Friday
20th July
Kilmartin
Valley
We camped a few miles north of Kilmartin at Arduaine Campsite on the coast which had beautiful views. The museum in Kilmartin provides a free map to the area as a guide but a very detailed and useful book is their Inventory of Monuments for £9.99.
Standing Stone and cairn on the way to the campsite
These
pages in this section are laid out in a sequence that will make a walk
about 1.5 miles each way to visit the cairns, tombs and circles south of
Kilmartin. Take the turn off signed Temple Wood on the A816 south of
Kilmartin and park in the carpark at NR 828 975. With the foot and mouth
restrictions you cannot cross the field to the Nether Largie Standing
Stones so turn left instead out of the car park and walk down the road.
Take the first right into a lane which brings you to a sign for Ri Cruin
Cairn.
Ri
Cruin Cairn
Chambered Tomb
NR 825 971
The cairn has been largely reconstructed but originally measured around 19 metres diameter with intermittent kerbstones on the south and east. There are two cists with huge slabs inside the cairn and one outside. The west end slab of the outer cist is decorated with 8 carved axehead shapes that can be seen quite clearly. The slab on the east wall had what was described as a unique carving depicting something like the ribs of a boat but this was destroyed. The cairn was excavated in 1870.
The
photo shows the two cists, the central one was earlier and the outer one
has the carvings.
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