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Award-winning journalist Marian Pallister has brought together historical fact and contemporary reminiscence to give a fascinating insight into the origins and development of human settlement in this beautiful outpost of Scotland.

For 5,000 years, southern Argyll has been home to people of culture, ideas, skills and power. The standing stones, cairns and cists of Mid Argyll signal an area of importance in ancient times almost unequalled throughout the British Isles. In the first millennium of the Christian era, the south of Argyll became the heart of Celtic Christianity and its missionaries influenced the whole of Scotland. It was also the cradle of a nation as the kings of Dalriada pushed east to create a united kingdom of Scotland.

It is an area which is more geographically accessible than northern Argyll, but in the past that access was achieved more often by water than over land. Only the drovers pushed their black cattle through passes in the spines of rolling hills which mark each of its many peninsulas.

Settlements arose where there was fertile land, access to a generous sea, a need for strategic protection and sometimes all three

NB: also available are Villages of Glasgow - 2 vols; Villages of Fife; Villages of Northern Argyll.