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After coming back down the track, east, from St Cathans / Kilchattan look into the field in front. The very large mound is a dun.

Simply jump the gate, ignore the cows and make for the bottom of the mound. I smashed, tramped and dived my way through the brambles on the south east to the centre of the site. Luckily for me, I only took this route as the vegetation seemed lower – it was lower as I’d chanced upon the entrance. Any other way up, to me, seemed impossible.

However, some of the stonework can still be seen on the north and north east especially. These walls keep going around the site which is 13.5m by 9m.

A worthwhile site to visit.

Visited 03/08/2025.

Head south out of Ardminish, take the road to Achamore Gardens, look north west over the graveyard and up as you come to the car park, the stone will be seen poking its head above the various vegetation. Included amongst the vegetation are brambles, they grow in abundance on Gigha.

Probably not in its original position it still has good views and also made for another easy site to visit.

Visited 03/08/2025.

The first site visited during our stay in Gigha. Situated in the village of Ardminish follow the road up from the pier and look north just before the T junction, almost opposite the primary school, and you’ll see a field with a small mound.

Built on top of natural rock the capstone stone is still in place, the side stones are either broken or have collapsed. Luckily a flint knife found at the site can now be seen at the Glasgow Art School and Museum.

A nice easy start.

Visited 03/08/2025.

Barlea Standing Stone would be the last site of a long walking day. It was very kind of the archaeologists to re-erect the stone in 2015, obviously expecting a visit from one of the TMA’ers.

From the remnants at Glencreggan I headed back down to the A83 to continue walking south until the track to Barlea fram. Keep going past the farm until a walkers track which heads north west, downhill and straight to the stone.

It stands at nearly 2m tall being 1.2m wide. Looking north west the south of Gigha can be seen, looking east the Kintyre ridge with its many monuments.

Sadly for me I didn’t know about the nearby cairn or I would have had a look for that as well.

A nice way to end the day. Next stop, the island of Gigha.

Visited 01/08/2025.

It was time to head back along the treacherous cliff at Dun Ach’ Na H-Atha to more surer footing on the farm track to head to the A83 to walk another mile south to Glencreggan.

Head towards Glencreggan House, once the North Lodge is reached head south west into woods. A short walk on long grass will lead to much ruined dun, it has been well robbed. What remains are the bottom stones of the walls, best preserved in the south west – they mark the site’s entrance, almost 1m wide with the wall being almost 3m in width. Traces of wall in other areas can be traced by using the height of the grass which also helps by putting the dun at 26m by 15m.

There’s something good about visiting sites in trees (when the trees haven’t fallen), certainly adds to the aura of the place.

Visited 01/08/2025.

Heavy vegetation hadn’t played a part in any of the day’s visits to prehistoric sites, Dun Ach’ Na H-Atha made up for all of them.

From the farm walk back towards the main road until the farm track widens, this appears to be an old quarry used for keeping machinery. Head north towards the fence and follow carefully, on the west side, until the vegetation widens. When you reach here be careful not to trip over hidden stonework like I did – it does mean that the dun has been reached. However, this isn’t a very easy walk, during my visit several bulls watched my every move from the field to the east, and a couple of feet to the west it is a sheer drop to the bottom. To make matters worse stones from a fallen dyke are trip hazards.

After picking myself up and I tramped a few bits of vegetation down to reveal a few stones. Probably the best time to visit would be during the winter months. The link from Trove shows some decent black and white photographs of walling.

The dun would have been oval shaped being 15m by 13m with the wall being 1.1m at its highest point.

The OS have a remnants of a cairn situated nearby but I didn’t find anything, once again a winter visit might reveal what the ferns were hiding.

Visited 01/08/2025.

At Dun Domhnuill I remembered that I’d left my car and lunch at Killean Church so back I went heading north on the A83. After being reunited with the car I headed south and ended up at South Muasdale Farm. The farmer allowed me to park my car at farm and I continued on the second half of the day’s walking.

The stone is only a short, easy walk north from the farm and can be clearly seen. On a clear day the north of Ireland, Islay and Jura would also be seen, sadly for me the bright skies of the morning had been covered by cloud.

However, it only made the 3m high stone look more dramatic especially with a very flat looking Atlantic providing the western backdrop. On either side of the stone runs a dry stane dyke, a common feature at standing stones in this area.

Fantastic stone, fantastic setting.

Visaited 01/08/2025.

Heading south from Red Cove (on the A83) Dun Domhnuill is similar to Red Cove as it is situated a few metres east of the main road.

Red Cove has suffered some erosion, Dun Domhuill has suffered a lot of erosion. Much of the walls have tumbled down the 12m high rock, most of the entrance has gone, what remains is on the west side of the grass covered summit measuring 15m by 7.5m. The best remains of the wall can be found on the site’s north side.

Visited 01/08/2025.

From Beacharr I made my way back down the hill to walk 500m, approximately, south on the A83. Red Cove is hard to miss as it situated a few metres to the east of the road and is easily spotted thanks to dun being built on top of an almost 5m high block of red sand stone. Being easily carved, the rock is covered in carvings some very recent.

The entrance of the dun is on the north east, with a grass covered wall encircling the rest of the site. Apart the entrance, the dun is surrounded by the steepness of the red sand stone block.

Good views looking north west towards Gigha as well as views looking north and south to various prehistoric monuments.

Visited 01/08/2025

To the north of Dun Beachaire is the standing stone and chamber cairn, an easy walk of about 200m.

The standing stone is magnificent with glorious views over to Gigha and in the distance, Islay. Sadly the cairn isn’t quite so magnificent and has taken a bit of a battering. Originally the chamber was 6.25m in length and had four sections. That along with kerbing and the stones that make up a cairn are no longer in place. They, probably, are nearby placed in the various dry stane dykes.

Visited 01/08/2025.

Parking near the church at Killean, I walked south on the A83 to climb the reasonably steep hill to Dun Beachaire just after Craigruadh.

Most duns are circular, this one is rectangular and steeped with folklore ranging from King Arthur to bees. None were present during my visit. Looking north-west the island of Gigha can be seen, I’d reach there a couple of days later.

The dun is surrounded by the remains of a wall – 17.5m by 13.5. In some places the wall reaches 3m in width. Sadly the wall going through the middle of the site is probably made from stones from this dun and quite a few others. The entrance is on the south east, as seen in the south east photograph, possible lintels are also in the photo.

A great start to the day – the nearby standing stone and chamber cairn next.

Visited 01/08/2025.