The University of the West of Scotland has launched a very interesting and scholarly book written by Dr Christopher Lowe on one of Argyll’s little known islands – Inchmarnock, lying off the west coast of the Isle of Bute.
The book describes the results of archaeological surveys and excavations at several sites across the island. It concentrates on the findings made at the site of St Marnock’s Church on the east side of the island eand facing the west coast of Bute between St Ninian’s Bay and Ardscalpsie.
Some of these finds date back to AD 600. There are arly historic, medieval and post-medieval artefacts as well as human remains from a cemetery nearby.
The book may be scholarly but that should not put anyone off reading a powerful picture of life on an island which, even for many on Bute, remains little known and largely unexplored.
Lord Smith of Kelvin bought Inchmarnock in 1999 when he was Sir Robert Smith. Shortly after his purchase, he commissioned Headland Archaeology from Edinburgh to do a seven-year investigation into the island, covering pre-history, early Christian, medieval and modern times.
The Headland team were helped greatly by Jessica MIddleton, now Jessica Heriott, who was one of the last people to inhabit the two-mile long island. Mrs Heriott left the island in 1984 and says of her life there: ‘I was educated at home by correspondence courses. I used to communicate with friends on Bute and elsewhere by CB radio. I didn’t leave until I was about 20 and then I left to work down south, although the rest of the family remained for another couple of years and were working Kilmichael Farm on Bute at the same time. I was very sad to leave and would go back at the drop of a hat – I do visit occasionally and suffer pangs’.