A wander through Kilmartin Glen and some surrounding archaeology

Kilmartin is a village in Argyle, Scotland which sits on the only road between Lochgilphead and Oban. It also gives its name to Kilmartin Glen - the gravel terraced valley in which the village sits. The valley was formed at the end of the last ice age, approximately 10,000 years ago, when meltwater flowed from Loch Awe down into the sea at Crinan. We were lucky enough to visit this area at Easter 2011, with the most glorious of sunny weather. There was snow on the mountain tops, but we wandered around in t-shirts, in April, in Scotland! It definitely looks like we are tipping ourselves into the next Ice Age.Immediately to the south west of the village is a linear cemetery of 5 Bronze Age cairns, spread out in a line for over a mile on the valley floor.

The first cairn, in the field behind the museum at Kilmartin House, is the Glebe Cairn, a large rounded pile of local stones. Not much to see other than a pile of stones (!) but when this was excavated in the late 1800s Reverend Greenwell found two rings of stones and two cists. In the cists was a jet necklace and some intricately decorated pottery, similar to that found in Ireland - underlying the belief that this was a trade route with Ireland in the Bronze Age.

The next cairn is the Nether Largie North Cairn. Although there is a metal hatch door on the outside, inside is worth the visit. There is a large central cist, that contained ocre, charcoal and one human molar when excavated in 1930. The cap stone of the cist is decorated with cup marks and carved axe heads.

The Nether Largie Mid Cairn is next in line. Two cists were found here in the 1929 excavation, but only one is still visible. Again, tHis cist is decorated with carvings of axe heads.

The fourth, and best, of the cairns is the Nether Largie South Cairn. This is the only chambered cairn in the linear cemetery, the other cairns contain only cists, covered with stones. This cairn is believed to be Neolithic (in use about 3000 BC) but also utilised later in the Bronze Age.

The last cairn in the linear cemetery is Ri Cruin Cairn, but we didn't make it that far as we were led astray to the nearby Temple Wood circles. The most northerly circle is the smaller of the two and is made up of the same river gravel as the linear cemetery cairns. In the middle is one central stone, and another on the circles edge. This circle may have originated as a timber circle and used as a solar observatory.

A second circle, to the south, was built about 3000 BC and currently contains a ring of 13 standing stones about about 40 foot wide. ( It is believe to have contained up to 22 stones in the past). On the stone on the right hand side you can see concentric circles carved into the rock.

In the centre is a burial cist. This was added several hundred years after the stones circles, and was still in use for burials in about 1400 BC.

Some 250 metres South East of Temple Woods are the Nether Largie Stones. These consist of two sets of two upright stones, with a single menhir in the middle, and around which are seven smaller stones and one fallen one. Although not clear from this picture some of the stones are decorated with an impressive number of cup marks.

One and a half miles south from the village of Kilmartin, on the A816, are the Ballymeanoch Stones. These stones form two avenues of standing stones. One avenue has 4 stones ( the centre two of which are heavily decorated with cup and ring marks) and the other avenue has 2 stones, neither of which are decorated. The tallest stone is about 12 foot high, and their construction is believed to date back to over 4000 years ago.

We took the road north out of Kilmartin and parked up at Carnasserie castle, before taking a 6 mile round trip to the Ormaig Rock art site. Even this path in the hills was littered with standing stones.

The Ormaig carvings were only discovered in the 1970s and are relatively unweathered. They are impressively set in the side of a small, steep valley which was, until recently, a commercial forest. In the foreground of this picture are a number of cup marks, joined together by gutters pecked into the stone.

On a gently sloping rock sheet are a number of different rock carvings; cup marks, cup and ring marks, and the very unusual 'rosettes' made up of a central cup, a circle of smaller cups and then a ring around them all.

This is the view across the loch to the Ardfern Peninsula. The hike was long and tiring, but the scenery was beautiful and to see the rock art in situ, in the middle of nowhere, was breathtaking.

Back at the car we headed further north until we reached the Kintraw standing stone and cairn complex, looking over the sea loch, Loch Craignish. This is another Bronze Age complex made up of the standing stone and three cairns, and lots of sheep!

The standing stone is about 13 foot tall and is leaning slightly. There is a notch cut horizontally in the southern side of the stone, which makes the whole stone look like a depiction of the human face.br />
From here we drove to the Ardfern Peninsula and set up our tent overlooking the paps of the island of Jura, and the Corryevachan whirlpool.

A beautiful end to a busy day.

Next morning we headed south of Kilmartin where, looming out of the surrounding Moine Mhor marshlands, is the impressive Iron Age hill fort of Dunadd. It was reused by the Gaelic kings in the 6th to 9th centuries - resulting in the carving of basin, a depiction of a boar and two footprints carved into the rock, along with an undeciphered inscription in Ogham.

The footprints are said to depict the new rulers dominion over the land and the people. Nice try Englishman!

Nearby are the Achnabreck Rock art carvings. These two outcrops form the most extensive group of prehistoric carvings in Scotland. Most impressive are the large number of multiple ringed carvings, some up to nine rings and nearly a metre in width.

This is just a very small taster of some of the 350 or so ancient monuments within a six mile radius of Kilmartin, 150 of which are prehistoric. Go check it out for yourself!

But if you do make it to Scotland, a drive down the magnificent Glen Coe is a must! Totally awe inspiring!

And so too, is the most famous of all the Munros in Scotland - Bauchaille Etive Mor, which sits at the head of Glen Etive. A Munro is a mountain in Scotland taller that 3000 ft.

If you ever get the chance to camp in Scotland, come here! I insist! I have never been so overwhelmed by a campsite in my life. Rugged mountains, ice cold rivers, moorlands, silence and the stars in the pollution free skies was absolutely stunning. Never have I felt so dwarfed by a sky!

And if you are exceptionally lucky you get to greet the dawn in the company of red deer.