Kilmartin

Kilmartin from the South

The village of Kilmartin lies on the main road to Oban about eight miles north of Lochgilphead It also lies five miles north of Dunadd, now an insignificant name on the map, but until 850 the capital of the Scots Kingdom of Dalriada, covering much of modern Argyll (see our Historical Timeline).

Village Shops The Kilmartin Hotel Kilmartin House Museum

Kilmartin is best known for its history. The village sits at the heart of Kilmartin Glen, and there are at least 150 prehistoric sites and 200 other ancient monuments within six miles of it. These include burial cairns, rock carvings, and standing stones, as well as the remains of the fortress at Dunadd.

Kilmartin Parish Church

Stone Crosses in Kilmartin Church

Churchyard Grave Slabs

There are three Undiscovered Scotland feature pages covering this area. This one covers the village of Kilmartin. The Kilmartin Glen page covers the archeological treasures of the surrounding area and the Kilmartin House Museum. And the Dunadd page covers the fortress of the Scots itself.

Kilmartin seems a surprisingly small place to be carrying such a weight of history. The main focus of the village lies at the top of the hill. Here you find the white-painted Kilmartin Hotel nearly opposite the Kilmartin Parish Church. Near the church is a parking area.

From the top of the hill you can see much of the village itself. A row of cottages stretch across the hillside above the road to Lochgilphead as it descends the valley to the south. And in the other direction another row of cottages concludes with the post office and, beyond it, The Cairn restaurant. Opposite are the grounds of the Kilmartin House Museum, in the old Manse. Next door to it is the visitor centre and cafe; complete with a shop selling an excellent range of books about Scotland and its history. See the Kilmartin Glen page for more about the Museum.

Kilmartin Parish Church was built in 1835. Internally it is a fairly standard church of the era. It does reflect the history of the surrounding area in one important way. It houses two stone crosses which are displayed inside at the rear of the church. And its graveyard shows that today's church is only the latest in a series built on the site.

Kilmartin churchyard contains some of the oldest carved graveslabs in Scotland. Some can still be seen in the open. Others are collected together in a stone building in the churchyard. The earliest of these is thought to date back to around 1300, others from different periods through to 1700.

Kilmartin is also home to not one but two castles. About a mile north of the village is Carnasserie Castle. This is the ruin of a 1500s tower house on a hillside to the west of the main road. It is in the care of Historic Scotland and there is a visitors' parking area accessible and signposted from the main road.

Carnasserie castle was built for John Carswell, Bishop of Argyll and the Isles. He is famous for producing the first book published in Gaelic, a translation of the Book of Common Prayer. Carswell had earlier occupied Kilmartin Castle, on the northern edge of the village. This is a smaller tower house that spent much of the last few hundred years as a ruin. It was restored as a private residence in the 1990s.