Today we took the rental car north from Campbeltown to Kilmartin Glen. We have been researching this place since we first saw it last year on our bus trip from Oban to Lochgilphead.
Our first stop was at Dunadd, the administrative seat of Del Riata and more. On the top of the Dun is the Footstep of Fealty, and let it be known that as of today, I am the King of Scotland because my foot, including my boot, fit into the footstep carved in the rock. WOOT!
Views of the countryside around Dunadd from the top of the fort. This is a view of Moine Mohr - a peat moor which measures 30 feet deep. The Ogham script on the Stone of Fealty references "People of the Moss ... " for good reason.
Another view - you can see our rental car down near the River Add. Like yesterday, we trekked through a farmyard to access the dun.
Kilmartin Glen has been a center for people - ancient and modern - to gather and mark important events through building monuments and creating rituals. Ensuing generations and millenia of people added to and subtracted from the monuments.
Further along the highway we stopped at Duncraigaig to see the Ballymeanoch standing stones. These stones are more than 12' tall and are stiuated along a line from one burial cairn to another up the valley.
This is what remains of the only henge in this area of Scotland. In the center of concentric circles was a stone burial site, shown here. This site also include a circle of stones, long since repurposed elsewhere.
It is a challenge to take photos of what we saw today, to represent the deep history and presence of this place. Pictured above is Temple Wood, pre-dating the pyramids in Egypt. This site includes two stone cairns - rounded river rock, mind you - surrounded by a circle of standing stones.
In the center of the stones is a cist - a stone burial chamber. At one time this burial and the standing stones was completely covered with rounded river rock so you could not see the standing stones.
Another cairn and stone burial chamber.
Blue and I found ourselves trying to imagine people so ancient. These ancestors of modern humans striving to find meaning, to make sense of their world, developing systems of belief long lost to us "modern" people.
This place requires a certain suspension of our supposed superior knowledge. Wandering through Kilmartin Glen provided a look into the past, a sense of these people's struggle to understand their world, and an energy which is palpable and unforgettable.
And we finished this drizzly grey day at the Black Sheep Pub on the Campbeltown Harbor.
For more info:
https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryMagazine/DestinationsUK/Kilmartin-Glen/