📌 Kilmartin, Argyll & Bute
★★★
Kilmartin Glen is often described as an open-air museum, and the best way to explore many of its main Neolithic and Bronze Age sites is by walking from Kilmartin village. Most immediately obvious is the spectacular linear chain of burial cairns stretching down the glen, but stone circles and standing stones also form part of the landscape, with rock art carvings in the wider area. Start by visiting the Kilmartin Stones and also the village museum for a good overview of the region, then work your way south and prepare to be amazed by the sheer number of sites. Allow a few hours for the places on this route; if you’re hungry for more then there are plenty of other sites nearby (featured elsewhere on this website).
📷 Chronological photo guide
🌍 Location
📌 Start / finish outside Kilmartin Church, by the A816 in Kilmartin village centre
🧭 O.S. Grid Reference: NR 835988
🛰️ GPS coordinates: 56.132918,-5.485419
🚌 Bus to Kilmartin
🚗 Car park
📝 Key info
▶ 6 km / 4 mi | ▲ 30 m | ⌛ 2-2.5 hr
Features: ⭕ Kilmartin Stones ★★; 🏛️ Kilmartin Museum ★★; ✞ Glebe Cairn ★★; ✞ Nether Largie North Cairn ★★★; ✞ Nether Largie Mid Cairn ★★; ✞ Nether Largie South Cairn ★★; ⭕ Nether Largie Standing Stones ★★; ✞ Ri Cruin Cairn ★★; ⭕ Temple Wood Stone Circle ★★
⬤ Easy | Minor roads, tracks and good paths – more or less level gradient.
➡️ Clockwise lollipop walk with minor detours: start – Kilmartin Stones – Kilmartin Museum – Glebe Cairn – Nether Largie North Cairn – Nether Largie Mid Cairn – Nether Largie South Cairn – Nether Largie Standing Stones – Ri Cruin Cairn – Temple Wood Stone Circle – continue to rejoin outward route to start
🔍 Route in detail
1. Start by heading into the church graveyard to view the Kilmartin Stones. Kilmartin Museum is next door to the church, and also worth visiting.
2. Walk north along the road. Just before a garage / repair shop, turn left at a signpost for Kilmartin Glebe Cairn and pass through a gate. Follow the grassy path diagonally left through the field to Glebe Cairn.
3. Continue in the same direction to cross a small footbridge with a track beyond. Turn left on the track to Nether Largie North Cairn, followed by Nether Largie Mid Cairn a little further on. Continue south along the track, passing a school, onto a tarmac road straight ahead beyond. Nether Largie South Cairn is soon reached.
4. From this cairn, head southeast towards woodland then south on a path alongside the trees to Nether Largie Standing Stones. Head briefly left (east) from the stones to reach the B8025. Head right (south), then right again on the first minor road towards Ri Cruin house. Just before the house, turn left onto a path to Ri Cruin Cairn.
Download file for GPS5. Return to the road and turn left (northwest), before taking the first road on the right (with a cycle route sign) for a further few hundred metres to Temple Wood Stone Circle. Continue on the road, soon regaining the outward route near the school. From here, return by the outward route.
🥾 On our last visit
Wildlife: Sheep in the fields; cows watching on at Ri Cruin Cairn.
Weather: Warm with sunshine & areas of cloud, light winds.
June 2012
