Wiltshire 25
Image by Chance

Well this is it. It's not exactly in the midst of a wealth of standing stones round there. It's at about ST 814 655.

But I feel encouraged by your encouragement.

It's pretty doubtless limestone, Bath Stone, the area's been quarried for it, but not immediately nearby.
I haven't got another photo of the top, didn't think of that, I shall have to go back.

Would it only be a rubbing stone for small animals though? It's only smallish. If it was a sort of boundary marker, why only the one? Oooh if only it could talk, ETC.

Rhiannon wrote:
I haven't got another photo of the top, didn't think of that, I shall have to go back.
That's the first place i look at any standing stone, for the weathering.
Limestone you say, not much experience of it myself but it does weather quickly so i'd expect lots of rilling on the top, if indeed limestone acts in a similar way to other stone i do have experience of.

This rubbing stone for animals stuff is shit. The stone's there and animals scratch themselves on it. A tree would do. In the catalogue of standing stone shapes this is the one that's called Fin. (Not that there is a catalogue). These are the kind of things that used to be placed, often in pairs, as outliers, to somewhere else, to indicate a setting or rising. But, please, if you go back for more pictures measure the hole diameter, in inches. It should be possible, using the stone, to find other lost bits in that landscape. You'd need permission from the farmer, of course, and you'd want to tell him about the stone. Then the county archaeology unit. It's worth sitting on it for a while if you're looking about for more stuff - not literally, of course. From the pictures it looks like sandstone, with a lot, possibly a seam of quartz. But photographs can be deceptive. The clincher will be the diameter of the hole. Correctly they're called tolmen - but are very controversial.