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Kilmartin Village
Kilmartin, in Lorn, lies in a sheltered glen about ½ mile from Dunadd to the south, which it outdoes in ancient remains such as stone circles, chambered Cairns and standing stones; a silver award of 1000 8 be was discovered there. Three Castles arose: the first Duntrune, was built on the coast ½ mile to the West in the 13th century. Some 300 years later came two more: the bulky Kilmartin Castle, and Carnassarie, an important tower built by Bishop Carswell of Argyll and the Isles, ¼ mile to the north, but now ruined. Pont's map of around 1600 showed that the Kilmartin Burn had already been bridged both above and below Kilmartin Church, but there were no proper roads until after the 1750's. The name of the neighbouring hamlet of Slockavoulin "Mill Gorge" in the Gaelic language, which was spoken here until the mid 20th century.
The substantial Victorian Hall was built in 1897 by the Poltolloch estate. In 1951 when the area's population was about 440 the telephone exchange had 38 lines. Poltolloch House, built 1849 to 1853 for the Malcolm family, was abandoned in 1957; it survives as a ruin. In 1960 the villagers would not even except the Victorian Hall as a gift, and as the population dipped it fell out of use. However, the Post Office stayed open, and by 1974 there was the caravan site, and a garage and a doctor had been added. A new primary school was built in the 1980s. The 1991 Parish population was 494, and Kilmartin Castle was restored as a house in the 1990s. By 1996 the Kilmartin House Museum was open, and in 1997 Kilmartin Manse became a "Centre for Archaeology and Landscape". Tourists have long been served by the small Kilmartin Hotel.
Source: The Making of Scotland by, Robin Smith.
Above is a modern description of Kilmartin Village. Why should it interest us here? Firstly, it is of passing interest that this recent publication (2001) makes no mention of the Knights Templar. In 1989 book: The Temple and The Lodge by Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh was published in which is was suggested that some of the gravestones in Kilmartin graveyard were the anonymous graves of Knights Templar who had fled from France in October 1307 and sought sanctuary in Argyle. Below we provide some images from Kilmartin graveyard and a discussion of the evidence in support of the hypothesis of fugitive Templars arriving in Argyle in 1307. On another page we will supply the kind of information and images regarding Kilmory Chapel where the fugitive Knights Templar were also said to have lived.
© Rosslyn Templars
There are 79 glaveslabs within the graveyard at Kilmartin. The they are decorated with a variety of designs. We have placed these into categories as described below.
As no two stones are the same it would be possible to have a 'category' for each we have therefore decided on the common elements as shown above. It should be noted that in arriving at these descriptions we have had to collapse some descriptions. Thus foliage (leaves and/or flowers) includes plant stems (that is, plant growth that does not have leaves or flowers). We could have made the categories more all encompassing thereby reducing the number. For example we could have included the lone 'armed man' in the category of 'armed man, foliage and animals' but in our view that would not have correctly described the graveslabs.
During the course of listing these stones and deciding their descriptions a problem became evident and is mentioned here for future reference and consideration. A number of the graveslabs had additional elements such as: a mirror, casket, comb, harp, hammer and axe which we decided to exclude when creating the above categories as to have used them would have further increased the number.
By creating these categories the Rosslyn Templars are not suggesting that any can (yet - Ed.) be said the be Knights Templar graveslabs.
Once enough material (images, descriptions etc.) for these two sites has been posted we will then analyse and discuss the various claims relating to these places.
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