Carbon Legacy

Carbon Legacy is a multi-disciplinary response to the Cursus Monument in Kilmartin Glen.

Carbon Legacy is a multi-disciplinary response to the Cursus Monument in Kilmartin Glen. c.3,600 BCE, our ancestors created a monument: 375 oak trees cut down and re-erected in a 400 metre elongated u-shape, and then ritually burnt.

A huge statement of intent and power, announcing our presence in this place. How has this collective action changed our surroundings, our relationship with the land and the landscape we inhabit now? 

Carbonisation, deforestation, charcoal remains. Carbon marks on the landscape that resonate with the human-induced climate crisis. This monument has left us a literal carbon footprint.

Charred oak posts are ghosts of a previous human intervention. 375 living trees act as a reminder, restoring what was taken, gifting to the future. Carbonisation reminds us of our ever impactful actions, and words collate conversations shared and hopes for the future. Can we choose to create alternative monuments and become good ancestors?

375 oak saplings will be planted, as a collaborative action, around the site where the original monument stood, and in the museum grounds, towards the end of the exhibition period, creating a living legacy in Kilmartin Glen.

Kilmartin Museum, Kilmartin, Argyll, Kilmartin, PA31 8RQ,