Kilmartin Parish Church - A Few Goodies to Whet Your Appetite!!
Okay, so I know you're desperate to get into the prehistoric linear cemetery, but before we venture back in time, let's loiter for a little while and spend some time with some slightly more recent monuments.
The parish church at Kilmartin is a late structure, dating to the early nineteenth century, and the burial ground has its fair share of interesting monuments, including this headstone which features a rather jolly fish:-
But visitors to the churchyard are not usually interested in the 19th and 20th century memorials, however nice they may be. Instead, they find themselves heading for this little stone building which sits deep in the heart of the kirkyard:-
Inside this structure - which is actually a reconstructed 17th century mausoleum - can be found a fine collection of medieval tombstones, all representative of the famed 'West Highland' school of carving. In fact, In The Footsteps of Kings goes so far as to describe it as 'the best collection of West Highland sculpture in Scotland' (Webb, 2012, 75).
Looking inside, this is what you see:-
A selection of extremely well-preserved tombstones, some of which we'll see in greater detail tomorrow!
The parish church at Kilmartin is a late structure, dating to the early nineteenth century, and the burial ground has its fair share of interesting monuments, including this headstone which features a rather jolly fish:-
But visitors to the churchyard are not usually interested in the 19th and 20th century memorials, however nice they may be. Instead, they find themselves heading for this little stone building which sits deep in the heart of the kirkyard:-
Inside this structure - which is actually a reconstructed 17th century mausoleum - can be found a fine collection of medieval tombstones, all representative of the famed 'West Highland' school of carving. In fact, In The Footsteps of Kings goes so far as to describe it as 'the best collection of West Highland sculpture in Scotland' (Webb, 2012, 75).
Looking inside, this is what you see:-
A selection of extremely well-preserved tombstones, some of which we'll see in greater detail tomorrow!