Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Sleeping & Eating
Kilmartin Hotel££
(
01546-510250;
www.kilmartin-hotel.com
; Kilmartin; s/d £40/65; )
Though the
rooms here are a bit on the small side, this attractively old-fashioned hotel is full of atmo-
sphere. There's a
restaurant
(mains £8 to £15) here too, and a whisky bar with real ale on
tap where you can enjoy live folk music at weekends.
INN
CAFE
Glebe Cairn Café£
(
01546-510278; mains £5-8; 10am-5pm Mar-Oct, 11am-4pm Nov-Dec, closed Jan-
Feb)
The cafe in the Kilmartin House Museum has a lovely conservatory with a view
across fields to a prehistoric cairn. Dishes include homemade Cullen skink, a Celtic
cheese platter and hummus with sweet-and-sour beetroot relish. The drinks menu ranges
from espresso to elderflower wine by way of Fraoch heather-scented ale.
Getting There & Away
Bus 423
between Oban and Ardrishaig (four daily Monday to Friday, two on Saturday)
stops at Kilmartin (£5, one hour and 20 minutes).
You can
walk or cycle
along the Crinan Canal from Ardrishaig, then turn north at Bel-
lanoch on the minor B8025 road to reach Kilmartin (12 miles one way).
Kintyre
The Kintyre peninsula - 40 miles long and 8 miles wide - is almost an island, with only a
narrow isthmus at Tarbert connecting it to the wooded hills of Knapdale. During the Norse
occupation of the Western Isles, the Scottish king decreed that the Vikings could claim as
their own any island they could circumnavigate in a longship. So in 1098 the wily Magnus
Barefoot stood at the helm while his men dragged their boat across this neck of land, thus
validating his claim to Kintyre.
TARBERT
POP 1500
