Shepherd, A. N., ed. (2001). The Caves of Mid Argyll. Edinburgh: Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.

A brief account of traditions associated with the cave is presented. The presence of early Christian gravestones in the vicinity is mainly responsible for antiquarian and archaeological interest over the past 150 years. A detailed description of the cave which appears in the RCAHMS volume is reproduced here. This is followed by accounts of various excavations between 1959 and 1976 and a summary of the stratigraphy. This includes raised beach deposits, midden deposits and hearths which represent prehistoric to early Christian domestic and religious use of the site, burials representing later medieval religious use, followed by casual use by fishermen and an 1891 clearance episode by antiquarians. There are specialist reports on a variety of artefacts and ecofacts which comprise utilised and unutilised pebbles and stones, struck flint, struck quartz, ceramics (pottery, crucibles, clay moulds, fired clay), slag, furnace debris and tar, glass, clay tobacco pipes, metalwork, coins, a shale box fragment, shell artefacts, worked bone and antler, faunal remains and human remains. It is concluded that the cave saw various periods of use through the Mesolithic, Neolithic, Iron Age, early Christian, early and later medieval periods through to the 19th century.

The Tinkler's Cave lies outside the formal limits of the study area but it was necessary to carry out salvage excavation. Deposits were very disturbed and conclusions are therefore tentative though the earliest use of the cave was at the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. The other main period of use was in the post-medieval period. There are specialist reports on utilised stone, pottery, clay pipes, metalwork, flint, quartz, bone, antler, marine molluscs, fish bones, animal and bird bones.

Study of the caves and rock shelters of the Mid Argyll region, reporting on the results of a survey carried out between 1985 and 1988 and also on more detailed archaeological investigations at St Columba's Cave, Ellary; at Ellary Boulder Cave and rock shelter; and at The Tinkler's Cave, Lochgilphead. Occupation of the caves in general extends from the Neolithic period up to the nineteenth century AD. Intensive survey of the region has added considerably to the number of caves and rock shelters known in the area, the total now amounting to some eighty-three, of which forty-four contain archaeological evidence of human occupation. Two forms of occupation are indicated: economic or domestic use, with food and domestic debris being found; and use for ritual purposes, indicated by funerary deposits and rock engravings of cup marks and crosses. Study of these caves and rock shelters suggests that in the region of Mid Argyll such sites were not used before the Neolithic period, at which time the author suggests that groups of hunter-gatherer-pastoralists arrived from the east and the north-east, rather than from the isles to the west where there is evidence of earlier settlement. Includes French, German and Spanish summaries. Separately authored contributions include