Kildonan Point

Nearest town:
Campbeltown (9km SW)
OS reference:
NR78242715
OS sheets:
68, 69
Latitude:
55° 29' 15.37 N
Longitude:
5° 30' 37.87 W
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Sites within Kildonan Point

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Images

Image of Kildonan Point (Promontory Fort) by GLADMAN

The fort viewed across Kildonan Bay... the site is crowned by an OS trig pillar.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Jun 13, 2015
Image of Kildonan Point (Promontory Fort) by GLADMAN

Nature provides more than adequate protection for the southern arc of the enclosure... my assumption was the artificial defences were of the ‘fill in the gaps between crags’ variety.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Jun 13, 2015
Image of Kildonan Point (Promontory Fort) by GLADMAN

The wondrous Isle of Arran from the ancient defences.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Jun 13, 2015
Image of Kildonan Point (Promontory Fort) by GLADMAN

Approx eastern flank looking across Island Ross (I think) to Arran.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Jun 13, 2015
Image of Kildonan Point (Promontory Fort) by GLADMAN

The northern flank from below – note what appeared to be additional original outer defences protecting the path of least natural resistance.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Jun 13, 2015
Image of Kildonan Point (Promontory Fort) by GLADMAN

Northern flank, looking approx west toward the massive cairn (seen top right)

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Jun 13, 2015

Articles

Kildonan Point

GLADMAN
GLADMAN Aug 22, 2015

Guess it may well be an aphorism to state that the fort occupying the eastern-most extremity of Kildonan Point is well sited. ‘With reference to what’, the traveller might well ask, with some justification? Nevertheless it is difficult to counter that there is indeed an authentically ethereal atmosphere to be enjoyed here upon this rocky crag, the remains of an ancient settlement still encircled – at least for a good part of its enceinte – by the remains of a dry stone wall up to 4m thick (according to the RCAHMS – 1971).

Add some majestic, sweeping coastal views across Kildonan Bay to Ugadale Point to the north, Black Bay (south-west) and, last but certainly not least, eastward across Kilbrannan Sound to the Isle of Arran.... and it will be seen that visually aesthetic gold dust has been sprinkled around here, too.

The promontory fort stands above and a little to the approx east of the great round cairn at Kildonan Point, the substantial stonework protecting the apparent original entrance within the north-eastern flank initially misinterpreted by myself (in mitigation at a distance) as a companion funerary monument. Again according to the RCAHMS the settlement measures “internally 55m from NE to SW by about 64m transversely.” As noted above the defences – at least those resulting from human agency – are not traceable around the full circumference of the fort, the south-eastern arc noticeably lacking in this respect. However since this sector features substantial rocky outcrops falling away directly to the sea, I reckon it’s reasonable to assume that none were ever erected? Yeah, when Nature answers a potential problem so emphatically why elaborate. Why, indeed?

Having said that... the concrete Ordnance Survey trig pillar standing at the summit of the crag resides upon “a low stony mound 4.3m in diameter.” Whether this cartographical aid now surmounts something far older is a rhetorical question pending an unlikely excavation. But it is nonetheless an intriguing thought.

As the afternoon drifts inexorably toward evening I must eventually retrace my steps across the foreshore back to the fabulous dun lying across Kildonan Bay and, subsequently, Kilmartin. Now it’s fair to say Kilmartin Glen receives its fair share of architectural plaudits... and rightly so. However I’ve got my beady eye upon a much lesser known subsidiary site tomorrow... the chambered cairn at Baroile.

Sites within 20km of Kildonan Point

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