity Margaret sided with one and then the other.

With Albany once more in France ( where he was to die in 1536 ), Margaret, with the help of Arran and the Hamiltons, brought James, now twelve years old, from Stirling to Edinburgh.

In retaliation the Protestant leader, the Duke of Châtelherault, sent his son the Earl of Arran and the Master of Maxwell to seize Bothwell's home Crichton Castle and force the Earl, who was at Borthwick, to join them.

His open quarrel with the Earl of Arran and the Hamiltons, who accused him of intriguing against the Crown, caused some degree of anguish to the Queen, and although the Earl of Arran was eventually declared mad, Bothwell was nevertheless imprisoned in Edinburgh Castle without trial in 1562.

The government of Scotland was first entrusted to James Hamilton, 2nd Earl of Arran, as Regent.

Guise told an English diplomat Ralph Sadler that Regent Arran was a " simple man " and she could easily find out his " whole intent.

The marriage upset Anglo-Scottish diplomacy, as a possible union between Catherine and the Earl of Arran, a young and unstable nobleman with a strong claim to the Scottish throne, was now removed from the table.

Lord Boyd's son Thomas was made Earl of Arran and married to the king's sister Mary.

But Beton " loved him worst of all ," and, when Arran went over to the priestly party, Balnaves was, in November 1543, deprived of his offices and imprisoned in Blackness Castle.

Balnaves was surprised to meet the young Earl of Arran there.

Among the manuscripts of Baum's original plays known to have been lost are The Mackrummins, Matches ( which was being performed the night of the fire ), The Queen of Killarney, Kilmourne, or O ' Connor's Dream, and the complete musical score for The Maid of Arran, which survives only in commercial song sheets, which include six of the eight songs and no instrumental music.

Of particular interest is the fact that the Schechter Letter account of Oleg's death ( namely, that he fled to and raided FRS, tentatively identified with Persia, and was slain there ) bears remarkable parallels to the account of Arab historians such as Ibn Miskawayh, who described a similar Rus ' attack on the Muslim state of Arran in the year 944 / 5.

The oldest bridge still standing is the Mellows Bridge, ( originally Queens Bridge ) constructed in 1764 on the site of the Arran Bridge, which was destroyed by floods in 1763.

Its eastern side, connected with the mountains of Arran ( Eastern Armenia ) and Aderbijan, it is called Keik, and when it reaches to Ghilan, ( the Gelae and Cadusians ,) and Irak, ( Media ,) it takes the name of Terkel-diz-cuh ; it is called Mauz when it reaches Kurnish and Mazanderan ; and originally Mazanderan was named Mawz-enderan ; and when Alburz reaches Khorassan, it is called Lurry.

The Parthian name was Ardhan ( Middle Persian: Arran ).

" The town of Dundee agreed to support the garrison and resist the Governor of Scotland, Regent Arran on 27 October 1547.

Subsequently, however, he joined the league against Huntly, whom with Murray and Morton he defeated at Corrichie in October 1562, and he supported the projected marriage of Elizabeth with Arran.

On 10 October 1559 Arran and his accomplices took money and silver ware from the place of Daldowie and on 9 November 1559 raided the Palace of the Bishop of Dunblane, taking a gold necklace belonging to Janet, Lady Fleming, and removing the Bishop and his silver to Stirling Castle.

In October they invaded Scotland and gained an easy victory over Arran, captured Stirling Castle with the King in November, and secured from him the restoration of their estates, and the control of the government.

A list of the council for policy of the Lords of October 1559 includes ; the former Regent Arran ; his son the 3rd Earl of Arran ; the Earl of Argyll ; the Prior of St Andrews ; the Earl of Glencairn ; Lord Ruthven ; Robert, 4th Lord Boyd ; Lord Maxwell ; Erskine of Dun ; Wishart of Pitarrow ; Henry Balnaves of Halhill ; Kirkcaldy of Grange ; and James Halyburton Provost of Dundee.

In 1994 Arran Distillers was founded by Harold Currie, former director of Chivas with the intention of building a distillery on Arran.

* 20 July 1994: The Earl of Arran

The territory of Arran became a part of the Seljuk empire, followed by the Ildegizid state.

The travel story The Strange Adventures of a Phaeton followed during 1872, and during 1874 A Princess of Thule was another big success and was later adapted into a musical play, The Maid of Arran, by a young L. Frank Baum.

The territory of Arran became a part of the Seljuk empire, followed by the Ildegizid state.

Passenger services from Ardrossan harbour to Brodick on the Isle of Arran started in 1834, and services to Belfast in Ireland ( later Northern Ireland ) and the Isle of Man followed in 1884 and 1892 respectively.

The largest and most populous are Arran and Bute, and Great Cumbrae and Holy Isle are also served by dedicated ferry routes.

They are concentrated in Arran, Bute and Kintyre and it is likely that the Clyde cairns were the earliest forms of Neolithic monument constructed by incoming settlers although few of the 100 or so examples have been given a radiocarbon dating.

* Bryce's The Geology of Arran 1855 notes: " Many years ago, a large population, the largest then collected in any one spot in island of Arran, inhabited glen, and gained a scanty subsistence by fishing and by cultivating fertile plots on the sunny hill-sides.

Albania or Arran in Islamic times was a triangle of land, lowland in the east and mountainous in the west, formed by the junction of the Kura and Aras rivers, including the highland and lowland Karabakh ( Artsakh ), Mil plain and parts of the Mughan plain, and in the pre-Islamic times, corresponded roughly to the territory of modern-day Republic of Azerbaijan.

In a medieval chronicle " Ajayib-ad-Dunia ", written in the 13th century by an unknown author, Arran is said to have been 30 farsakhs ( 200 km ) in width, and 40 farsakhs ( 270 km ) in length.

This, due to the fact that after the partition of the Kingdom of Armenia by Persia and Byzantium in 387 AD, the Armenian provinces of Artsakh and Utik were disassociated from Armenia proper and included by Persians into a single province ( marzpanate ) called Aghvank ( Arran ).

According to a legendary tradition reported by Khorenatsi, Arran was a descendant of Sisak, the ancestor of the Siunids of Armenia ’ s province of Syunik, and thus a great-grandson of the ancestral eponym of the Armenians, the Forefather Hayk.

Kaghankatvatsi and another Armenian author, Kirakos Gandzaketsi, confirm Arran ’ s belonging to Hayk ’ s blood line by calling Arranshahiks “ a Haykazian dynasty .”

The Dukes of Abercorn also claim the French title of Duc de Châtellerault, as heirs-male of the second Earl of Arran, who was granted the title in 1548 by Henry II of France.

After the death of James V, David Lindsay was sent by Regent Arran to England to return the late King's collar, garter, and statutes of the Order of the Garter to Stephen Gardiner Bishop of Winchester the prelate of the Order.

Before the Dukes succeeded to the Marquisate of Douglas and its subsidiary titles, the heirs apparent were styled initially " Earl of Arran " ( which had previously been used as a courtesy title by the Marquises of Hamilton ) and later " Marquis of Clydesdale " ( the former style then being adopted for a grandson in direct line ).

Lamlash () is the largest village by population on the Isle of Arran, in the Firth of Clyde, Scotland.

It is also the first time that statutory protection has been given to a marine area as a result of proposals being developed at a grassroots level ; in this case after a long campaign by the Community of Arran Seabed Trust ( C. O. A. S. T.

In 1679, Arran was appointed a Gentleman of the Bedchamber by Charles II.

These were jealously guarded by the medieval Church, and later by the local aristocracy, particularly the Duke of Hamilton ( previously Barons of Cadzow and Earls of Arran ).

Albany's longer absence in France permitted the partyfaction of the nobles to come to a head in a plot by James Hamilton, 1st Earl of Arran to seize the Earl of Angus, the Queen's husband.

Arran Single Malt is a Single Malt Scotch whisky distilled by the Arran Distillery, Lochranza, Scotland, the only distillery on the Isle of Arran.