Aug 13th, 2017

Author: donich_admin

Dalriada

On Saturday R and I went to Kilmarten and had a look at some of the ancient monuments associated with the Kingdom of Dalriada. This has a particular resonance for me as one of my favourite books is Rosemary Sutcliffe’s “Mark of the Horse Lord”, which is set in Argyll during the late Roman period – partially in Glen Croe. More of the plot actually happens in Dunadd, which is the ancient capital of Dalriada, which R and I also visited (with some difficulty in finding it as it is not well signposted to say the least).

It is a hill fort on the middle of a sizeable coastal plain.

We saw the footprint used in the inauguration of the Kings of Dalriada (this features in the book too). The footprint is actually a size 6 so they must have had small feet for men!

We also saw various cairns, standing stones and carved gravestones – of varying degrees of interest.

Afterwards we went to Crinan and walked some way down the side of the famous canal.