The twenty-fifth report of Her Majesty's Commissioners on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland is something of a milestone. It marks the completion of the survey of the former county of Argyll. In deference to the enormous task of investigating and inventorying the rich physical heritage of what was the second largest county in Scotland, Argyll was arbitrarily divided into sections for recording and publishing. The first Inventory, Argyll 1: Kintyre, was published in 1971. Argyll 7 is now available, the last in the series, and the last in the line of this style of publication for the Royal Commission. Argyll 6 also covered the districts of Mid Argyll and Cowal, but was entirely devoted to the Prehistoric and secular Early Historic monuments (RCAHMS, 1988). The present volume covers the same area but deals with the Early Christian, Mediaeval and later monuments of the area. It gives the customary detailed and descriptive accounts of almost 300 individual monuments with archaeological and architectural commentaries.

Argyll 7 follows the standard formula of these excellent reference works with an introduction to the region, the inventory itself, notes, armorial, glossary, index and maps. It presents a rich array of evidence to illustrate the influencing factors which have moulded the communities of this area. From the Atlantic side has come Christianity, represented by a wealth of EC sites and carved stones, and the landownership and patronage of the Lords of the Isles. On the inland side, on the other hand, Cowal has acted as a bridgehead for Lowland families and ideas, demonstrated by the burgeoning power of the Campbells (despite their Gaelic origins) around upper Loch Fyne.

The outstandingly high concentration of EC monuments in Knapdale, the most remarkable in the West Highlands outside Iona, provides an ecclesiastical context for the duns and forts of the invading Scotti recorded in Argyll 6. It includes the remarkable collection of 29 carved cross-slabs at Cladh a' Bhile, Ellary, amongst them the fine pillar-stone illustrated here; the hermitage on Eilean Mor, possibly established in the C7th, which has an early marigold pattern and a pedestalled Chi-Rho cross incised on the wall of a cave, as well as other carved stones including a very beautiful broken cross of C9th or ClOth date; the elaborate high cross at Keills, linked by its spiral ornament, "bird's nest" boss and high relief carving to crosses of the Iona group; and the fine EC cross-slab with snake and boss ornament at Kilfinan. There are also a large number of early chapels recorded in Cowal and Mediaeval ones in Knapdale.

Late Mediaeval grave-slabs in the Western Highlands were superbly covered in a separate RCAHMS volume (Steer and Bannerman, 1977). The area of Argyll 7 is well-endowed with rich collections at Keilis, Kilmory Knap and Kilmartin, and a scattering of other sites such as Kilmodan, Kilmichael Glassary, Craignish or Kilbeny. All have been meticulously described in the current volume with excellent photographs and reasonable drawings.

There are lengthy and definitive studies of Castle Sween, the earliest surviving stone castle in Scotland, the major stronghold of Castle Carrick, and the later strengths of Old Castle Lachlan and Carnasserie. Much of Argyll 7 is devoted to Inveraray, with almost 60 pages given to the Castle and its estate. The town too is described in detail with its full range of C18th and C19th public and domestic buildings. Farms, townships and sheilings, and industrial and transport monuments, including the Crinan Canal, all feature.

Although Dunadd was described in detail in Argyll 6 (RCAHMS, 1988, No 248), there is a second chance to read about the rock-carvings in the current volume (No 282). This has been copied verbatim from the previous Inventory with a new photograpg of the Ogham inscription and footprint to replace the fine one of the incised Pictish boar.

Up until the publication of Argyll 1. the RCAHMS county inventories started with a general introduction. These regional summaries were excellent pieces of scholarship, valuable to many readers. In the Chairman's Preface to Argyll 1 (RCAHMS, 1971, xxi), we were told that "the general section of the Introduction has been limited to a brief statement of physical and other factors affecting settlement in the region, since it was felt that the historical and linguistic background would be better discussed in the final volume of the series, in the wider context of the county as a whole". With the passage of twenty-one years and a change of all the Commissioners bar one, this seems to have been forgotten.

Difficult as it is to believe, given the Royal Commission's meticulous work, I am advised that there is at least one error in Argyll 7: note 43, p 537 refers to a Mediaeval graveslab built into a doocot at Kilspindie, Perthshire. The doocot in question is apparently at Kinnaird, further along the Sidlaws.

These minor flaws do not detract from the excellence of the work as a whole. It deserves much praise and commendation. I, for one, regret that this is to be the last Inventory in this style from the Royal Commission. It has now been decided that the "Inventory of Ancient and Historical Monuments and Constructions", which the Commissioners are charged by Royal Warrant to compile, should be construed as the archives of the National Monuments Record of Scotland (RCAHMS, 1990, vii). Consequently there has been a change in publication policy, hence the style of North-East Perth with its shift of emphasis to the landscape and its component parts. This uses a "window" method of taking the user from the general to the particular by using selected examples rather than giving detailed plans and descriptions of all monuments. Whilst accepting the reasons for this (for a full discussion see Halliday and Stevenson, 1991, 129-39), it will be difficult to emulate the county Inventories.

The NMRS in Edinburgh is, after all, not as available to the people of Argyll as a copy of a book such as any of the volumes of Argyll in Lochgilphead Public Library, Argyll 7 is the last in a line of first rate reference works; it is itself a monument to the scholarship and thoroughness ofthe Royal Commission's staff.

Jack RF Burt.