Eight Days in Scotland - Day 2 Kilmartin
Just north of Tarbert, begin the many ancient historical sites around Kilmartin. It's one of the highest concentrations of prehistoric sites in the country, so there's a great variety to choose from - rock art, standing stones, hill forts, and a castle. And there is a trail connecting everything together, if you've got the time and energy.
I love rock art, so our first stop was Achnabreck Rock Art, a large ring and cup carved rock face at the end of a short muddy, uphill trail, just off the A816, north of Cairnbaan.
Dunadd Hill Fort is visible from the main road and is a short, steep walk to the windy top where you can see a well and footprints in the stone used by kings.
Continuing North, just before the town of Kilmartin, is a grouping of sites, Nether Largie Standing Stones, Temple Wood, and Nether Largie South Cairn. They are all accessible from the Lady Glassary Carpark in a short loop through the fields or walkable from the trail at the museum.
Nether Largie Standing Stones were totally different from the stone circle we had seen the day before on Arran, just as tall, but in an X-pattern and interesting to think what it may have been used for.
We did not take the time to explore the Kilmartin Museum, as we needed to continue onward to catch the afternoon ferry in Oban, but we did stop for lunch of soup, bread and cake at the pleasant Museum Cafe.
We did take the time to stop, just north of the museum at Carnasserie Castle ruin. And I'm so glad we did, because this was one of my favorites, great to explore, because you can climb high up to the top of both towers.
Continuing on to Oban, we took a quick walk around and up the hill to the odd Coliseum tower above the town and then caught our ferry to Craignure.
Once arriving on Mull, we drove on to Tobermory at the north end of the island. Our lodging for the next two nights was at the very basic Tobermory Youth Hostel , conveniently located right on the main street and which is very close to the Mishnish Bar where we hung out with the locals and a few tourists for some drinks and dinner.
