Ancient Land

It was so lovely to have my family to stay last weekend. We ate and laughed and explored mine and Chris's new home together: it was a real treat.

I've done lots of exploring the wildlife of Knapdale, but not so much of the cultural history which is amazingly rich and ancient in this part of the world.

After the compulsary visit to the beaver dam visit, we carried on around to the other side of the loch to look at the deserted settlement of Kilmory Oib. Back in the 1700s people living in this ancient hamlet, hidden in the forest, would have worked in the old water powered corn mill.
This is my Dad by the now abandonned mill by the side of the loch.

The people are long gone and the buildings crumbled, but there remains a sign of their faith beside the "Holy Well".

Not satisfied with looking hundreds of years into our past, we then headed for a hill behind our local pub to take a look at some rock art from around 5000 years ago.

The cup and ring marks chipped into this rock by early Scottish settlers using stone hammers are still a puzzle to archaeologists: some think that there may be a spiritual or religious meaning behind the marks, others think of them as pure art and others that it may signify a meeting place or have a link with the making of stone axes.

They are certainly fascinating and beautiful. I like to think that it was some kind of spiritual meeting place. Its high position overlooking the fabulous scenery of Knapdale and to the mountains beyond certainly lends itself well to this purpose. Here you can truely feel at peace with the world... unless your daft family have you in hysterics of course!

My sister, we learned today, has just been awarded a first class MA in Game Design, so look out for the name Katherine Elanor Felicity Holden on the computer game credits of the future!

 I'd better keep this sketch of a beaver that she left on my visitor centre whiteboard; it might be worth a fortune!