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Balnaroid

Did this on the way up to the Simple Minds gig in Inverness and intended going to several more. However the weather gods had different ideas and severe torrents caused major floods in the area. However I will return.

This stone at Balnaroid is reportedly the last remnant of a stone circle or clava cairn destroyed in the 1700s. Stones were demolished or buried beneath the soil on which they formerly stood. So this stone defiantly remains, a reminder of what once was here.

Take the B9090 at Nairn at head south west, then head the same direction on the B9101, taking the fourth minor road south. The stone sits in the first field to the east. At the moment the field is in crop so I left the stone to it’s own devices.

As for Simple Minds, they were brilliant and their fans were drenched. But we don’t get wet in the rain we Sparkle!

Visited 16/07/2011.

Folklore

Balnaroid
Standing Stone / Menhir

The solitary pillar of the circle at Ballinrait is said to have served the purpose of a sun dial, just as a tree or post in the same neighbourhood was the clock of the clachan. The other stones of the circle were broken up some sixty years ago. It is related that one old man used every morning to walk round the circle three times before beginning work, from the belief that his so doing would bring him good luck.

From ‘History of Nairnshire’ by George Bain, 1893.
archive.org/stream/historyofnairnsh00bainuoft#page/4

Sites within 20km of Balnaroid