Torsa
one of the Slate Islands in Argyll and Bute, Scotland, UK
Torsa (occasionally Torsay) is one of the Slate Islands in Argyll and Bute, Scotland. Lying east of Luing and south of Seil, this tidal island was inhabited until the 1960s. There is now only one house there, which is used for holiday lets. The underlying bedrock is slate but unlike Torsa's immediate island neighbours this has never been worked commercially. The island's name is of Norse origin but the most prominent historical structure on the island is the ruined Caisteal nan Con on the northeast shore, once held by Clan Campbell. The abundant sea life in the waters surrounding the island are protected by the Loch Sunart to the Sound of Jura Marine Protected Area.
Geography
Torsa lies just offshore from the east coast of Luing. A rough track leads down from the road to Ardinamir farm on Luing to a narrow strait, fordable at low water, and onto the south west corner of the island. This area is known as Torsa Beag ("Little Torsa"), which name implies a small island in its own right but it is permanently attached to the main part of Torsa by a narrow strip of land.
Torsa farmhouse, which was inhabited until the 1960s and in 2007 was a holiday let, is nearby.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Torsa” as one of the Slate Islands in Argyll and Bute, Scotland, UK. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as one of the Slate Islands in Argyll and Bute, Scotland, UK. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 9, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q289181. Authority coordinates are 56.257, -5.617. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2007.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
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Three-step research path
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- Expand the search: follow Torsa primary sources, Torsa archive and Torsa research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Torsa” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.