Loch na Cloiche

Nearest town:

Tobermory (30km ENE)

OS reference:

NM20725550

OS sheets:

46, 47

Latitude:

56° 36' 28.52 N

Longitude:

6° 33' 7.06 W

Added to TMA by

Rhiannon

Images

Image of Loch na Cloiche (Standing Stone / Menhir) by thelonious

04/09/2018 – Standing stone near Loch na Cloiche.

thelonious Sep 13, 2018

04/09/2018 – Standing stone near Loch na Cloiche. It’s a bit leany nowadays.

thelonious Sep 13, 2018

Articles

Loch na Cloiche

Standing Stone / Menhir

Rhiannon Sep 29, 2007

The RCAHMS website says that “An inclined standing stone was recorded at this location through fieldwalking in areas of the eastern side of the island of Coll.” – this was in 2003.

I wonder if it was the stone mentioned here in the ‘Life of Johnson’ by James Boswell ( it is on the way to Breacacha castle):

We set out after dinner for Breacacha, the family seat of the Laird of Col, accompanied by the young laird [..] We passed by a place where there is a very large stone, I may call it a rock; ‘a vast weight for Ajax’. The tradition is, that a giant threw such another stone at his mistress, up to the top of a hill, at a small distance; and that she in return, threw this mass down to him. It was all in sport.

Sheer speculation I admit. It could probably be any number of stones on Col. Found in vol V – ‘journal of a tour to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson’ 1773. Online at Google Books. Supposing you know the true stone this relates to – please leave a comment.

Later on they went to see the other ‘great stone’ in the story. I’m afraid to report that it “did not repay [their] trouble in getting to it.”

Sites within 20km of Loch na Cloiche