It is to the east of the island of Jura and the west of Knapdale, in the north of the Kintyre Peninsula, of the Scottish mainland.

Most of Jura's small population lives on the east coast, overlooking the sound.

The Gulf of Corryvreckan, which contains a notorious whirlpool, the world's third largest, located at the north of the Sound.

The canal is a shorter route from Loch Fyne, than sailing round the Mull of Kintyre.

[4][5] Intermittently between 1946 and 1949, George Orwell (Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950)), stayed in Barnhill, a farmhouse on the northeast of the island overlooking the Sound, while he completed his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.