Tarbert is a village on Harris in Outer Hebrides,Scotland. Tarbert is a small picturesque village with a population of just over 500. It is the main town and ferry terminal for the Island of Harris. Its central location makes it an ideal base for anybody wanting to tour both Harris and Lewis. The council operate an excellent and frequent bus service from Tarbert during the summer months.
Because of its central location you can easily see all parts of the island from Harris. Harris has some of the most stunning scenery in any of the Scottish Islands, the glorious beaches of West Harris are 20 minutes bus journey from Tarbert. If on foot there are some excellent walks that can be done from Tarbert such as Rhenigidale, Laxdale Lochs and Ben Luskentyre.
On the 30 April 1990 a Royal Air Force Avro Shackleton (WR965) flying from RAF Lossiemouth and Benbecula Airport crashed near to the village, killing all ten passengers and crew on board.
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.
