Kilmartin

The last of the Scotland pics today as we end our short tour by driving south from Oban, down the Kintyre peninsular before turning back to Stirling once more.
We stopped for a bite to eat at the small village of Kilmartin. This area has one of the richest concentrations of prehistoric monuments in the country and it is a beautiful place too.

The churchyard has an important collection of early Christian, medieval carved stones. Some of these have been lifted and are now on display in a small building in the churchyard. They are fascinating.

The green and pleasant Glen of Kilmartin contains many standing stones, monoliths and stone circles. Here, we stopped again for a closer look at some of them. Known as the Nether Largie Stones. This is a collection of standing stones in three groups in a line across the field.

Standing in this spot for over 4000 years, some of the stones are carved with 'cup-and-ring' surface decorations as can be seen in the picture above.

The Nether Largie Stones are thought by some to have been part of a lunar observatory. The site consists of a tall central stone - covered with the cup and ring markings - with two pairs of outlying stones to the South and the West. Most mysterious!