A 4000-year-old standing stone in Angus has fallen over due to severe winter weather.
The Carlinwell stone at Airlie, near Kirriemuir, toppled over as the snow, ice and frost from the long cold spell melted away.
The 7ft prehistoric unsculptured standing stone is situated on the crest of a knoll on a farm. Human remains were found underneath the scheduled monument at the end of the 18th century. It is one of a number of standing stones across the country.
Historic Scotland is now looking to carry out an investigative dig of the site, before reinstating the stone.
A spokeswoman said: “Carlinwell standing stone is a scheduled monument near Airlie, Angus.
“The stone fell over a couple of weeks ago when this winter’s heavy frost finally thawed. We were contacted by the landowner and had a meeting with him on Friday.
“Fortunately the stone was not damaged in any way and the owner has cordoned the stone off to protect it from grazing stock.
“Prehistoric standing stones such as this commonly have relatively shallow footings and two thousand years of soil erosion can result in instability. We will be investigating options for reinstating the stone.
“Historic Scotland is hoping to arrange for archaeological excavation around the base of the standing stone followed by its re-instatement.”
news.stv.tv/scotland/tayside/225279-prehistoric-standing-stone-falls-over/
Gosh, I've been looking at all the pavements, pot holes, people's garden steps here and thinking what a bettering everything has taken the last few months - but it had never occured to me that sites like that could have been battered by it all too!
I guess it'll be interesting to hear what the investigations turn up - once off opportunity...
Cheers for posting Moss :-)
had a problem finding the site on TMA, my geography is pretty poor on Scotland, so experienced 'scottish' advisor would have been handy ;), though I must admit the map you get forwarded to on the 'browse sites' is good!
Oh Moss - if you'd gone to the search box and popped in 'Airlie' or 'Carlinwell' it would have come up straight away? You have been making life difficult for yourself! (Though I must say I still miss the creaking old technicolour map, heresy though.)
Ahh moss, but I bet it was a lovely stroll round the site! :-D
Well I did learnt something along the way Rhiannon....what Carlin meant, it seems to have been the witch/hag well stone, so the journey was worth it ;)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlin_stone
very interesting! and that's a nice list.
I remember visiting, on one memorable Sunday a few years back, Inchtuthill Roman Legionary Fortress, The Cleaven Dyke, Steeds Stalls roman camp and quarries, The Leys of Marlee, the stunning Bruceton Pictish Stone and then heading for some much needed bacon rolls and coffee at Visocchi's Cafe in Kirrie. I spotted the Airlie stone very close to the roadside on the A926 and had to stop despite my ravening hunger.
I hadn't really used that road to get to Kirrie before as we always approached from the Sidlaws and would cut along the lovely tree lined windy B-road from Meigle past Cardean Roman Fort and the stone at Lendrick. I really miss this area. We are planning a spring trip back up but I wont get my hopes up for the Airlie Stone to be back in place by then. You really can lose yourself in Strathmore, the Isla, the Dean and the Glens of Angus. It is like being trapped in an ever evolving MacKintosh Patrick painting spattered with history. Amazing.