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Niddrie Standing Stone

Standing Stone / Menhir

Fieldnotes

Niddrie House Standing Stone
Thursday 20/12/01
Ha! Found it! I had two sets of map co-ordinates for this stone and as it happens, both of them were wrong. One set from the RCAHMS site (from the OS originally) is actually north of here, the other set from Adam McLeans 'Standing Stones of the Lothians' is east of this spot. The hand of fate had a say in me finding this stone- I missed my bus stop- I was originally going to check out the OS co-ordinate area to the north of here. However, I stayed on the bus and as it turned left into its terminus I caught a glimpse of the Niddrie House Standing Stone! As it turns out, the description in the 'Standing Stones of the Lothians' was not bad, but the stone is now no longer in the burial ground. Within sight of Arthurs Seat and in the shadow of a yew tree, it sits next to the pavement just behind a utilities hut. It's almost been overgrown by ivy and brambles which is no bad thing as the conspicuous stones in the graveyard have almost all been smashed and/or covered in paint. The stone itself is about 4 foot tall, about the same wide but only about 1 and a half foot thick- it appears to be aligned approximately N/S. It's really weathered and has great grooves running down it. Yes- there are cup marks on it (it's a conglomerate stone) but at the bottom right of the stone there are about five cup marks which look classically megalithic to me. So- here it hides in a corner of Niddire, slowly disappearing under vegetation, dog shit and litter. But, as I said, it's mebbe for the best that it blends in to its surroundings.
The OS-nil, TKnow-one!

Directions
Take the number 21 bus from Princes Street heading south towards Craigmillar and Niddrie. Get off at the terminus after it turns off left from Greendykes Road into Niddrie House Avenue. The stone is just off the pavement next to the fenced-off burial ground to the left of the school. It sits behind some sort of utilities buildings (electricity?).
Posted by Martin
28th December 2001ce

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