Three men were returning home in a cart, when, at the top of the hill on the road between Lamlash and Brodick, the horse stood still and snorted, and showed signs of fear, and as though it saw something it did not want to pass. After much urging on the part of the driver, the horse made a bolt forward past a certain spot. The men looked back to see what had frightened the animal, and saw a number of small figures, twelve to eighteen inches in height, on the road behind them. The fairies did them no harm beyond taking the door off the cart. This occurred within the last fifty years, and the relater heard it from one of the men who had been in the cart.
From The book of Arran, volume 2, by W.M. Mackenzie (1914), page 269. These stones definitely seem to be at the highest point of the road and surely must contribute to any high strangeness at the spot. The Fairy Glen is also not far away.
This would have been before the spruce plantations were planted on that hill, so presumably open moor. The Fairy Glen is a lovely spot.
You've been! And you returned without abduction, good work. I guess it would have been a considerably weirder spot with an open moor. I'm yet to get to Arran but it seems to have good weirdness value and there's always the famous Machrie Moor. So will have to go on the list!
We went three weeks ago, first time we've been to Arran. It's very lovely (despite the very changeable weather) and there's is much folklore to be had.
That's quite curious ?!
I'm glad you had a good time.
I was very pleased to see you starting on the Book of Arran, it's referenced a lot in a book I got to take with us.
Just a shame that the circle itself is so badly neglected. Even the fairy folk can't be bothered with a bit of tidying-up......
The path was reasonable to it - there's even a picnic bench overlooking it now :)
Have you got a pic? I'd love to see it in a more cleared state than in my visit 5 years ago.
I will have, but I'm very behind. The circle is quite overgrown still.
I'm over every summer (also got a freebie long weekend) in Feb 2019) and this circle is never cleared from the scrubby heather, bracken, Birch and self-seeded Spruce. It should be magnificent. There was a fire which burned back the heather ten or fifteen years back. The only photos here which show it in any kind of cleared state are Greywether's from 2004.
When I first visited it in 1980 it could have been used as a putting green. Short cropped grass and even the fallen stones were clear and visible. I think the central cist was exposed back then too.