Today we travelled back north to finish seeing all we wanted to see in Kilmartin Glen. Along the way we stopped at Clachan and hiked up Dun Skieg.
Blue has done a lot of research on this Dun or fort. I know that I took a photo of it two years ago while on the ferry from Islay to mainland Scotland, so visiting seemed a full circle.
The sun showed its face and the wind took a break, so we had a lovely hike. Once atop the dun I remembered that I am the King of Scotland, or at least of the People of the Moss. Looking out across the ocean, surveying my kingdom ... it has such a nice ring!
The dun actually consisted of two forts and a broch (prehistoric stone tower). Blue is standing on the outer edge of the remains of a large oval structure. You can see the Isle of Gigha in the background. One of the forts made use of vitrified stone - stone melted together to form a stronger building material. We found examples of this type of material atop the dun.
We were able to climb into the broch - this type of structure is found only in Scotland and the Isles. Quite a bit of the original stonework is still extant.
Here comes the ferry from Islay! How fitting - so we took a photo of it this year while on Dun Skieg.
From Dun Skieg we travelled to Achnabreck and Cairnbaan to hike in to see a few of the cup marked stones still visible. These stones were marked in the same time period of, and sometimes pre-date, the standing stones we visited yesterday. No one knows why these markings were made, but they are very impressive to see. This stone, above, is about 8' x 4' in size. You can see the spirals, whorls and at the bottom right, very faintly, is a "sunburst" shape.
After a quick lunch along the Crinan Canal, we headed for Skipness Castle on the east coast of Kintyre. I took this picture of a rhodededron in bloom along the walkway to the castle site. I've never seen such tall rhodies, and they are everywhere out here.
Skipness Castle - first stages of construction started in the 12th century and was added onto for several centuries after that. At some point the Campbells built themselves a new manor, then the estate workers lived in the castle. This was occupied by laborers until the late 1800s.
Near the castle is Skipness Chapel. All the buildings in this area feature this red sandstone trim, even the new manor house.
There were lots of skulls and crossed bones in this cemetery, too. They weren't so happy looking, however.
After dinner and "a few" at Whisky Mac's, we walked down to the quay to watch this huge container vessel being loaded. The long white "parts" are sections of wind mills which are constructed near Campbeltown. These are being shipped to Hull, in England.
Good night, from Campbeltown!
https://www.historicenvironment.scot/visit-a-place/places/skipness-castle-and-chapel/