Private guided adventure exploring Argyll
Isle of Kerrera
Argyll and the Isles in the south-west Highlands is a glorious coastal region of glittering sea lochs, islands, hills, forests and glens just waiting to be explored. It is characterised by mountainous Highland scenery interspersed with hundred of lochs, with a heavily indented coastline and numerous islands off the coast.
Argyll
Inland Argyll has evolved a landscape of gentle farmland and wide peat bog surrounded by mountains, secret glens and hidden lochans. The hills of Argyll are rugged and the glens steep and short, with rapid rivers and many waterfalls. At the edge is a unique seascape of exposed wildness with islands large and small. The closer you get to the Atlantic coast, the more stunted and wind-sculpted the trees and woods become.
History
The very name ‘Scotland’ derives from the Roman name for the Iron Age Celtic people who, by the 6th century, occupied both Ulster and Argyll (Irish and Scottish Dalriada), from whose ruling group came the first king of a united nation in the 9th century.
Later, especially from the 13th to the 15th centuries, the centralising Scottish state was very effectively resisted by the MacDonald Lords of the Isles - by then practically an independent kingdom. In between times the western seaboard underwent a series of Viking raids. Evidence survives in numerous place names of Norse origin.
Argyll also has far earlier links with Scotland’s past. Prehistoric remains are found in unusual concentrations throughout Kilmartin Glen. These remains take us back as far as 4000 BC and the time of our first settled farming communities.
Highlights
- View from Dun na Cuaiche, Inveraray;
- Walking on the Isle of Kerrera, visiting Gylen Castle;
- Hiking in Glen Coe;
- Prehistoric monuments in Kilmartin Glen.
Itinerary
Day 1: Glasgow - Inverary - Oban
Day 2: Isle of Kerrera and whisky distillery tour
Day 3: Glen Coe
Day 4: Oban - Kilmartin Glen - Glasgow
