Sadly the standing stones on Skelmuir Hill, two stones which would have been near the minor road, were removed or destroyed in 2008. The photograph of the fallen stone in the pics is likely to the last time one of the stones was seen. The Grey Stane still stands tho, looking rather lonely in it’s exposed position. I spent hours climbing up and down just in case they’d been pulled to the side but no luck (for the 4th time). Makes me feel very sad as I must have just missed seeing them. No picture, no reminder, sad.
Last visited 31/5/2011.
This is very sad Drew. Good on you for recording what there is though. Shows that the effort of making site visits and recordings like yours has real long-term value, even if the gradual removal and erosion of sites that it documents is difficult to prevent.
It's a real shame that these more obscure/less-visited sites are not afforded some small part of the protection that is lavished on a very small minority of "show" sites. While people get enflamed about the building of a new house 200 yards from Avebury, not nearly so many people care equally about actual losses of prehistoric material, like this one.
Cheers Sweetcheat, at least I made it to the Humblecairn just in time.