Our first day trip in the Oban area was to the Kilmartin Glen, famed for having one of the richest archaeological landscapes in Scotland. We started with a stop at the Kilmartin House Museum in the village of Kilmartin. The museum gave an overview of the rich history of this area, from pre-human natural history to early occupation by humans over 10,000 years ago, to being the place where the first kings of the Scots were crowned. Within a six mile radius there are more than 800 monuments, most of them prehistoric: standing stones, burial cairns, rock art, duns, forts, carved stones, castles. Pretty cool stuff.
In front of the Kilmartin House Museum was a reconstructed monk's "beehive cell," quite a powerful place for meditation. We climbed in and tried to imagine what it would be like to stay in there for days, weeks at a time with minimal food and water, seated deep in meditation and prayer.
Katherine and Claire exploring the "Nether Largie Burial Cairn."
We walked through a field full of sheep to see standing stones and a stone circle.
We had pretty tired kids that day, so we headed home early, but decided to stop at Carnasserie Castle on the way back. It was lightly sprinking rain, and the hike up to the castle was about 15 minutes (again, through meadows filled with sheep.) Samantha and I watched a shepherd and his three sheepdogs moving a flock of sheep across the land and through a gate. When we got to the castle, it was an open, partly ruined old castle with no roof, and several of the floors missing, but with plenty of staircases, ramparts, open rooms and secret passages for an amazing imaginary castle-guarding game. There was no one else around, we had the whole place to ourselves, and the sheep, of course.
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