Scottish Tour Guide's Blog

This evening, I am focusing on the extensive collection of medieval grave slabs at Kilmartin Church, Argyll in the West of Scotland. The slabs shown in the videos below date from the 14th-15th centuries and are classified as from the Loch Awe School. It will be noted that the carvings show swords, crosses and armoured figures. However, inscriptions are rare and hence little is known of the slabs’ social context.

For visitors planning to tour the prehistory sites in Kilmartin Glen, a stop at the church is worthwhile, both to view the slabs and view the Glen (valley) from a high aspect. The church is close to the museum and information centre at head of the Glen.

• Cup at he centre of concentric rings.
• Oval and round cups of varying sizes.
• Cup and duct at the centre of concentric rings.
• One group of cup-centred rings cuts into another.
• Cup and rings with long ducts.
• A horned spiral

Overall, there are some 323 carvings comprising 183 cup marks, 135 cup and ring marks, 2 spirals and a few other designs. Some key features:

• All carvings with four or more concentric rings have at least one radial groove.
• The majority of grooves run downhill
• The carvings are virtually invisible in the noonday midsummer sin but very prominent in low midwinter sun.

The visitor to Kilmartin Glen should include this site in the tour.

Today, I provided a tour to the prehistoric site at Kilmartin Glen on the west of Scotland. This is about 2 hours from Glasgow. During course of the day, the weather progressively deteriorated but despite and the associated poor light conditions, we achieved most of our objectives.

En route we called in at Inveraray Castle to take some external pics and avail of some light refreshment. This castle is more of a grand mansion and is home to the Duke of Argyll, Chief of Clan Campbell. It is open to the public during the tourist season. Next we moved on to Kilmartin Glen first stopping to view the prehistoric rock art at Achnabreck. Then up to the Kilmartin Museum for a spot of lunch after which we visited the adjacent church to photograph a fascinating collection of medieval slab graves. We then visited or viewed:

• Glebe Cairn
• Nether Largie South Cairn
• Temple Wood Stone Circles
• Nether Largie Stones
• Ballymeanoch Stones
• Ballymeanoch Kerb Cairn
• Dunchraigaig Cairn
• Dunadd Fort

After this tour, undertaken in driving rain, we were utterly soaked to the skin but, nevertheless, considered the day a productive one.

Inveraray Castle

Inveraray Castle
Nether Largie Standing Stones

Rock Art at Achnabreck

Medieval grave slab at Kilmartin

Medieval grave slabs at Kilmartin Church

Aspect of Temple Wood Stone Circle which dates from about 3500 BC

Dunchraigaig Cairn

Aspect of Dunchraigaig Cairn

Ballymeanoch Stones