Besides the beautiful setting of the Kilmartin Valley, there are over 350 ancient sites within a 6 mile radius of the village of Kilmartin, home to the award-winning, private Kilmartin House Museum. This area is justly described as Scotland’s richest prehistoric landscape. Occupation in the Valley dates back to the Mesolithic, but there are numerous, significant sites from all periods of prehistory since. > Read more

Hill Forts are artificially fortified or defended settlements located on hilltops constructed during the Iron Age; some are, however, thought to have originated in the Bronze Age. They are found throughout Europe, and vary greatly in type and density. Some of the larger Hill Forts became more like cities than simple fortresses. During the expansion of the Roman Empire many hill forts were assimilated by the Romans. > Read more

Every now and then an ancient hoard of some kind is found in Britain, usually as a result of someone sweeping a field with a metal detector. The museums in the Irish and British Isles have some spectacular examples of Iron Age hoards, whether hoards of coins or other valuable objects kept for safe keeping or votive hoards. > Read more

Unique to the Iron Age of Scotland are round, drystone hollow-walled structures known as brochs. These are amongst the most complex drystone architectural structures ever constructed. Although a few of these brochs can be visited in the South, the majority are in the Highlands and northern islands. Brochs have the appearance of being defensive structures, but their purpose is unknown. > Read more

Pictish stones are monumental, decorated standing stones made by the Picts from 6th to the 9th centuries AD. The imagery found on the stones varies from abstract motifs to representations of humans, animals and other objects from everyday life. Unfortunately the purpose of the carved stones is not known, as is the meaning of the symbols. Few stones stand in their original positions, most can now be seen in museums. > Read more

The Antonine Wall, so called because it was built under the orders of the Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius, was the northernmost frontier of the Roman Empire. Construction began in 142 AD, and it ran for 63 kilometres between the Firth of Forth in the west and the Firth of Clyde in the east. In comparison to Hadrian’s Wall, little of this wall has survived, but those sections that have make for an interesting tour. > Read more

Some of the most evocative Medieval ruins in the British Isles are those of abbeys long since abandoned, usually sometime between 1536 and 1541 when Henry VIII ordered the dissolution of Catholic Monasteries in England, Ireland and Wales. Some abbeys no longer function as a monastery but are nonetheless still in use today, perhaps the most well known being Westminster Abbey in London. > Read more

No other ancient civilisation has held the attention of the West as much as ancient Egypt. Europe’s fascination with Egypt is almost as old as antiquity itself, and dates back to the ancient Greeks and Alexander’s conquering of Egypt. For centuries now Egyptian artefacts have been sold to private collectors and museums. Consequently, today there are numerous collections of Egyptian antiquities all over Europe. > Read more