Evening Talks

Evening Talks

We offer free online talks with a fantastic selection of speakers. When you book a talk using our new system, you will be given the opportunity to book a place on the other talks too before you enter your details. Once you have signed up, we will send confirmation, and you will receive the Zoom link for the talk two days before the event.

All talks start at 7pm GMT (Greenwich Mean Time). You can join from 6.50pm GMT.

All of our previous talks are available to view on Kilmartin Museum’s YouTube Channel.

Thursday 28th March 2024 at 7pm GMT

‘The Chief Relic of the Western World’: Columcille and the Book of Kells

An online talk by Dr Rosemary Power

This was the description of the Great Gospel book stolen from Kells in 1007 (and later recovered).Produced two centuries after the saint’s death, this is an illuminated work, a series of icons, some textual, some portraits, intended to assist the understanding and imagination by commentary upon the scriptural texts, by making associations, through the use of style, colour, and, most of all, the pattern of the liturgical year.  Sometimes the detail is extraordinary, and purposeful, and it is only in recent years that the full extent of the artistry and its guiding theology is being understood again. This talk takes us through some of the illuminations, as an introduction to an intensely rich and integrated work of art.

Rosemary Power’s recent books include  Image and vision:  Reflecting with the Book of Kells, (Veritas, Dublin, 2022).

Booking is essential. Please click on the button to reserve your place:

Thursday 16 May 2024 at 7pm GMT

Time Travelling: the search for a creative archaeological narrative

An online talk by Matt Ritchie

In order to prepare a creative archaeological narrative of place and time, and add more unconventional elements to the story, the archaeologist must seek to balance factual understanding and creative engagement. In this talk, Forestry and Land Scotland’s archaeologist Matt Ritchie will describe his search for a creative archaeological narrative style. Join him as he travels through place and time, imagining map makers in our native woodlands, ancient rock artists and an outdoor gallery, the tomb keepers of the North Channel, and the broch builders of the Atlantic coast. Expect amazing drone photography, unusual sites and superb artwork!

Matt Ritchie is the archaeologist for Forestry and Land Scotland, one of a team of national environment advisors providing advice and guidance in relation to the protection and conservation of the natural environment and cultural heritage on Scotland's national forests and land. Recent publications include A Song in Stone: exploring Scotland’s Neolithic rock art (2021) (see also the short animated film A Song in Stone); To Build a Broch: from construction to conservation (2022); and The Bare Bones: explore the Early Neolithic chambered cairns of the North Channel (2023) (nominated in the category of Research Project of the Year 2024 in the Current Archaeology Awards).

Booking is essential. Please click on the button to reserve your place:

Thursday 20th June 2024 at 7pm GMT

"Glimpses of Iron Age beliefs? The Ballachulish wooden figure and other puzzles."

An online talk by Dr Fraser Hunter

In 1880, a remarkable wooden figure was pulled from the peat at Ballachulish, just north of Glencoe, overlooking Loch Leven. This stylised, almost life-size depiction of a woman has inspired speculation and debate ever since. Did she represent a goddess? A mortal? An ancestor? Why was she made, and why was she buried? To try to answer these questions, we shall review the figure herself, the wider picture of prehistoric wooden figures across Europe, and the traces that people in the Iron Age left behind of their beliefs.

Fraser Hunter is Principal Curator of Prehistoric and Roman Archaeology at National Museums Scotland.

Booking is essential. Please click on the button to reserve your place:

Thursday 18th July 2024 at 7pm GMT

The Poltalloch jet jewellery in context: examining supernatural power dressing

An online talk by Dr Alison Sheridan

The magnificent spacer-plate necklace and bracelet of jet and jet-like materials that is currently on display in Kilmartin Museum, on loan from National Museums Scotland, was once the treasured possession of a high-ranking woman buried in the Glen. Made between 2200 BC and 2000 BC, this jewellery has an amazing story to tell, not only about the specialist Whitby jetworkers who made the necklace in the first place, but also about the well-connected people who buried their important dead in imposing tombs in the Glen during its ‘Golden Age’, and about the woman with whom it had been buried. This lecture will also explore the beliefs surrounding the use of jet (and of the other similar-looking materials that were used as substitutes) – it could well have been believed to have magical powers, and thus constitute a kind of ‘supernatural power dressing’, protecting the deceased during her journey to the Afterlife. The life story of the necklace will be recounted, and its relationship to the other examples of Early Bronze Age spacer-plate jewellery in Scotland and further afield.

Alison Sheridan is a Research Associate with National Museums Scotland and President of the Prehistoric Society.

Booking is essential. Please click on the button to reserve your place:

Thursday 19th September 2024 at 7pm GMT

Swimming and Snorkelling Guide in Argyll
‘Air a' bhlàr a-muigh - In the great outdoors’

An online talk by Dan Coyle - Dònal Mac Giolla Chomhgaill

Dan the Merman is a nature based guide in the awe-inspiring coastline of Earra Ghàidheal - Argyll. An experienced STA open water swim coach and RLSS rescue qualified, Dan believes in taking a holistic approach to cold water immersion and swimming. This is in order to empower the individual with a state of calm and focus. His philosophy is based on an understanding of the interconnectedness of the human body and mind with nature.

Booking is essential. Please click on the button to reserve your place:

Thursday 17th October 2024 at 7pm GMT

Scotland’s earliest animal carvings 

An online talk by Dr Tertia Barnett

In May 2021, Historic Environment Scotland released exciting news of the discovery of animal carvings in the Early Bronze Age burial cairn at Dunchraigaig in Kilmartin Glen. This unprecedented find was publicised around the world and even satirised on Radio 4’s News Quiz. This talk explores the story behind the discovery and the subsequent investigations by Scotland’s Rock Art Project and Historic Environment Scotland, in collaboration with Kilmartin Museum, to authenticate the carvings as the earliest known animal depictions in Scotland.

Tertia Barnett works at Historic Environment Scotland.

Booking is essential. Please click on the button to reserve your place:

Thursday 21st November at 7pm GMT

Gaelic Tradition-Bearing

An online talk by Àdhamh Ó Broin

Join CHARTS Gaelic Culture Officer Àdhamh Ó Broin as he describes the process of reviving Gáilig Dhail Riada, the Gaelic dialect of Central Argyll, bringing once lost stories and songs from Kilmartin and beyond to life and raising his children as first language dialect speakers and the next generation of tradition-bearers.

Àdhamh Ó Broin is Gaelic Culture Officer, Culture, Heritage & Arts Assembly, Argyll & Isles (CHARTS)

Booking is essential. Please click on the button to reserve your place:

Our previous talks are available to view on Kilmartin Museum’s YouTube Channel.