Very little of the pre-history of this area has been recorded, and even less has been excavated. Of the chambered cairns listed in the Inventory made by the Royal Commission on monuments, all are on the west side of Loch Awe, at Cladich, Port Sonachan, and Ardchonnel. Only the Ardchonnel one is easily found. Other smaller cairns are mentioned at Balliemeanoch, and Rockhill, both also on the west side of the Loch; the site of a cairn at Stronmilchan, where the Loch used to lie, has long since disappeared under agriculture.

Two small flint scrapers have been found in recent years much further east than the cairn site, on a small hillock which might have been an island when the Loch covered much more of the area than it does today.

Much remains to be discovered, since a loch the size of Loch Awe must have attracted early wanderers and settlers. The number of crannogs on the Loch is perhaps an indication that people lived here in greater numbers than we know of.