The stone sits at the edge of Moon Plantation and the nearby stone row has possible lunar alignments.
The patches of near white, brittle quartz on the surface of the stone together with it's weathered cup markings reminds me (like the middle stone of the stone row) of the surface of the moon (not that I've been to the moon - of late).
|
This stone sits about 600 metres directly to the north of the stone row. It sits right at the edge of a wood just east of Glenhead farm. The stone is over 7 feet high and about the same wide and has a broad, strong presence. The stone looks to have patches of very fragile, light coloured quartz and has very weathered cup markings on its eastern face.
There is a rusty old metal fence post which has been driven into the stone and secured with what looks like concrete.
It is not in alignment with the stone row and it's now hard to tell if it would have been visible from the stone row.
|
The Stones of Wonder website (see links) suggests that the row is a lunar monument.
The middle stone looks a bit moon-like with all it's cup markings at the top - could this have been an intention?
The stone sits a few hundred yards to the west of moon cottage, on the moon plantation. There is a strip of woodland just to the north called moon strip which follows the same alignment as the monument. I dont know if these were named after the possible lunar nature of the site or not.
|
The monument sits in a field between Doune and Dunblane and are just visible from the B824.
There are three (*possibly four stones) in a clear NNE - SSW alignment. There are good views to both horizons along the alignment. The southernmost stone sits at an angle and would have been around 7 or 8 feet high when upright. The middle stone is about 4 and a half feet and is short and stubby with nearly 30 cup markings on it's flat surface. The north stone is also at an angle and would have been about 6 feet high.
*There is another stone which lies prostrate, to the immediate north of the alignment. If this was a seperate standing stone, the way it looks to have fallen suggests that it was not in alignment with the rest. Of course this stone may have been moved. It is generally thought that the prostrate stone is actually a broken piece of the northern most standing stone which it lies beside.
The stones are set in gently undulating countryside about a mile north of the River Teith carselands.
There are good views of the Gargunnock and Touch Hills to the south and the Ochils to the east and the mountains around Callander to the north west. When we visited Ben Ledi to the north west was snow capped and looked fierce and volcanic, like Mount Fuji.
Dumyat to the south west of the Ochils also looked prominent.
There was a strange modern stone sculpture being erected at the entrance to the field. There was also loads of building materials which suggested someone was building a house with the stone sculpture as a centrepiece - will check this out at a later date.
There was freezing wind and we left to find the other stone near Glenhead farm.
|
 
|
    
|
Excellent diagrams and info. re. the alignment
|
   
|
Good photos and info. including an enhanced photo of the hand carving on the NW stone.
|
The two stones on the embankment were entangled in undergrowth and barbed wire and I couldn't get close enough to check out the carved hand on the NW stone which I'd read about on the Ancient Scotland website (see links).
The other stone on the embankment (SE stone) has deep fissures which look quite uniformed and might be carved.
The stone on the junction sits at an angle and looks as if it has been hit by one of those Range Rovers.
The roads look as if they have been there a long time and it seems feasible that these three odd stones are the remains of a bigger monument.
|
I spent the walk from Gleneagles railway station moaning about golfers, golf courses, enormous houses, the lack of pavements, the unfair distribution of wealth, blah blah blah.....and the kids rightly had other things to think about and enjoyed the walk.
The monument sits right on the junction of Easthill Road and Tullibardine Road on the outskirts of Auchterarder. There are three standing stones, one in the middle of the junction and two on an embankment opposite.
This isn't a relaxing place - it's a bit like the Leys of Marlee in the sense that you're always on the look out for the next Range Rover to come flying round the corner. I took the photos quickly and we didn't hang around as the kids wanted to go to the pub in Auchterarder.
There was snow on the hills at the other side of Strathearn to the distant North.
The roads dont look new and there were roadworks present at the junction when we visited - here's hoping that the stones are treated with more sympathy than they have been in the past.
|
    
|
The cairn at Auchenlaich, is thought to be a contemporary of a nearby homestead at Claish, 1.5km to the west, which is currently being excavated. Claish has been dated at 6000 years old and was a relatively huge and complex timber structure, 25m by 10m, thought to be capable of housing many families.
The nature of the homestead and the size and unique nature of Auchenlaich cairn, suggest that this area was a place of real power.
|
16/02/02
I visited this site with no real idea of the scale of the place. Auchenlaich is the longest megalithic burial cairn in Britain.
Today, Auchenlaich Cairn consists of a ridge of grassed over stones which stretches for over 350 metres in a perfectly straight line, from a field adjacent to the Auchenlaich camping site and well into another field to the north. A farm track cuts right across the middle of the cairn. Auchenlaich runs in a NNW to SSE direction and sits in the flat valley of the Keltie Water, less than a mile east of the town of Callander.
The highlands rise from the central lowlands immediately to the north and west , with the mighty presence of Ben Ledi just a few miles to the west.
There is one burial chamber opened in the south section of the monument and there are also small piles of what looks like recently excavated stones along the south section.
It's hard to take in the sheer size of this place and almost as hard to get a good photo - the place is crying out to be photographed from the air.
There must have been so many burials and possibly cremations here, that a walk along this 350 metres must have been a linear journey of legend, pain and joy of life - a life shared with the spirits.
|
 
|
In the early 80's, the company, 'Rechem', now called 'Shanks' ran a plant which incinerated, amongst other things, the life neutering, 'poly chloro biphenyls (PCB's) right across the road from the hills, at the other side of the roundabout. There was a higher rate of local children born with abnormalities (in particular, eye deformities) and a local farmer had a horrendous amount of cattle born with deformities. The farmer was powerless against the well paid lawyers who represented Rechem and indeed the law (as it still stands). You've still got to prove that these things were not caused by other factors - and that's impossible. There was a lot of publicity around at the time in the local and Scottish press - and Rechem eventually closed shop and sloped off in 1984 and still have (hopefully more efficient) plants in Wales and England. There's not much talk of infant eye problems and cattle deformities in the area these days.
A footnote - Dennis Thatcher was a Rechem shareholder.
The etymology of 'Dunipace' has been a bit contentious.
The popular theory is that after the Roman peace treaty [or treaties] the name was given as a hybrid of the Scots, 'Dun' and the Roman-Latin, 'Pax', meaning the Hills of Peace.
Another, less popular theory is that it comes from the Welsh, 'din-ya-pas', meaning 'Hills of the Pass'. This is backed up by the fact that there was an important ford nearby on the River Carron. This ford is likely to have given this unusual place an added focus since ancient times.
Another theory is that ot derives from the Gaelic, 'duin-na-bais', meaning 'Hills of Death'. This may come from the strong possibility that the hills were used for burial/cremation purposes (see folklore).
This 'death' may also be the 'death' of old ways; rebirth. This interpretation would be consistent with the various treaties and changes of direction which were decided here (see folklore). This death of old ways/rebirth/resolution would also tie in with the obvious maternal aesthetics of these two great mounds by the river, which were surely not lost on our ancestors. I get the strong feeling that this place was strongly revered by the ancients and I dont want a pick and shovel to prove it and subsequently demystify this place.
The prominence of the SE hill in the flat valley and indeed the dimensions of the SE hill remind me so much of Silbury. Is Dunipace another possible proto-Silbury site? I think so. (see photos of SE hill from W. and from River Carron)
I think this place is both very special and misunderstood - it's not just a place of peace or death - it's a place of all of this - and also a place of resolution - because that's what's needed more than just peace.
Sitting there today (for whatever today stood for), I thought about this place's past and the whole UFO shenanigans and I decided that Neil Young's, 'After the Goldrush' was my theme for this place. (get to! can if I want?!).
-'Flying mother nature's silver seed to a new home in the sun'-
and what's more resolute than that?!
However, the aliens ignored my inner pleas and I'm still here typing and if your still reading this..............
|
    
|
The Romans documented that here at the Hills of Dunipace, there was at least one peace treaty brokered between them and local Celts in the 3rd century. The Roman Emperor, Severus came here in person for this purpose in 210, Severus's son Caragill may have returned here soon after for more peace talks and the usurper, Carausius brokered another deal in 286. In the past it was thought that the hills were erected to commemorate one, two or all of these treaties.
William Wallace is said to have met with King Robert Bruce here in 1298. Wallace supposedly persuaded the Royal Bruce that he should fight on, in the interests of Scotland and it's people, and not sell the Scottish crown to England through land deals.
Edward I of England came here on 14 October, 1301 to sign a peace warrant with Scotland in order to appease the French King (who was an ally of the Scots at the time).
Other similar hills in the valley were excavated and were thought to be natural remains of the post glacial beach. On top of one nearby (and less prominent) hill, which was destroyed for road building materials, was found an ancient burial cist with remains. The use of natural features like this, for sacred purpose was also uncovered by the archeos, at nearby Cambusbarron (-at Dunipace, burial continues to this day - the site was Christianised in the 12th century by the erection of a chapel at the foot of the hills, the remains of which can be seen beside the modern cemetery). Thankfully, the hills at Dunipace have been left more or less untampered by the archeos, but it looks pretty much like these hills are mostly natural. However, the almost perfectly flattened top of the SE hill makes me think that it may have been artificially flattened for ceremonial use. The NW hill was badly damaged by flooding in the 16th century so it's impossible to say if this one had the same flat top.
Arthurian madman/scholar, August Hunt, in his online book, the Road to Avalon, theorises that King Ban and his wife left the Stirling area with his son, the infant Lancelot, and crossed the Carron here at Dunipace.
The area is at the heart of UFO country; The town of Bonnybridge is just a few hundred yards away at the other side of the nearby roundabout.
|
8/02/02
I've been here before, sometimes just sitting in the parked car in the rain. I came here this morning, walking from the town of Denny 2 miles to the west. It was a bit overcast, but so warm, and you could smell the soil and the grass for the first time this year. It felt like the first day of spring and my serotonin was doing it's feel good best.
The smaller, less conical hill is fenced off, and I left it there as there were cemetery workers keeping a suspicious eye on me. I walked around the larger more formed hill to the SE and took it in from all angles. What a site!
It's over 20metres high and 60 metres diameter at the base and has steep sides and a flattish top.
I climbed on top of the larger hill and watched the maturing Carron flow east and listened to the rushing of the motorway behind me. Despite all the pylons, the M-way and b-roads there is something very special and calming about sitting up on the flattened summit. I sat for ages until a funeral procession arrived in the modern cemetery below me, and at that I left.
I crossed the bridge and walked down the south side of the Carron for a few hundred yards to try and figure where the old ford was. I found an old industrial wier, so I gave up on the ford.
Walking on to Larbert on the B905 I turned back and realised that this was the direction I should have travelled from. Coming from Larbert on this road, you turn a corner and the valley floor opens up before you with the SE hill resting magically and with prominence, like a small Silbury.
|
|
 
|
|
|
Visited here in 2000 when a friend was working at nearby Roddenlaw. I'm sure I'd seen this stone before that day - from the train maybe??
|
|
Log in |
Register
Previous 50 | Showing 51-100 of 237 posts. Most recent first | Next 50 
Top of page