history of the kilmun bedroom

Kil - monk’s cell or place of worship

Mun – afterSt Mun

St Mun, also known as Fintan Macumoi or Mhunnu, a disciple of St Columba, started a monastery here in the 7 th century. The present church, built in 1841, stands alongside the remains of a 15 th century church tower. The domed mausoleum is the burial place of the Dukes of Argyll (the Campbell clan) and includes the body of the first Marquis who lost his head at the end of the English Civil War and Earl Archibald who died at Flodden. This is a family that just couldn’t stay out of trouble.

A memorial to Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman to qualify as a doctor both in the U.K. and in America, is to be found in Kilmun churchyard. Elizabeth used to visit here in the late 1800s and stayed at the Kilmun Inn (now The Pier) where she could look out from her window across The Holy Loch to what she always called her ‘delectable mountains’.