The Modern Antiquarian. Stone Circles, Ancient Sites, Neolithic Monuments, Ancient Monuments, Prehistoric Sites, Megalithic MysteriesThe Modern Antiquarian

     

Arran

Sites in this group:

5 posts
Allt Carn Bhain Chambered Cairn
7 posts
Allt Cul Corriehiam Stone Circle
3 posts
Allt Cul Corriehiam 2 Stone Circle
3 posts
Allt Cul Corrriehiam Cist
3 posts
Allt Mor Chambered Cairn
28 posts
Auchagallon Stone Circle
14 posts
Aucheleffan Stone Circle
2 posts
Baile Meadhonach Chambered Cairn
4 posts
Carn Ban Chambered Cairn
1 post
Clauchlands Stone Fort / Dun
3 posts
Cleiteadh Chambered Tomb
1 post
Cnoc Ballygown Hillfort
4 posts
Creag Dhubh Hillfort
6 posts
Creag Ghlas Cup Marked Stone
21 posts
Deer Park Standing Stones
4 posts
Dippin Promontory Fort
5 posts
The Doon Hillfort
4 posts
The Doon Standing Stone / Menhir
20 posts
Druid Auchencar Standing Stone / Menhir
12 posts
Dunan Beag Chambered Cairn
13 posts
Dunan Mor Chambered Cairn
8 posts
East Bennan Chambered Cairn
1 post
Fforde's Buttress Natural Rock Feature
39 posts
Giants' Graves Chambered Cairn
3 posts
Glenrickard Chambered Cairn Chambered Cairn
9 posts
Kildonan Standing Stone / Menhir
1 post
Kilpatrick Dun (or Cashel) Stone Fort / Dun
27 posts
Lamlash Stone Circle
15 posts
Largybeg Standing Stones
9 posts
Machriewater Foot Standing Stone / Menhir
8 posts
Machrie Burn Stone Circle
106 posts
Machrie Moor Stone Circle
2 posts
Machrie Moor chambered cairn Chambered Cairn
11 posts
Merkland Cist
7 posts
Mid Sannox Standing Stones
16 posts
Monamore Chambered Tomb
1 post
Monamore Glen Cairn(s)
7 posts
Monyquil Standing Stone / Menhir
15 posts
Moss Farm Chambered Tomb
5 posts
Moss Farm II Cist
14 posts
Moss Farm North Standing Stone / Menhir
22 posts
Moss Farm Road Cairn(s)
7 posts
Moyish Standing Stone / Menhir
2 posts
North Blairmore Standing Stone / Menhir
5 posts
North Sannox Cairn(s)
3 posts
North Sannox 2 Chambered Cairn
3 posts
Oscar's Grave Chambered Cairn
1 post
Ossian's Mound Round Barrow(s)
11 posts
Sannox Standing Stone / Menhir
5 posts
Sannox Chambered Cairn
3 posts
Shiskine Stone Circle
4 posts
Sliddery Cist
16 posts
Stronach Standing Stone / Menhir
66 posts
Stronach Wood Cup and Ring Marks / Rock Art
5 posts
Tormore I Chambered Cairn
4 posts
Tormore II Chambered Cairn
24 posts
Torrylin Cairn(s)
13 posts
Torr an Loisgte Chambered Cairn
2 posts
Torr a Chaistell Stone Fort / Dun
Sites of disputed antiquity:
7 posts
Black Cave Cave / Rock Shelter
4 posts
Kingscross Point Standing Stone / Menhir
19 posts
King's Cave Carving

News

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Excavations of Cursus at Tormore

Archaeologists have been excavating the recently-discovered 1.1km long cursus on the island of Arran. The article in The Scotsman shows the Lidar scans that alerted them to the parallel mounds (now merely 30cm high). Few examples are known from the west coast of Scotland.
Rhiannon Posted by Rhiannon
4th September 2023ce
Edited 4th September 2023ce

New Stone Age: Discovery of massive island ritual site

The spectacular feature in the landscape is likely to have drawn people from all over a Scottish island around 5,000 years ago for ritual and ceremony.

More info :

https://www.scotsman.com/heritage-and-retro/heritage/new-stone-age-discovery-massive-island-ritual-site-3105420?amp
drewbhoy Posted by drewbhoy
21st January 2021ce

Cremated bones of Bronze Age tumour sufferer found hanging from Scottish cliff


A cist burial spotted hanging from a cliff on the edge of Scotland came from the ceremony of a Bronze Age adult cremated swiftly after their death, say archaeologists investigating the bones of a body whose skull carried a tumour... continues...
moss Posted by moss
4th April 2014ce

Images (click to view fullsize)

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Photographs:<b>Arran</b>Posted by Howburn Digger <b>Arran</b>Posted by GLADMAN <b>Arran</b>Posted by Howburn Digger <b>Arran</b>Posted by tiompan <b>Arran</b>Posted by tiompan <b>Arran</b>Posted by Howburn Digger <b>Arran</b>Posted by Howburn Digger <b>Arran</b>Posted by Howburn Digger Artistic / Interpretive:<b>Arran</b>Posted by thesweetcheat <b>Arran</b>Posted by thesweetcheat

Folklore

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In Arran, the belief in fairies still lingers in the minds of the older inhabitants, and many curious stories are told of the pilfering habits and cunning tricks of the wee-folks, who held their midnight meetings within the stone circles and old forts of the Island.

Many of the minor relics of the stone period have been found beneath the moss and heath of the Arran glens and hills, but few of them have been deemed worthy of preservation. Arrow-heads of stone and flint are frequently picked up by the natives whilst digging peat in the moors [..] They are called elf-shots by the Islanders, and are supposed to have been used by the fairies long ago.

[..] As we find the little flint arrow-head associated with Scottish folk-lore as the elfin's-bolt, so the stone hammer of the same period was adapted to the creed of the Middle Ages. The name by which it was popularly known in Scotland, almost to the close of the last century, was that of the Purgatory Hammer [.. so the inhabitant of the burial cist could] with it thunder at the gates of purgatory..
McArthur also talks of the highly polished stone balls found in cists and the "Baul Muluy" (the stone globe of Saint Monlingus): a goose-egg sized stone of jasper, which could cure diseases. People swore solemn oaths on it, and "even during the present generation it has been consulted by the credulous Islanders". Curiously it could remove 'stitches from the sides of sick persons' and if it didn't cure you and you died, "it moved out of bed of its own accord."

St Molingus was said to have been chaplain to the McDonalds, and they carried the ball with them into battle for good luck. It was next held by the MacIntosh family as a hereditary privelege, but "this curious relic was lost a few years ago by a gentleman to whom it was entrusted, who partook too much of the scepticism of the present age to appreciate its value."

A final bit of related folklore: "The perforated pebbles of the British barrows [..] are still known in the Scottish Highlands by the name of Clach Bhuai , or the powerful stones, on account of the inherent virtues they are believed to possess."

From p68-71 of 'The antiquities of Arran' by John McArthur (1861).
Rhiannon Posted by Rhiannon
20th August 2007ce

The traditions.. which float around this class of the Arran grave mounds [chambered cairns] are associated with the fierce raids and clanish feuds of early times; and it is said that the ghosts of the buried dead were wont to rise from their graves and renew the combat in the shadowy folds of the evening mists.
From p22 of 'The Antiquities of Arran' by John McArthur (1861).
Rhiannon Posted by Rhiannon
18th August 2007ce
Edited 18th August 2007ce

Links

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Internet Archive


The Book of Arran by J A Balfour (1910). Contains lots of diagrams and photos of sites and finds from the island - chambers, stones, cup and rings, urns, allsorts. The back page is a rather interesting map with all the locations marked.
Rhiannon Posted by Rhiannon
16th November 2010ce
Edited 16th November 2010ce

Latest posts for Arran

Showing 1-10 of 684 posts. Most recent first | Next 10

Sannox (Standing Stone / Menhir) — Folklore

A single Druidical stone is visible in front of the farm house of Sannox, in the middle of the green field. Many remains of a similar kind are still extant in the mosses and glens of the island. Of late much has been done to solve the enigma of those monoliths.

A pretty tradition has been handed down of a daughter of Fingal going out to meet her lover in the woods, having disguised herself by dressing in man's clothes; her lover, deceived by the circumstance, espied her amid the thick wooding, and, supposing her a foe, took his bow and drew an arrow from his quiver, and unfortunately killed his love. On the ground where she fell, he raised the tall monolith to commemorate the sad event, and had a second placed for himself not far from it - committing self-immolation. Her remains were buried entire, but his received all a chieftain's honours and druidical rites, placed in an urn, inside a stone chest, alongside of his love.

Such is the tradition as handed down. There is still a love of the superstitious and the marvellous amongst the islanders. Yet, strange it is, in the very centre and civilization here are as great attempts to revive that ancient spirit of magic, hence those seances and impositions. There seems little doubt now regarding one use of those stones, that they were raised to mark the last resting place of the ashes of the great. This seems quite established.
In the Ardrossan and Saltcoats Herald, 9th August 1862.
Rhiannon Posted by Rhiannon
29th May 2023ce

Machrie Moor (Stone Circle) — Fieldnotes

30/08/22

"Raving On The Moors"
- Julian Cope.


Taking in the natural surroundings of these Stones, birds chirping, sheep bleating and long grass rustling in the wind as I began to walk pass the fenced off cairn and various other stone circulars of various shapes and sizes before approaching the main attraction of the three tall sandstones standing stones with a fourth stone to similar description located on a side path where two archeologists where using some equipment.
Posted by Hornby Porky
13th September 2022ce

Machrie Moor (Stone Circle) — Images (click to view fullsize)

<b>Machrie Moor</b>Posted by Hornby Porky Posted by Hornby Porky
13th September 2022ce

Machrie Moor (Stone Circle) — News

Graffiti carved on ancient Machrie Moor standing stones


Graffiti carved on ancient standing stones on the island of Arran is a heritage crime, Historic Environment Scotland has said.

Sadly more info :

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-61397820
drewbhoy Posted by drewbhoy
11th May 2022ce

Archaeologists search for 'enormous' ancient ritual site on Scottish island


An excavation is now underway at Drumadoon on the Isle of Arran after the site of a possible Neolithic cursus monument was earlier detected by an aerial laser scan.

Cursus monuments were typically formed of a long avenue, formed by two parallel mounds of earth – or wooden posts in the earliest cases – which stretch for some 800 metres at Drumadoon.

https://www.scotsman.com/heritage-and-retro/heritage/archaeologists-search-for-enormous-ancient-ritual-site-on-scottish-island-3351332

The stone circle is about a mile away......
moss Posted by moss
21st August 2021ce

Stronach Wood (Cup and Ring Marks / Rock Art) — Links

Stronach Wood on BRAC Updated


Stronach Wood on BRAC
Posted by markj99
4th January 2021ce
Edited 9th January 2021ce

King's Cave (Carving) — Links

King's Cave on BRAC Updated


King's Cave on BRAC Updated
Posted by markj99
4th January 2021ce

Stronach Wood (Cup and Ring Marks / Rock Art) — Images

<b>Stronach Wood</b>Posted by Howburn Digger Howburn Digger Posted by Howburn Digger
30th July 2019ce

Druid Auchencar (Standing Stone / Menhir) — Images

<b>Druid Auchencar</b>Posted by Howburn Digger<b>Druid Auchencar</b>Posted by Howburn Digger Howburn Digger Posted by Howburn Digger
4th February 2019ce
Showing 1-10 of 684 posts. Most recent first | Next 10