Aros, a village, an ancient castle, a rivulet, and a bay, on the NE coast of Mull island, Argyllshire. The village stands contiguous to the bay, 7 miles SSE of Tobermory, on the road thence to at once the south-eastern, the southern, and the western parts of the island; overlooks the central part of the Sound of Mull; is the residence of the Duke of Argyll's factor; and has a post office, with money order, savings' bank, and telegraph departments, under Oban, and an inn. The castle stands on a high basaltic promontory at the side of the bay; was built before the time of Robert Bruce, and inhabited by the Lords of the Isles; was defended, on the land side, by moat and drawbridge; has a spacious esplanade extending to the extremity of the rock, and probably enclosed by a wall; was itself no more than a massive oblong tower, about 40 feet high; and is now reduced to two of its walls and part of a third. The site of it is strong, and the grounds adjacent to it soar into wild cliffs, seamed by fissures and channelled by cascades. The rivulet drains Loch Eriza, a lake about 4 miles long, extending to within 3 miles of Tobermory; and it runs from the lake about 3½ miles south-eastward to the bayat the village. The bay has not much capacity, and is of half-moon outline; yet is made by Sir Walter Scott the rendezvous of the ships of the ` Lord of the Isles, '-

Look where beneath the castle grey,
His fleet unmoors from Aros Bay.'

(F.H. Groome, Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland (1882-4); © 2004 Gazetteer for Scotland)