Hidden Scotland
Sign in

Standing stones
in Argyll and Bute.

It’s 20:06 in Argyll and Bute.
Argyll and Bute

Standing stones in Kilmartin Glen.

Argyll is rich in prehistoric stones. In Kilmartin Glen, five tall standing stones were raised some 3,200 years ago among cairns and carved rocks. On Mull, the island's only stone circle stands in a field at Lochbuie, nine stones beneath the mountain. Both are free to visit and rarely busy. Go early or late in the day, when the low light picks out the stones.

All places to visitCastlesBeachesWaterfallsDistilleriesMuseumsGardensLighthouses
Stone circle of the day16 hours ago

Lochbuie Stone Circle.

Mull's only stone circle, nine stones in a field below Ben Buie at Lochbuie, with three outliers.

Read about it
From the magazine9 hours agoThe printed copy of Issue 10Issue 10Spring / Summer 2025

Stef Burgon and Simon Hunt spotted Kilmartin Castle, a 16th-century castle in Argyll, in an advert while living 3,700 miles away under a blistering Middle Eastern sun.

The couple sent Stef's parents on an eight-hour road trip to view it, and in 2018 they swapped the desert heat for Scottish mizzle, a fine misty drizzle. They spent their first year living in a campervan, working as 'apprentice builders' to put in heating and plumbing and fix the leaks. Today guests can stay in five ensuite bedrooms, one of them reached by a secret spiral staircase, and walk from the castle to the Temple Wood stone circle in a glen full of ancient monuments. Next, the couple are turning an old church nearby into a gallery for the artists who come on residencies at the castle.

Read the full story in Issue 10
Did you know5 hours ago

There are more than eight hundred ancient monuments within six miles of this field.

Kilmartin Glen in Argyll is one of the richest prehistoric landscapes in Scotland, and the museum sitting in the middle of it counts over eight hundred monuments inside six miles of its own front door. People have been living in these few miles of low ground for something like twelve thousand years. The stones standing here are a small part of what is within a walk of them, and Kilmartin Museum is the keeper of what has come out of the ground around them.

See Nether Largie Standing Stones · Argyll and Bute
Did you know1 hour ago

The carvings on the Nether Largie stones, in Kilmartin Glen, are older than the stones' setting.

The cup and ring marks are some 1,500 years older than the standing stones were set up, so the stones may have been brought from an earlier sacred place.

See Nether Largie Standing Stones · Argyll and Bute
LunchJust nowArgyll and ButeTayvallich Café8.4 milesArgyll and ButeInver, Strathlachlan11.2 milesArgyll and ButeDalavich Shop and Wild Rowan Cafe12.8 miles

Lunch near Nether Largie Standing Stones.

The three good places closest to it: Tayvallich Café, Inver, Strathlachlan and Dalavich Shop and Wild Rowan Cafe.

See Nether Largie Standing Stones

You are up to date.

That is everything for today. Tomorrow's first posts go up in the morning. Or have the best of it in your inbox each morning in the Daily.