This trip to Tarbert Kintyre Scotland did not go to plan!

Contents of this video 00:00 Intro 00:14 Drive to Claonaig ferry 01:09 Drama with Claonaig to Lochranza ferry 03:20 Drive to Dunadd Hill Fort 04:03 Explore Dunadd Hill Fort 11:20 Drive to Tarbert 11:54 Tarbert Castle 15:54 Ballochroy Standing Stones 17:56 Tarbert War Memorial Tarbert | Kintyre | Argyll | Scotland #travel #history We recently visited Tarbert in Kintyre, Scotland and our main plan was to drive to nearby Claonaig to get a lesser used ferry to the Isle of Arran and spend the day in the north of the island. Some ferries had been cancelled the day before due to high winds, but on the morning of our journey, the weather seemed calm, despite a windy forecast and the ferry seemed to be running. When we arrived at Claonaig, the sea was rough and though the ferry was still set to sail, we were warned by the Calmac rep that the ferry may not be able to land in which case it would be cancelled. We initially thought we’d wait and see but the rep also advised us that sailings for the rest of the day may be cancelled and as we were planning to return that day, we would be stranded without accommodation on the island. So we decided not to board and made a new plan for the day. We visited a number of nearby locations, but not in the order they appear in the video in case you know the area and think our travel plans were inefficient. We first visited Skipness Castle as it is near Claonaig, but that footage has not made it into the video as we’d visited last year and it features in my Kintyre video in the channel’s history (link to that video at th end of this one, it's a great castle!) I couldn’t access the interior on this day and spent most of my time exploring Skipness Chapel (St Brendan’s) further down the field, which I hadn’t managed to visit last time. It’s a very interesting place, but I just felt the other places we had visited would make better viewing, so I’ll keep that footage for another day. I’d managed to visit Tarbert Castle the previous evening, which was fabulous and the wind stayed off long enough for me to get a bit of drone footage. The castle belonged most famously to Robert the Bruce who developed it significantly in 1325. James IV of Scotland used the castle to challenge the Lord of the Isles in his bid to increase his power in the 15th century. Dunadd Hill Fort is a place I’d long wanted to visit and it certainly lived up to expectations. It was fascinating to see its hierarchical nature, with several different levels and a building on the top for the chieftans. The fort is best known as the site of inauguration of Kings of the ancient kingdom of Dàl Riata, which included the western islands, Argyll, Galloway and even down to Cumbria at times. There is evidence here of these ceremonies, a carved basin for holding the anointing oils, a footprint carved into a rock, into which the king would place his foot as a symbol of his right to be king and a stone throne, the back of which has now fallen and rests on the seat where the king would sit and survey his kingdom. The hill fort was mainly in operation between 400 and 800 AD and it is thought the Scoti, the tribe after which Scotland was later to be named were the people celebrating their new king here. Ballochroy Standing Stones is a row of 3 megaliths which sit on a hillside looking across the sea to the Isle of Jura with its distinctive mountains, the Paps of Jura. A stone cairn nearby suggests this was a sacred place where revered ancestors were buried and to me at the time, it seemed possible that the 3 stones represented the 3 main Jura mountains which appeared to hold a sacred significance. The stones align with the winter and midsummer solstices, the midsummer sun appearing over Jura. Our last stop was at the obelisk shaped war memorial in Tarbert which sits high on the hill of the north side of the village, with a spectacular view across the harbour and out to sea. So though the trip did not go to plan, Tarbert and surrounding area came up trumps and we enjoyed a fabulous weekend there. I hope you enjoy the video. Music (all from Epidemic Sound) What I left to find (Instrumental Version) – Victor Lundberg Road to Durango – Will Harrison Lost Empire – David Celeste The Sky King – Hampus Naeselius Force of the Past – Stefan Ekström