Nether Largie South

Trip No.87  Entry No.14  Date Added: 6th Aug 2018
Site Type: Chambered Cairn Country: Scotland (Argyll)
Visited: Yes on 17th Jul 2018. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Nether Largie South: Impressively large, with a chamber you can get into. Have seen other chambered cairns in Northumberland, but all in pretty ruinous condition, nothing like this. Our second stop after the stone alignment. Beautiful location; a lot of other visitors at this time of year.

Nether Largie standing stone

Trip No.87  Entry No.11  Date Added: 7th Aug 2018
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: Scotland (Argyll)
Visited: Yes on 17th Jul 2018. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Nether Largie Standing Stone/Outlier to the stone alignment: The gate into the field with this standing stone was wired shut and the book we had with us asked us not to intrude into the field. There was also a group of largely, lively bullocks clustered around the gate, so we contented ourselves with looking from afar, from the Nether Largie Stone Alignment.

Kilmartin Churchyard (Lapidarium)

Trip No.87  Entry No.18  Date Added: 20th Aug 2018
Site Type: Sculptured Stone Country: Scotland (Argyll)
Visited: Yes on 17th Jul 2018. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Kilmartin Church (Lapidarium): See visit report for Kilmartin Churchyard (MP87.18)

Kilmartin Churchyard (Poltalloch Enclosure)

Trip No.87  Entry No.18  Date Added: 20th Aug 2018
Site Type: Sculptured Stone Country: Scotland (Argyll)
Visited: Yes on 17th Jul 2018. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: The Poltalloch Enclosure, Kilmartin churchyard: See main report for Kilmartin churchyard (MP 87.18).

Inveraray Castle

Trip No.86  Entry No.1  Date Added: 27th Jul 2018
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: Scotland (Argyll)
Visited: Yes on 16th Jul 2018. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 5

Log Text: Inveraray Castle Standing Stone: On our way from our daughter’s house to Craignish peninsula (having had the trauma of catching their cat and taking her to the cattery first!) we decided to stop of in Invarary to see our first standing stone of this part of the trip. Mistake.

We arrived the day before the Highland Games at the castle started, so the town was heaving, both with coach tours of largely American tourists, and people attending the games. There was a large funfair on the grass by the harbour, which didn’t aid the flow of traffic through the town.

We managed to turn up the entrance into the castle, only Andrew had to stay in the car whilst I ran out onto the grassy show-ground area to take photographs of the stone. I chuckled to think what the delivery drivers and people putting up the marquees and stands must have thought of this woman running around the stone with a camera must have thought!

Craignish Sculptured Stones

Trip No.86  Entry No.2  Date Added: 27th Jul 2018
Site Type: Ancient Cross Country: Scotland (Argyll)
Visited: Yes on 16th Jul 2018. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Craignish Sculptured Stones, Kirkton: After having arrived at the cottage we were staying in for the next three nights, we decided to head off to find supper, but taking in a couple of sites on the way, one of which we learned about from Rachel Butter's Kilmartin book, the other marked on the OS map. Not the most auspicious of starts, as a lady on a bicycle rode (at speed) up from the lane leading to the castle and told us off for parking on the grass by the garage near the entrance to the castle. She told us the area opposite had been cleared for a car park. I apologised whilst Andrew moved the car and told her we thought the cleared area was just a large passing place, as the road just in front (heading south) split into two – one road to the castle, the other to Aird Farm. We got chatting and she eventually said ‘not to worry’ (a ‘park here’ notice might have helped). She pointed out the old Kirk and told us to ‘enjoy’, which we most certainly did!

Having moved the car to the layby, we walked up to the metal gates up a short, grassy lane by the side of the modern cemetery, which had a “Craignish Sculptured Stones’ sign hanging on it, and let ourselves into the churchyard. Going through the south door into the church nave, turning to our left (west) there was a collection of old grave markers; to the east are some old box tombs. Almost straight in front of us was a cross base, not recorded on Canmore, with a sundial (see the highlighted entry below).

There are a number of Canmore entries for this location. The ‘Kilmartin’ book by Rachel Butter (page 98) reads: Old Parish Church, Kilmarie, Craignish NM 778 014. This former parish church probably dates to the 13th century though much repair is more recent. It overlooks Loch Craignish and neighbours ruins of a former township, Kirkton. Its dedication was to St. Maelrubha of Applecross. The church contains a collection of medieval slabs which formerly were n the graveyard.
Most of the carved stones are products of the 14-15th century Loch Awe School. They depict crosses, swords, armoured figures in niches, and are mostly carved in local epidiorite or quartzite gneiss. Some are of Easdale slate. There are also some Early Christian slabs (pre 10th century) and some 16th century stone chests.
An epidiorite cross base is carved with a sundial; it has a central socket and 24 rays with cardinal points marked by crosses.
Access: Six miles north of Kilmartin on the A816 take a left turn along the B8002 to Ardfern. You will come to the village after 1 mile. The chapel is a further 3 miles on the left. Kilmarie Church is in private ownership.

Clach An T-Sagairt

Trip No.86  Entry No.3  Date Added: 28th Jul 2018
Site Type: Chambered Tomb Country: Scotland (Argyll)
Visited: Yes on 16th Jul 2018. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Clach An T' Sagairt Chambered Tomb, Ardfern: From the map, this cairn appeared to be just behind the small school in the middle of Ardfern, and finding a small path behind the back of the school, followed this for about 20m before discovering we were in someone’s garden! The reality was we had to walk up the small road to Ardlarach, going past the school buildings to our right, until we got to what looked like a private road (seemingly unnamed). This led up a slope to the right to a number of other houses. A new gate in the fence to our left hand side led into the field with some beautiful horses, with the cairn some 100 yards straight in front of us.

What beautiful views from this chambered cairn. It looked as if it had a number of ‘arms’ coming out of the central mound, presumably the spoil form the excavations.

We were followed to the gate by a local resident, and we got chatting. She had lived in the village for 16 years and her children, who played on the cairn, told her there were dead bodies and gold in it. She started talking about the whole field being protected if there was an ancient monument in it, so I suggested she looked at Canmore, as it was usually only the area immediately around the monument that was scheduled.

She told us the gate had only appeared in the last few days, and the residents were wondering if a developer was looking to build in-fill houses. Seeing us with a camera walking the site got her worried we'd come to survey the site, so she came out to check.

She also said about once a year, before the gate, people asked to go into the field from her garden.

We went onto dinner at the Galley of Lorne Inn in the village. The last two sites had been a good introduction to this area, and despite the lack of internet and therefore having to rely on the OS map for information, we were both looking forward to seeing the many, many sites around here.

Barnacarry

Trip No.87  Entry No.1  Date Added: 28th Jul 2018
Site Type: Crannog Country: Scotland (Argyll)
Visited: Saw from a distance on 17th Jul 2018. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4

Log Text: Barnacarry Crannog, Loch Nell: (note on access: boat needed to get across!) Not having any broadband or mobile connection at the cottage we were staying in, we relied on the OS map. Andrew picked today’s sites, but mistakenly thought the area we were going to was only 10 miles north of Ardfern. Wrong. More like 30 and an hour and a half’s drive along twisty roads. Having wanted to come to the Kilmartin area for so long, I was cross that we’d already strayed so far from what I really wanted to see. However, the sites we did see today more than made up for this, I’m pleased to say.

First on the agenda were two sites close to each other – the Barnacarry Crannog and the Kilmore, Dalineun (or Dalnaneum) Chambered Cairn. A real treat.

Driving along the road from Kilmore village to the south, we came to the southern shore of Loch Nell. Just after Barnacarry Farm, before we sighted the crannog, we came across Clan (holiday?) cottages, which looked like they were really old and thatched. We couldn’t get close enough to really tell. This is a hugely pretty spot.

Without a boat, we couldn’t really get close to the crannog, but stood on a very small piece of sandy shore (where someone had left a nicely carved wooden seat and table, presumably for fishing), and looked from a distance. A very pretty little island, covered in trees. Not too far from the shore, although the water looked deep.

Dalineun

Trip No.87  Entry No.2  Date Added: 28th Jul 2018
Site Type: Chambered Tomb Country: Scotland (Argyll)
Visited: Yes on 17th Jul 2018. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Dalineun (Dalnaneun Farm) Chambered Cairn, Loch Nell: We made the mistake of thinking the chambered cairn was in the field opposite the crannog, and climbed over a small stile over the fence; however, we realised that we were in the wrong field, climbed back onto the road and walked down to the gate in the field at about NM 88045 26771; this way there were no small streams or field drains to cross.

Climbing up the slope, the stones of the cist came into view – it reminded me of the photos that Kristiansen has been sending in from Denmark. Turning to look east, there were great views across Loch Nell. Another nice place to be buried.

This was by far a much more atmospheric chambered cairn that the one in Adfern that we’d looked at the night before, as the location seemed both isolated and special. We walked round all sides of the cairn, photographing it as best we could. The Barnacarry crannog is visible from here, and I manged to get a photograph with the lens on maximum zoom. Certainly wish I’d had the plan whilst we were here – should have done a lot more research before we visited, but then that takes the spontaneity out of our daily trips.

It was certainly hot up on this hill. I could have stayed here for a few hours, just looking over the loch, but time marched on, and other sites called.

Diarmid's Grave

Trip No.87  Entry No.3  Date Added: 28th Jul 2018
Site Type: Cairn Country: Scotland (Argyll)
Visited: Yes on 17th Jul 2018. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 5

Log Text: Strontoiller (Small Cairn), next to the Clach Na Carraig standing stone: This was perhaps the most amusing encounter of our whole trip, involving a human and two sheep. As we pulled up by the cattle grid at NM 90788 28935, just before some houses set back from the road, I heard a man’s voice repeatedly shouting loudly: “Go away! Get out of here! Get out!” Thinking he might possibly be shouting at us because of where we’d left the car, I hopped across the cattle grid, only to be almost knocked off my feet by two very large lambs hurtling back across the cattle grid into the field. “Oh, I wasn’t shouting at you”, the man said. “Been naughty?” I asked him, pointing back to the sheep. “It’s always the lambs”, he said, closing the gate.

I asked him if it was OK to park where we where to look at the stone circle, and he replied, “It’s OK. Go ahead. It’s over there.” He pointed, rapidly closing the farm gate into his driveway and scuttled back to his house.

The gate into the field was a little further west along the road, at the junction of the road with the driveway to Stontoiller Farmhouse/Cottage. We let ourselves into the field and walked across to where this neat little stone circle lay, the stones almost buried in tall grass and marsh grass at this time of year. We did a ‘round tour’ of the field, starting off by photographing this neat little cairn, then the stone circle, then the larger cairn, and finally coming back to the standing stone and the small cairn.

Note: the Portal’s page for this site is called ‘Diarmid’s Grave’. I’ve not yet come across any reference with this name in. I’d be curious to know more.

Strontoiller circle

Trip No.87  Entry No.4  Date Added: 29th Jul 2018
Site Type: Stone Circle Country: Scotland (Argyll)
Visited: Yes on 17th Jul 2018. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: Strontoiller Stone Circle, Lorn: After having taken a few photographs of the small cairn, we walked a couple of hundred yards back along the road to the gate in the field, which is at the corner of the road and the track to Strontoiller farmhouse/cottage. It was a short walk over the pasture to the stone circle – whilst we could see a few stones, mainly the cluster at the northern side (which looked a little like large toadstools popping their heads above the grass), the circle was largely hidden by tall grass and marsh grass.

I was amazed how close the stones were to each other; I’d read about one small stone circle where the stones had been touching, but there were definite gaps between the stones. I thought at first that the stones towards the NNE were part of a ‘double row’, but reading Canmore when I got access to the internet, Canmore says these are four stones which have probably been displaced.

I didn’t get the usual sense of atmosphere at this stone circle, unless others I’d been to, although this was a very pleasant spot, and had three other monuments within a few hundred yards (a small cairn, large cairn and a spectacular standing stone). Worth seeing, and I’d glad we’d stopped. We then strolled the 75m or so to investigate the larger cairn in the field.

Strontoiller Large Cairn

Trip No.87  Entry No.5  Date Added: 29th Jul 2018
Site Type: Cairn Country: Scotland (Argyll)
Visited: Yes on 17th Jul 2018. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: Strontoiller Round Cairn, Lorn: This cairn is just to the south west of the stone circle. From the stone circle, it definitely looks like a grassed-over round cairn. As we walked over to it, on our way back to the standing stone, I was not convinced we were looking at the right thing, but the GPS and its position in relation to the stone circle and the standing stone were correct.

In actual fact, looking back on the photographs, and now having seen a number of large, circular, stony cairns, I realise what I was looking at, and wished I’d taken more notice at the time (well, I confess to being keen to see more standing stones before having to head off back to the cottage).

Glenamacrie Dun

Trip No.87  Entry No.8  Date Added: 30th Jul 2018
Site Type: Stone Fort or Dun Country: Scotland (Argyll)
Visited: Yes on 17th Jul 2018. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: An Dun/Glenamachrie Dun: Not far to the east of the cairns and standing stone at Glenamachrie Farm. We bypassed those, and came here first to take photos then turn the car around to go back and photograph the standing stones and cairn. When husband came back, he said he’d had the most bizarre experience. As we stopped at the different sites along this road, we kept being passed by three men in a white truck; Andrew said they’d stopped him asking him if he’d seen a crane. I think on these narrow roads we’d most definitely have been run off the road and noticed. He said ‘no’. However, that alerted us to having to move on, just in case.

Left alone in the middle of nowhere for a few minutes, my first reaction was: “If this is a fort, there weren’t really any outer banks and ditches – this just looked like a large outcrop with a small terrace around it.” These Scottish duns/fort are quite unlike the hillforts we have in England. But then I hadn’t seen Dun Add.

Glenamacrie Farm

Trip No.87  Entry No.10  Date Added: 30th Jul 2018
Site Type: Cairn Country: Scotland (Argyll)
Visited: Saw from a distance on 17th Jul 2018. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: Glenamacrie Farm Cairn: Having stopped to look at the standing stones, with waist height, new wire fence and barbed wire all around this field, the nearest gate appeared to be by the farmhouse. If we'd been bold enough to walk up the farm track to get a closer look, we'd have got much better photos, but something about these big farms always holds me back. I contented myself with photographing the stones by leaning over the top of the fence, trying not to get caught by the barbed wire. It wasn’t until I got back to the car that Andrew (who’d stayed in the car in case the roadworks crane needed to come by) had got a mobile signal and told me this was a cairn. I’ve only got it photographed over the top of the standing stones/stone row.

Clenamacrie Stone Row

Trip No.87  Entry No.9  Date Added: 31st Jul 2018
Site Type: Stone Row / Alignment Country: Scotland (Argyll)
Visited: Yes on 17th Jul 2018. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 5

Log Text: Glenamacrie/Clenamacrie Stone Row: After An Dun, we headed off a few hundreds yards west back down the road. I took two lots of photos here, because I think I mistook an outcrop (an unmown area of the field with stones protruding, at NM 92745 28409). Andrew had mentioned both a ‘stone row’ and ‘four stones forming a chamber’, so I thought I had photographed the right thing. Driving down to the farm, I spotted the right three standing stones in a field nearer the farm, which I also photographed. Andrew said the ‘lump’ in the field behind was also a cairn, but this was the closest I could get, so we’ve got these standing stones with the cairn behind.

I wish now I’d had the courage to go and ask to see these up close, but I felt intimidated because the farm was so big and the gate into the field seemed to be along the far end of the track. I can’t get used to the ‘responsible right to roam’ act in Scotland, but it still feels like trespassing at times, especially when you are going doing someone’s driveway.

Port Nan Athlaich (Craignish)

Trip No.88  Entry No.1  Date Added: 31st Jul 2018
Site Type: Cist Country: Scotland (Argyll)
Visited: Yes on 18th Jul 2018. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 3

Log Text: Port Nan Athlaich Cist, Aird, Craignish: I counted this as 'a bit more of a walk' as it wasn't a simple walk along a footpath, but involved a large step over a ruinous barbed wire fence and taking a few stepping stones across a stream. The walk is glorious, and is to be recommended.

Since we’d stayed at the small cottage on Aird’s Farm not far away, we’d wanted to come here and watch the sun go down of an evening, but quite a few other visitors also wanted to do that, so we watched from our hillside vantage point above.

Finally, on our last but one day, we made the trip down the track. We parked at the small car park half way down the headland, finding other people already camped out at Aird Jetty, and started to walk down to the end of the peninsula, with map in hand, to try and find the cist marked on the OS map. As we’d had no internet connection in all the time we’d been here, we had no idea of the actual grid reference, or what we might find – all we knew was that ‘cist’ was marked on the OS map.

Apart from clambering over some ruinous fences, fording a small stream and trying not to get bogged down in the marshy bits, the cist wasn’t actually difficult to find, as it was on top of a cairn like mound with a great view out to sea to the south and west.

The cist burial seemed to be completely undisturbed. The capstone was cracked, and when I stood on the smaller section to photograph the crack, the smaller part of the rock moved a few inches. Curious, we very gently eased it out of the way by a couple of inches and had a quick look inside. It was very similar to the recreated cist we saw at the Kilmartin museum.

Looking at the cist from afar, it looked as if the cist was on a natural mound, but enhanced around the burial itself.

Kintraw (Kilmartin)

Trip No.88  Entry No.2  Date Added: 31st Jul 2018
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: Scotland (Argyll)
Visited: Yes on 18th Jul 2018. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 5 Access 4

Log Text: Kintraw Standing Stones and Cairns: This standing stone, when we spotted it on the evening of 17th July looked magnificent, but we couldn’t find anywhere to park; approaching this stone from the direction of Ardfern, there was a gateway to the field to pull into, which gave us just room to pull off this busy, fast road.

What a complex site. And what beautiful weather we had to enjoy it.The standing stone first catches your eye, but then the large cairn, with its huge pile of stones, grabs the attention, and then to the north east, with a smaller one by your feet almost next to the gate. Walking closer, we became aware of a ring cairn (?) just to the south east of the standing stone., at first view this looked like a ‘court’ cairn, made up of a ring of small upright stones – all with views over Loch Craignish from this perch on the hillside. Brilliant.

There were also traces of another, flattened cairn, to the north of the ring cairn-standing stone-larger cairn alignment.

To the east-south-east of the larger cairn was what looked like an old stone farm building, which I didn’t photograph as I thought this was modern. According to the OS map which I’m looking at now, it is noted as a ‘fort’.

This is my new ‘favourite spot’. Can I come back soon, please?

Glennan Standing Stone

Trip No.83  Entry No.3  Date Added: 1st Aug 2018
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: Scotland (Argyll)
Visited: Yes on 18th Aug 2018. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 5 Access 4

Log Text: Glennan Standing Stones and Cairns: What could top Kintraw Standing Stones & Cairns? But we found places that almost did. Carrying on down the A816 towards Kilmartin, we turned east on the road towards the small village of Ford, travelling along a very beautiful valley. We stopped at Old Glennan farmhouse (pulled into the gateway to the track up to the house, which looked as if it hadn’t been used in ages, and was in sight of the stone). Letting ourselves in through the gate, we followed the track up, with the line of an old stone wall, now only ankle height, up to where it turned a corner, just to the north of the house. The stone appeared to be incorporated into a taller part of the wall.

Walking back to the car, I spotted what looked like a cairn with a slight ditch around it. Andrew looked up the Canmore reference on his phone and determined there were two cairns near the gate, one much reduced. According to Canmore there is a cup marked stone on one, although both cairns were well grassed over at the time of our visit.

Creagantairbh Beag

Trip No.88  Entry No.5  Date Added: 1st Aug 2018
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: Scotland (Argyll)
Visited: Yes on 18th Aug 2018. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Creagantairbh Beag Standing Stone: I hadn’t spotted these on the OS map as we were driving along, but saw the still standing stone through the fence line. Quickly stopping by the side of the road to take a photograph, I noticed there was also a fallen stone. We decided to stop and investigate further on the way back down the road from Ford village.

On way back from Ford, we turnedthe car onto a track signposted to ‘Kilmichael Glen 7’ we were immediately into the same field as the standing stones(s), only on the right side of the fence. Getting closer we realised that the cracks on both sides of the stone matched almost precisely, so the fallen part must have been the top of the stump. This would have been amazingly tall!

In the field of the house opposite were some brown and black alpacas, and I took a photo to remind me.

Ford Cist

Trip No.88  Entry No.6  Date Added: 1st Aug 2018
Site Type: Cist Country: Scotland (Argyll)
Visited: Yes on 18th Aug 2018. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 2 Access 5

Log Text: Ford Cist: Not having access to the internet, we thought this was just a cairn which had been marked on the OS map. This monument is in an odd location, just inside the village boundary, tucked between the junction of the road through to Torran and the B840 running along the south shore of Loch Awe, opposite the Crown Hotel and next to a bus stop. Tis mound was fenced off, with no means of accessing the area (apart from climbing the fence) and no information board.

We took some photographs of the mound, but didn’t climb the slope, as we were keen to see the cross-inscribed standing stone at Torran and didn’t know if we’d find it, plus we’d seen another standing stone is a field to the west of the road just before we entered the village and wanted to make time to explore that. The cist was just to the south of a babbling River Ford and a small road bridge over the river.