You can explore some of these sites on line through our interactive monuments data base, which contains information about more than 100 of these sites.  We hope to expand and update this resource in the near future.  

Look at the Research and Projects pages for information about recent research and excavations.  Argyll has traces of early occupation dating to the Mesolithic period (c9000 BP to c5500 BP), although known sites are mostly concentrated in the north and on the islands.  There is abundant evidence for activity in the Neolithic (c6000 BP to c4000 BP) – this appears in the form of chambered cairns, henge monuments and rock art.  Mid Argyll has the densest concentration of cup and ring marked rocks in the British Isles, and the Glen itself contains the largest cup and ring marked site in Europe, at Achnabreck.  There are also well known sites at Cairnbaan, Poltalloch and Ormaig, as well as hundreds of lesser known sites.  Aside from a cairn cemetery, which spans both the Neolithic and Bronze Ages, (c6,000 BP to c2600 BP), there is the henge monument at Ballymeanoch, stone circles and stone alignments at Templewood, Lady Glassary, Achnasheloch, Nether Largie and Ballymeanoch. 

 During the Bronze Age, the Glen saw an intensive period of monument construction.  These monuments, cairns, cists and their accompanying artefacts, were built for the dead.  The density and type of ‘grave goods’ - jet necklaces, pottery vessels - found within, indicate the importance of the area in this period.  Comparable archaeological remains are found around Stonehenge in Wiltshire, England.  Fieldwork conducted during the 1990’s on the gravel terraces at Upper Largie Quarry, revealed similarly important monuments, including a huge timber circle and a cursus monument.

All our evidence for the Neolithic and Bronze Age occupation of the Glen, is based on monuments for the dead, there are little traces of the living in terms of settlement sites.   The first millennium however, witnessed a dramatically changing society. Iron begins to appear in the archaeological record and defensive sites – duns, forts and crannogs (fortified settlements on artificial or natural islands in lochs) - began to appear all over the landscape.  Unlike earlier periods, we find little evidence of the people’s treatment of the dead.

Aside from the monuments described above, the Glen contains one of the most significant monuments in the whole of Scotland - Dunadd on the River Add.  Whilst also yielding earlier prehistoric evidence, this fort is thought to have been constructed and occupied by the Dál Riata, a group of people who, from at least AD 500, held lands both in Northern Ireland and in Argyll.  Rock carvings and artefacts from Dunadd show that this was a high-status site with wide social and economic relations.  It may well be the site referred to in the late 7th century manuscript titled the Life of Columba as the caput regionis - the chief place of the region - and was probably a royal centre where Scotland's earliest kings were inaugurated.  Recent research suggests that the presence of the Dál Riata here was not the large scale, single event migration it was once thought to be, but more a cultural, social exchange of people, ideas and power between lands connected, not divided, by sea.

Dunadd has been excavated on a number of occasions, yielding a large collection of artefacts, which further attest to its importance as revealed in historical documents.  Other sites dating from the early historic period have been excavated - Loch Glashan Crannog is of particular note - adding to the picture of life during this time.  

 The first Christian monuments in the area date to around the 6th Century.  It is not clear how the new religion arrived, but by the time St Columba came to Iona (563) it seems that Argyll was largely already Christian. Argyll continued to be important throughout the early Christian period as indicated by the concentration of early ecclesiastic sites and carved stones; a recent find from only a few miles from Kilmartin– the Kilbride cross slab - reveals possible links with the Iona School in the 9th Century.  Many other Christian carved stones have been found in the area, for example Kilmartin Parish Church itself contains an exceptional collection of late medieval grave slabs, many of them products of the Loch Awe School dating to the 14th and 15th centuries. 

The Glen continued to be important in later periods of history for example, the first book to be printed in Scots Gaelic was translated by John Carswell in 1567 at Carnassarie Castle.

If you would like to know more about Kilmartin's fascinating archaeology and history - click on the further reading link, browse the interactive map or come and visit the Museum!