It took us ages to find this place. It's one of those places which requires orienteering skills to get there - a real quest.
According to the map there were 2 stones - we could only find 1, but according to the Ancient Scotland website, the other stone was under a fallen tree right beside us.
We visited on a cold January afternoon in 2000.
The stones are in the middle of a clear row in a Forestry commision forest. The place is totally sound insulated due to the trees, and this adds an eerieness.
Before the trees, this site would have had great views, as it sits on top of a gentle hill. A young River Carron rushes a few hundred metres to the North.
I want to go back and see the other stone.
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The Wallace Stone is named after the Scottish commoner and freedom fighter Mel Gib.....eh sorry William Wallace. (If you want a laugh, check out the new statue of 'Wallace' in the car park of the Wallace Monument visitor centre a few miles from Sheriffmuir. I know somebody who chiselled it's face off in protest, but it has since been repaired.)
Wallace is said to have used the stone as a gathering point for his troops (who were travelling from different parts of the Highlands) before the Battle of Stirling Bridge in 1297.
This stone was also used as a gathering point for the Jacobite army, who had travelled from the Highlands to meet the Hanoverian troops at the Battle of Sheriffmuir in 1715.
The Battle was one of the few times in history were there was no winner - the Battle just fizzled out. Maybe it was because it was a cold 13th of November on this windy moorland.
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The Sheriffmuir 'Inn' is sadly no longer the traditional Inn it once was and has went uncomfortably upmarket in my opinion. You can still get a pint there and it is the best place to park when visiting the stones.
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I think this might have been the first neolithic site I went to, when I was about ten. My mum was showing the local sites to an American friend of the family, Kate Ascher. I remember this so well, because Kate's visits were a highlight for us - she seemed uninhibited and free, more so than anyone else we'd met in our fairly restrictive council estate and R.C. upbringing. I also remember her as a humble and benevolent person. She later told us that she thought we were all referring to the 'local hills' when we talked about the Ochil Hills. Anyway I think me and my little brother were wearing the NY Yankees t-shirts that Kate had brought over, and we went for lunch at the Sheriffmuir Inn. I remember I was intrigued and a bit worried about the [one remaining] standing stone and there was talk of witchcraft and rituals.
I didn't know, until a few years ago when I was looking at the OS Landranger, that this place was actually a stone row of five stones, of which only one remains upright.
On closer inspection, this site turns out to be very unusual.
The stones are almost perfectly aligned, roughly SW-NE. The most northerly stone looks as though it would have been the tallest, standing at about 10 feet tall. The second one is still standing at 6 foot, and is called the Wallace Stone (see folklore). The middle stone would have been around five feet tall. The fourth stone has split into two and would have been about seven feet tall. The south stone has cup markings.
The stones are all almost evenly spaced, being about a hundred metres apart.
When I last visited with a friend last year, we found animal bones and an animal skull around the stone.
The site is on rough, exposed, heathered moorland on the western shoulder of the Ochil Hills.
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A good, informative site with nice photos - well worth a look around the rest of this site.
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Excellent website maintained by a local enthusiast.
Good sections on prehistoric sites, general [and bonkers] folklore and loads of other good images / info.
Do check out the whole site.
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I found this quote on the Orkneyjar website (see links).
The Orcadian writer, George Mackay Brown wrote, "We cannot live fully without the treasury our ancestors have left to us"
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excellent site maintained by local entusiast- check out the whole site - good generalinfo. folklore etc.
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Excellent site maintained by local enthusiast. Check out the whole site!
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Check out this whole site.
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Check out the whole site - excellent local info.
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Very interesting site, maintained by a local enthusiast.
Excellent material on all the Orcadian sites plus general history, brilliant folklore section etc. This specific link is to image of Odin Stone, but check out the rest of this site.
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The farmer who in 1814, removed the Stone of Odin because he was fed up of the many visitors to his land, clearly underestimated the attachment that locals had to this stone. The farmer (who also commited the crime of not being a native Orcadian) was almost killed after 2 attempted arson attacks on his property.
According to Reverend R. Henry (c.1784), every New Years Day local young folk gathered at the Kirk of Stenness with enough provisions for 4 or 5 days. Couples who wished to be married would leave the group alone and go to the Temple of the Moon (Stones of Stenness) where the woman would pray to Woden. Then they went to the Temple of the Sun (Ring of Brodgar), where the man would pray before the woman, when finally they went to the Stone of Odin where they clasped their right hands through the hole in the stone and exchanged vows.
Leslie Grinsell wrote in 1976 (Folklore of Prehistoric Sites in Britain) that babies who were passed through the hole in the Stone of Odin would live long and healthily. Grinsell also wrote that it was customary to leave offerings at the Stone of Odin and that sick people would go round the Stones of Stenness 3 times to become cured.
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We drove past this circle in the summer of 2000. It sits on a steady steep slope, high above the NW side of Loch Tay. I recall taking my eye off the road and seeing a strange, small, boulder like circle.
I'll have a proper look when I visit Kinnell in Killin hopefully soon.
8/6/02
We parked down at the horn-carvers shop just down the hill at Lawers.
This strange little circle is in beautiful place high up above the loch, with views of the water stretching up to the north-east and down the the south-west. The mighty Ben Lawers was only partially visible behind the circle on the day we visited.
The circle sits on what looks like a levelled platform which has been built up on one side of the slope. Inside the circle there are many small stones just below the undergrowth which might be broken parts of this partially destroyed monument or might be a kind of cairn - it's hard to tell- these small stones and indeed the whole monument are more visible in Martin's photo taken in 1986.
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J. McDiarmid wrote in 1910 in his 'Folklore of Breadalbane' of a man from the nearby village of Killin who on passing by this stone circle heard haunting 'fairy' music. He then entered into the circle. When he left he was 'presented' with a strong, fast, white horse.
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C.Leitch wrote in 'Ardrishaig and it's Vicinity' (Govan, 1904), 'A perforated outlier [of the Ballymeanoch monument] is said to have been used for sealing bargains and betrothals'.
Is this the little cairn site?
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I shouted to stop the car when I saw Silbury just after leaving Avebury. I wasn't expecting to see it. When I did I felt priveliged. I just gawped for 10 mins from half a mile from the hill. 2 years ago, 500 miles and I want to come back here. The impression I remember was that the hill has a magic, living presence.
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We stopped the car just after we left Avebury on my request when I recognised this landscape and the horse.
I scrambled up to the top of a grassy bank with the video camera and stayed there for a minute or two. That's all - just a minute - and it's 2 years ago and 500 miles away, but Iwant to come back here.
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My brother decided to stop here for lunch on the way to Falmouth for the eclipse in August 1999.
It was raining steadily but it was so warm and I walked and walked on the soggy chalk paths. I was cagouled in long shorts and sandals and it felt good.
Up on a nearby hill, someone had spirographed a nice crop circle and despite the rain, this place was so busy.
I could not comprehend this place as a whole, but I still found the visit exhilarating.
I walked down the avenue alone and I'll never forget that.
A week wouldn't be enough for all this.
Everyone else was waiting in the car when I got back.
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I had been working for the best part of a week in Blackpool during the illuminations in November 1999. I was staying in a cold apartment, with the wind and the rain howling against a damp net-curtained window every night.
Travelling back home, I was so happy to stop here.
The henge at King Arthur's looks almost too landscaped, but surely retains much of it's strength, despite the close proximity of the roads. I didn't stay too long.
I went over to Mayburgh. The sun was low and there was an eerie gloom inside the henge - those bare trees and the great pebbled edge surrounding that lonely stone. I remember a feeling of vastness and peace and I'd like to see this place at different times of the day.
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Clach an t-Sagairt is Gaelic for 'The Sacred Stone(s)' or possibly 'Stone(s) of the Priest'. Sagairt derives from the Latin 'sacerdos' where we get the word 'sacred' from.
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