Templar Graves

[John Duguid <john.duguid@snl.co.uk>]

 Have any of the graves at Kilmartin or Kilmichael Glassary in Argyll ever been
excavated and what was found? They are Templar graves and the Sinclairs have,
of course, a close connection. [ This is the Sinclair family discussion list,
sinclair@jump.net. [ To get off or on the list, see
http://www.mids.org/sinclair/list.html

I believe that there is no definitive proof of these graves being Templar. They
became well Known after the Baigent and Leigh book "The Temple and the Lodge"
was written attempting to prove the links between the knights Templar and the
modern day freemasons. I have visited the graves in Kilmartin, yes they are
very old and yes some do have a Templar style long sword upon them but this
alone does not make them Templar as many medieval gravestones had similar
designs. I did speak to the senior archaeologist at the Kilmartin museum which
is adjacent to the grave site. She was rather exasperated to here another
question about the Templars and Kilmartin and stated that although the
Kilmartin area was the richest site in Scotland for iron age bronze age people
and was close to the capital of the ancient kingdom of Dalriada (Fort Dunnad,
worth a visit), she was still asked more questions  about the Templars in the
area than anything else. She did add however, that there were extant charters
showing land being granted in Argyle to the Templars by Robert the Bruce.

Yours Aye 

John.

Paul, Andrew, Niven do you know anything of these charters?


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