Kilmun

Kilmun
Argyllshire
Kilmun, looking east along the Holy Loch
Location
Grid reference:	NS169817
Location:	55°59’34"N, 4°56’2"W
Data
Population:	1,030  (2001)
Local Government

Kilmun is a linear hamlet on the north shore of the Holy Loch in Argyllshire. It runs between the head of the loch and connects with the village of Strone at Strone Point, where the loch joins the Firth of Clyde. The town of Dunoon (with which Kilmun shares a parish) lies across the loch.

As a settlement, Kilmun is substantially older than most of its neighbours. Like them, it developed as a place for Glasgow merchants to disembark for a rest and a dram after 1827, when a quay was built by the marine engineer David Napier. It was a regular stop for the Clyde steamer services until its closure in 1971.

Parish church

St Munna's Kirk

The parish church is St Munn's and has stood here for centuries in one form or another, bearing witness to the age of Kilmun, and its is a church which gave the place its name.

This church stands atop a slight knoll about ten yards from the shoreline of the Holy Loch. The existing building dates form just 1841 but stands is on the site of a mediæval parish church, endowed as a collegiate church in 1442 by Sir Duncan Campbell of Lochawe, and a tower of that period stands to the west of the present building.

At the north-east side of the church there is the Argyll Mausoleum, the mausoleum of the Campbell Dukes of Argyll. Rebuilt in 1795-6, it houses the effigy of Sir Duncan Campbell (died 1453) in full armour. There is a second effigy, of a female, probably Campbell's second wife, Margaret, daughter of Sir John Stewart of Ardgowan.

The graveyard contains a wide range of carved headstones, the earliest dating from the seventeenth century. To the north of the church is the final resting place of Elizabeth Blackwell, the first qualified female physician in the United States.

About the village

At Kilmun is an extensive arboretum managed by the Forestry Commission. The Kilmun Arboretum was established in the 1930s to monitor the success of a variety of exotic tree species in the humid west coast environment, it includes specimens of Sequoia, Japanese Larch, Araucaria araucana (monkey puzzle) and Japanese Chestnut amongst many others from around the world. A series of woodland walks have been established of varying gradients and degrees of difficulty.

The population for the Benmore and Kilmun area was recorded as 1,030 in the 2001 census. That showed a decline of 99 people (9.69%) in the ten years since the 1991 census, a decline no doubt assisted by the closure of the nearby Holy Loch submarine base.

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Kilmun)

• Kilmun Origins
• Arboretum details