Images

Image of The Twelve Apostles of Hollywood (Stone Circle) by markj99

Markings on E Stone of The Twelve Apostles

Image credit: Mark Johnstone
Image of The Twelve Apostles of Hollywood (Stone Circle) by markj99

Marking on NNW Stone of The Twelve Apostles

Image credit: Mark Johnstone
Image of The Twelve Apostles of Hollywood (Stone Circle) by GLADMAN

The Siege of 12 Apostles... clambering upon fallen stones is not to be encouraged; however sometimes one simply has no choice, you know?

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Image of The Twelve Apostles of Hollywood (Stone Circle) by yani

Cup marked (?) stones, taken on a clear October afternoon

Image credit: yani
Image of The Twelve Apostles of Hollywood (Stone Circle) by Moth

This place is SOOO difficult to photograph....

Image credit: Tim Clark

Articles

The Twelve Apostles of Hollywood

[visited 5/8/23] One from the long list, hoping I guess to see all the “Cumbrian” great circles at some point, and this is my first across the water. It’s big, deceptively big, feels a bit like Stanton drew big (though it’s not).

I really liked this site, in times past I’m sure it was venerated and paths actually led to it, maybe their locals were proud. Sadly not an impression I got nowadays. High grass at least showed other recent visitors , but the difference in attention to (say) castlerigg was curious. I was not surprised to find myself the only visitor for the 25 minutes I was there.

Snubbed sadness side, this place feels a lot like gamelands with so few stones despite the size in comparison to the more central big rings. Late additions maybe, or maybe provincial circles didn’t merit additional stone ceremonies over centuries of use.

Access is good, through a kissing gate by a road and less than 15 metres across a grassy field. Park at the layby on the b road and head 100m down the minor road to the gate.

The Twelve Apostles of Hollywood

Directions: From the A75 at Dumfries take the A76 Kilmarnock road off the Cuckoo Bridge Roundabout. Stay on the A76 for c. 2 miles. Take the L turn onto the B729 Dunscore/Moniaive opposite Holywood Village. After c. 0.25 miles there is a lay-by on the L side. There is an information panel on a rock. The Twelve Apostles of Hollywood are accessed via a gate at the end of the lay-by.

The Twelve Apostles of Hollywood

Visited 06.09.21

I revisited The Twelve Apostles of Hollywood to experience how impressive the scale of the stone circle was. However I was left with a sense of disappointment at how this monument, “the largest stone circle in Scotland” has been neglected. There is no sign off the A76 indicating The Twelve Apostles of Hollywood’s existence despite it being only a quarter of a mile off the road. There is a rock with an information panel on the lay-by at the corner of the B729 but it is far from prominent. It seems to me that only locals and Antiquarians are going to visit this important site. Why is there no Brown Sign on the A76 for the Twelve Apostles?

I read CARL’s Fieldnotes with interest noting that it has been 8 years since any significant contribution on this site. As to his comment on walking counter-clockwise round stone circles there is an alternative Scottish word Widdershins which denotes travelling counter-clockwise as an unlucky or uncanonical direction. Personally, being inexplicably superstitious, I have always chosen to walk clockwise or Sunwise round stone circles and cairns.

I agree with CARL that The Twelve Apostles of Hollywood deserve more visitors but without any signage I wonder how the General Public will find it.

The Twelve Apostles of Hollywood

Visited 28.7.13

Is it really a whole year since I last visited? – time certainly flies the older you get!
This time we parked at the top of the field on the grass verge with an information panel attached to a large boulder. ‘The largest stone circle in Scotland’ the sign proudly states – and quite right too.

Anyway, a quieter visit than last time – no cows to be seen so I had the place to myself. The weather was glorious with hot sunshine and white fluffy clouds. The grass was long but dry.

I did the customary walk around the stones.
Is it me or does everyone walks around a stone circle on the outside and usually in an anti-clockwise direction? Just a thought.

It is funny how when you re-visit a site you often see it in a different light. No doubt due to your memory playing tricks on you plus the mood you were in and the weather etc. The circle was bigger than I remembered and the site much more impressive.

It goes without saying that this is a ‘must see’ site when in the area and on a day like today it is a very good place to be.

The Twelve Apostles of Hollywood

Visited 17.6.12

And so my 3 week ‘Scottish adventure’ comes to an end.
It started with a stone circle and so it is fitting that it should end with a stone circle.

We parked on the verge next to the stile and Karen and the children stayed in the car as I entered the field full of young cows to walk over to the circle.

As I walked around the circle touching each stone (as you do) I became aware of all the cows heading towards me.
I wasn’t too bothered at first but became a bit more concerned as they had now started to run towards me!

I headed back to the stile only to be overtaken by the cows who obviously thought they were going to get fed by Karen. This meant I had to push my way through the cows to get to the stile and out of the field. As it happens this was ok but I am sure it would have frightened people who are not used to this sort of thing!

Well, it was time to head home and back to ‘reality’.
It was a busy but very productive 3 weeks ‘old stoning’ in which I visited many more sites than I expected. (Thank you Karen).
Also thanks to all of you who have read/suffered all the posts I have written over the last few weeks and no doubt would have been fed up of seeing so many!

The Twelve Apostles of Hollywood

We parked at the corner of the field and walked down the road to the stile, and were mildly surprised to see two sheep messing about on one of the stones, but after reading other notes here it seems they’re allways up to no good. Not been here for a few years so was pleased to see the grass was much shorter, I like this stone circle, big stones, big ring, just a shame there are’nt more stones, presumably it would have been more like long meg and her neighbours. A good place to start before heading west .

The Twelve Apostles of Hollywood

This is the only place where I have watched a sheep dance on top of a stone with an audience of her peers looking on. Quite bizarre! She pirouetted for a good 10 minutes.....

I can only echo the feelings of others who have added their own thoughts – this huge circle has an air of abandonment about it. Still, an impressive size and a good start to a weekend of stone searching around the Solway Firth.....but somehow, I left feeling slightly disappointed. Maybe that says more about me than it does about the cirlce?

The Twelve Apostles of Hollywood

I grew up near here, but it took me 34 years to actually walk round them. A new moon hung low in the sky, above the row of hills to the west, and the stones looked ethereal under her pale glow. I felt a strong and pleasant atmosphere as I wound my way round them. To the west, the familiar view of foreground and background, but no middleground, is to be seen. I could have stayed for hours, so charged was I by the magical atmosphere, but was rudely interrupted by my daughter, standing on the stile and shouting, ” Da-ad, we’re starving! ” Sigh.

The Twelve Apostles of Hollywood

I was full of anticipation before visiting this huge circle. It was to be my last contact with the Cumbrian great circles before I headed west towards the Solway coast.
I also liked the story Burl tells about how a farmer was rebuked for removing one of the stones. The farmer answered that it was only Judas that had been removed.
Burl describes the site as being divided by a hedge and spoiled in atmosphere. The hedge has now gone but the atmosphere is still spoiled.
The stones are huge but the soul of the circle has gone.
You should visit this circle to check out the megalithic engineering of setting up this vast circle on a terrace above Dumfries.
There are some lovely mineral veins in a number of the stones.

The Twelve Apostles of Hollywood

We also could only count 11.
There is a stile to get into the field so you need to be agile. There were sheep with lambs in the field so take care in Spring not to alarm them. Lambs seemed to find stones excellent for climbing practice!
It is near the villages of Holywood and Holywood Station, just off A76 heading north. Not well signposted so look out carefully for it.

The Twelve Apostles of Hollywood

Been to Dumfries lots of times but hadn’t been here before! Very overcast day but clouds somehow comforting. Stopped for lunch here, very quiet spot but quite near a major road. Not many decent hills overlook the site.
A couple of the stones are fairly big, but some are about the same size as the sheep!

BTW I could only count 11.

.o0O0o.

Folklore

The Twelve Apostles of Hollywood
Stone Circle

Following on from Fitzcoraldo’s quote, it says:

According to another account, the stones do not actually represent the Apostles, only ‘it is allowed that the Apostles put them there’! and it was the farmer himself who wished to take away all the stones, but was stopped by the proprietor.

This is a report from the Rev. W.C. Lukis, who’d been sent on a Survey of various megalithic monuments of Scotland, Cumberland, and Westmoreland in the summer of 1884. The sort of mission I’m sure many contributors here would have been quite happy to assist with.

Folklore

The Twelve Apostles of Hollywood
Stone Circle

This is interesting because it sounds like the original version of EquinoxBoy’s tale – his has been updated with the combustion engine to make it more contemporary?

No tradition.. exists of any [stones] having been removed, or that the group has ever been otherwise than it is at present. A certain superstitious respect still attaches to the spot, and may even have had something to do with the preservation of these curious relics, for gossip still records how upon one occasion some farmer, more zealous in the cause of agriculture than archaeology, attempted to remove one of them, and that the work was immediately arrested by a violent storm of thunder and lightning.

From ‘On Certain “Markings” on the Druid Circle in Holywood’ by Dr Dickson, in Series 1 volume 3 of the Dumfries and Galloway Natural History and Antiquarian Society.
dgnhas.org.uk/transonline/SerI-Vol3.pdf
With regard to the Certain Markings (proposed cup-marks), a later expedition felt they were merely natural.
dgnhas.org.uk/transonline/SerII-Vol4.pdf

Folklore

The Twelve Apostles of Hollywood
Stone Circle

Many years ago the number of the stones was twelve, and the following amusing story is told about the removal of the missing one. A ploughman, while at work in the field, broke his plough against one of the stones, and, in the absence of his employer, took upon himself to remove the obstacle, and left it in the waters of Gluden. The farmer on his return was rather alarmed about the sacrilege, as he considered it to be, for the twelve stones represented the twelve Apostles, and he, being fearful that some calamity would follow, took the ploughnlan to task, but the man was ready with the answer : Hoots, there’s nae fear o’ ill. Ane o’ the Apostles was a traitor ; weel, it’s him I’ve ta’en awa’, and gin the Gluden disna’ wash him, it’ll droon him.‘

From
PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES OF LONDON
SECOND SERIES, VOL. X.
1885

Folklore

The Twelve Apostles of Hollywood
Stone Circle

Local folklore tells this tale; The farmer decided to remove the stones and, one summer’s day, set out to do just that. The sky was clear as he drove his tractor to the field. As he neared the stones, however, clouds were beginning to gather, but he carried on, intent on his task. By the time he had hooked up the chains it was quite dark. Climbing up into his tractor, he reached for the ignition key, at which point the storm broke overhead, and a bolt of lightning struck the stone. Taking the hint, the farmer quickly undid the chains and took off for home. Nobody has tried to move the stones since. The product of fertile local imagination? Maybe, but this story is told in hushed tones, and does show the sense of mystery that this circle imbues on us simple, country folk.

Miscellaneous

The Twelve Apostles of Hollywood
Stone Circle

Eleven stones, twelve stones? who knows.

The local name for the stones is ” The Twelve Apostles.” When the rustic believer in Druidism is asked, why so, when there are only eleven stones ? the reply usually bears upon the treachery of Judas Iscariot. Further inquiry is, of course, rendered useless. That there were a century ago really twelve stones I have already shown : that there are now only eleven is equally true. The oldest observer whose testimony has been accessible to me firmly alleges the removal of one stone, and within the memory of living persons eleven has always been the number. It was with the greatest surprise, therefore, that, on consulting the O.M. 25” scale, I found twelve stones marked—the extra stone being shown some 40 feet or so N.W. of stone F—its position is quite immaterial.

At a loss to account for this resurrection of a stone in 1850, which in 1837 was non-existent, I bethought me of writing to my friend Captain C. F. Mould of H.M. Survey, now stationed at Chester. His reply is somewhat startling’ in its suggestiveness :— “There should only be eleven stones. The drawn plan shows only this number; but there turns out to have been an accidental blue spot on this plan which has been reproduced by the’ zincography on the published plans.”

On such trivial mechanical accidents may the most mystical theories in archaeology repose !

From Coles, Fred. R: “The Stone Circle at Holywood, Dumfriesshire.” p84-90 in Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland
Volume 28 (1893-94).
ads.ahds.ac.uk/cfm/archway/toc.cfm?rcn=1340&vol=28

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