Exploring a monumental coastal landscape

I have been exploring the rocky coastline of Argyll. Coastlines are dynamic and transformative places. On the Atlantic fringe of Scotland, strong winds and salt spray create a very different environment to that in the sheltered glens and sea lochs. The rocky shorelines have a similar feeling of exposure to mountain summits. The bedrock is exposed, revealing bands of quartz and other rock formations.

Rocky outcrops are sometimes sculpted into fantastic forms and shapes. I don’t think that it is a coincidence that many of these shapes resemble megalithic monuments, and in this case the standing stones and stone rows of Kilmartin Glen. These rows of ‘natural’ standing stones even share the northeast-southwest axis of the constructed ritual landscapes nearby.

Above: Rock outcrops along the Atlantic coast of Argyll sometimes resemble megalithic monuments (Photo: Aaron Watson)

A theme throughout my work is to consider the relationship between prehistoric monuments and the wider landscape. It is essential to consider how the architects, builders and users of stone circles and chambered cairns understood the world around them. This relationship was very different to modern understandings. I have worked on many sites where such differences in understanding might be fundamental to interpretation, and this has often centred upon the extent to which we distinguish between nature and culture.

Above: At first sight, these outcrops appear to be arrangements of standing stones (Photo: Aaron Watson)

Above: Natural standing stones frame the setting sun, an effect which has also been suggested for a number of built monuments (Photo: Aaron Watson, 2018)

Above: These stone rows may be geological in origin to the modern mind, but was this how they were seen by people in the Neolithic and Bronze Age? (Photo: Aaron Watson, 2018)