Hillfort: OS grid reference – NM 8555 0244
Dead easy! From Kilmartin go north towards Oban and turn right a mile onwards, to Ford and Loch Awe. Keep on the tiny road for about 2 miles and if you hit the small Loch Ederline, you’ve gone too far. To your left is a small hill-cum-small-mountain, scattered with trees and a great rocky face. That’s it! Whichever way you wanna approach its height is entirely up to you!
Archaeology & History
I clambered up and down this steep ‘crag of the horse’ many-a-times when I lived below here at the old farmhouse at Auchinellan. Tis a grand old hill with good views all round. The hillfort however has little left worth seeing, much of the stone being nicked by locals for drystone walls and barns. The best preserved section seems to be at the northeast side of the old hill. Archaeologists think that the mass of rubble nearby was also part of the fort walls in bygone days. Not being much of a hillfort fanatic, I can’t really comment!
On a decidedly mycological note, the magickal fungus of legendary repute, ergot (Claviceps purpurea), grows like the plague at the bottom of the hill (opposite the Creagantairbh standing stone). I wonder if our ancestors used it for owt in particular…?
References:
- Royal Commission on the Ancient & Historic Monuments of Scotland, Argyll – volume 6, HMSO: Edinburgh 1988.
© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian
