Tarbet is a small village in Argyll and Bute, Scotland.
Traditionally on the northern fringes of the historic County of Dunbarton, it is on the banks of Loch Lomond, and has a pier. It stands on an isthmus where Loch Long and Loch Lomond come close. The village of Arrochar stands at the head of Loch Long, at the other side of the isthmus. Arrochar and Tarbet railway station, on the West Highland Line, stands between the two villages. The village has a primary school (Arrochar Primary School), many hotels and B+B's, and a Tourist Information Centre.
Its name comes from the Scottish Gaelic word for isthmus, although Tarbert is the more common anglicization, and Tarbat also exists.
The village is formed around the junction of the A82 and A83.
The area around Arrochar and Tarbet has become the scene of "squirrel wars". The red squirrel is resisting the offensive by the grey squirrel taking place across Great Britain, since there is a type of woodland they find more favourable than most.
Tarbet contains the Tarbet Hotel.
All placenames that variously show up as tarbert, tarbat or tarbet in their anglicised form derive from either Irish an tairbeart in Ireland and Scottish Gaelic an tairbeart in Scotland, both commonly translated as "the isthmus" today. Both these words derive from two Old Irish elements, tar "across" and a nominalised form of the verb ber "to carry". So the literal translation would be an "across-carrying". The reason for this is that all tarberts are in fact located at or near old portage sites.
In English language spellings the first syllable "tar" has generally remained constant but the second syllable "bert" has variously been spelled as "bart", "bert" "bat", "bad" etc.
