Balfarg

Nearest town:
Glenrothes (2km SSW)
OS reference:
NO281031
OS sheet:
59
Latitude:
56° 12' 54.16 N
Longitude:
3° 9' 33.93 W

Images

Image of Balfarg (Circle henge) by postman

I once got told by a crusty lady not to walk on a henge, i’m guessing she has never been here, I doubt she would survive ordeal.

Image credit: Chris Bickerton
postman
postman Sep 24, 2018
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Articles

Balfarg

postman
postman Sep 25, 2018
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Eleven years ago I came here and was caught between dismay ‘n disgust and elated giddiness. I really like the henge, I even approve of it’s surroundings, should all henges be out in the countryside? I can stand a few getting stranded in suburbia, juxtaposing nicely with our last site of the day.
But some knob had lobbed a big blob of yellow paint on the last remaining circle stone, it was still there last week, couldn’t the council do something about it? has anyone told them? has anyone told anyone?
Still a bit disgusted to tell you the truth.
Still like it here though.
I once got told off by a crusty lady not to walk on the henge at Thornborough, this one would make her head explode, they’ve cut car parks into the henges bank all the way round, they put a fence in the ditch by the entrance to stop smaller cyclists wearing it out. There’s a boy in the ditch singing to him self whilst hitting his own head with a stick, it wont wear out the henge, it just made me laugh.
And there is nearly always someone watching you through a window.

Still like it here though.

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Balfarg

drewbhoy
drewbhoy Jan 2, 2016
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Like Fitz, I like this site despite the houses being nearby and perhaps that is a good thing as it allows your imagination to take over which is probably the reason the henge was built in the first place.

From the A92 take the B969 heading west, then take the first road south, Huntsman’s Road, then the first street east, Kilmichael Road and finally the second street heading in a southerly direction fittingly called, ‘The Henge’.

Visited 30/12/2105.

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Balfarg

fitzcoraldo
fitzcoraldo Feb 16, 2003
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I like this site.
Although it was only excavated in 1977 there is continuity here. Not only has the henge been restored but it is also once again the focus for a community. A well kept estate has been built around the henge and manages not to encroach upon it. The space is here, which is surely what a henge is meant to do.....create a space that is different from it’s surrounding. The sacred landscape is long gone but the sacred space remains. The people of Glenrothes are fortunate enough to have two beautiful sacred sites, Balfag and Balbirnie.
Check the lovely modern megalithic roundabout on the way in from the A92.

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Balfarg

W
winterjc Nov 16, 2001
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I visited this site (and Balbirnie) with a friend, last autumn at dusk, just as the lamp-posts which surround the henge were switched on. The houses have taken most of the horizon and most of the everything from this site – the street has been built so close to the edge of the henge.
Defying all are the remaining stones.
The complex and very ancient nature of this site is now hard to appreciate as is any kind of feeling.
Glenrothes has not been good to it’s ancient heritage and what happened here should make us vigilant.

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Folklore

Balfarg
Circle henge
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Oct 4, 2018
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An Historical Sketch of Markinch.

Boulder Stones.

About five hundred yards west from the farm of Balfarg, which is situated about one mile from Markinch, are two large stones, one about six feet in height and the other a little less.

According to legendary lore they are two ‘tackets’ which have fallen from the boots of a great giant who had been taking a quiet walk in that part of the district.

Another version is that the devil was carrying a quantity of stones in his apron when one of the strings broke, thus scattering his load on the ground. He picked them all up except two of the smallest, which he thought he would leave to puzzle the brain of geologists and antiquarians. Kind old gentleman!

Some folks suppose they are two Druidical stones but we think that they are two stones of the Siberian strata, which lies below the old red sandstone. In many parts they lie above the lighter limestone formation which, according to geology, ought to be the uppermost of the two. The explanation which science gives regarding the boulder stones is that they have been deposited there by icebergs or glaciers.

From the Fifeshire Advertiser, 29th July 1887.

It’s quite strange to look at an old map of this area from when it was all farm and fields, and then now with all the houses circling the henge.

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Sites within 20km of Balfarg

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