Kilmartin

The village of Kilmartin is located near the west coast of Scotland in the county of Argyll and Bute, the former county of Argyll. It extends between Lochgilphead in the south and in the north of Ardfern and Kintraw. The town is the center of Kilmartin Glen, the valley that surrounds the village widely.

Geology

The Kilmartin Valley comprises a created in the Pleistocene glacial area with low hills, which rise usually only about four feet above the river. Many of the ausgeschürften from the glaciers depressions are filled by lakes such as Loch Awe in the Northeast. The significant cuts in the valley follow the glacial structures. The rocks themselves come almost exclusively from the Cambrian. The dominant minerals are quartz and slate, on the northern coast and in the east also Epidiorite and hornblende. The area is too low to map the sequence of glaciations and interglacials, which lasted 2.3 million years; the tracks of the individual hot and cold periods were continually impressed by the following. The source region of the ice was the big bowl of Rannoch Moor in the Northeast. The last major glaciation ( Devensian, it corresponds to the Weichsel glaciation on the European continent ), took place 23000-20000 years ago. Previously, glaciations of the area are likely, although difficult to assign. Some changes in the landscape are the Holocene ( beginning 11,000 years ago) to you, as the bog complex Moine Mhór. Anthropogenic factors have changed the landscape most clearly by deforestation, but this is bad to date.

Stone box Ri CRUIN

Kilmartin Castle

Archaeological Sites

The area is known as a center of historical and archaeological heritage. More than 350 monuments are located in or around the village. 150 of them are prehistoric. Among these are:

• Megaliths, long beds and Cairns, including Cairns from Auchoish, Baroile, Glebe and Kilchoan
• Grave mound
• Often near sea stone boxes: Kilbride, Nether Largie Mid, stone boxes of Poltalloch and the stone chest plate of Badden
• Menhirs and stone rows as in Ballymeanoch
• Stone circles, such as the stone circles at Temple Wood
• Henges
• Duns and forts such as Dun Ardifuir I and Dun Castle Dounie
• Rock carvings, especially cup-and -ring markings
• Crannogs in the valley of Kilmartin
• The cave of Duntroon
• The Abri of Crinan Ferry
• The multiple cult place Kintraw

Outstanding are:

• Nether Largie South, Nether Largie North
• Duncharagaig and Ri CRUIN
• Achnabreck and Cairnbaan
• Temple Wood
• Ballymeanoch

No less interesting are the Burnt Mounds as well as the remains of the fortress Dunadd, the capital of the Kingdom of Dalriada with the Felsritzung a boar.