Cuidrach Stone Setting

Nearest town:
Uig (4km N)
OS reference:
NG38755962
OS sheet:
23
Latitude:
57° 33' 3.88 N
Longitude:
6° 22' 3.05 W
Added to TMA by

Images

Image of Cuidrach Stone Setting (Stone Circle) by GLADMAN

From the minor road to Cuidrach. Once one knows where to look, simples.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Jun 16, 2018
Image of Cuidrach Stone Setting (Stone Circle) by GLADMAN

Although the ground was churned to buggery by cattle this was a great little site to hang out at for a while in the evening sun.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Jun 16, 2018
Image of Cuidrach Stone Setting (Stone Circle) by LesHamilton

The setting of four upright stones, another (at left) slightly toppled, and a sixth prostrate in the boggy centre of the circle.

Image credit: Les Hamilton
LesHamilton
LesHamilton Sep 12, 2015
Image of Cuidrach Stone Setting (Stone Circle) by LesHamilton

The Cuidrach Stone Setting in its marshy hollow, showing the prostrate stone on the right.

Image credit: Les Hamilton
LesHamilton
LesHamilton Sep 12, 2015

Articles

Cuidrach Stone Setting

LesHamilton
LesHamilton Sep 12, 2015

Where is it? – Mystery solved!

As documented below by Kammer, this putative stone circle in the Snizort Parish has consistently defied the efforts of those searching for it. The reason for this is a long standing error on the Canmore website, and elsewhere, its Grid Reference having been erroneously quoted as NG386596.

Earlier this year, the Canmore website was upgraded and the 6-digit Grid Reference replaced by a more accurate 8-digit one (NG38755962). Additionally the site is now renamed, more accurately, as the Cuidrach Stone Setting. The map below shows the incorrect 100-metre grid square (large shaded rectangle) and the correct 10-metre grid square (small green square). It is clear that the true location is well outside the originally assigned OS reference.



The original notification of this megalith in Discovery and Excavation in Scotland (1989, page 44) is replete with errors.

• The OS reference was incorrect
• There are no telegraph poles here: only wooden power line posts
• The megalith stands a mere 130 metres SW of a lay-by (pink marker), 150 metres down the Cuidrach road (nothing like the third of a mile originally reported)

In fact, the Stone Setting is actually clearly visible from this lay-by, adjacent to the 2nd powerline post to the SW.

Read more about this on the Canmore website.

Cuidrach Stone Setting

LesHamilton
LesHamilton Sep 12, 2015

Visited: September 6, 2015

The Cuidrach Stone Setting, a possible stone circle, has been extensively quoted at an erroneous location, and incorrectly termed ”Snizert [sic] Stone Circle”.

This monument has at last found not only a more appropriate name, but also location, in a 10-metre square at NG38755962, somewhat east of the erroneous position quoted by its discoverers.

Once you know where to look, Cuidrach Stone Setting is dead easy to locate: it can actually be seen from the roadside, just 130 metres southwest of a lay-by on the Cuidrach Road.

From the A87 from Portree to Uig, follow the Cuidrach road from NG390597 for about 150 metres where you find a large lay-by/passing place, just a few metres before the point where a power line crosses the road. The wooden poles of this power line were mistaken for telegraph poles in the original Discovery and Excavation in Scotland report.

From here, look for the second wooden post in a roughly southwesterly direction. The stone setting can be clearly seen just a short distance to its left. It’s just a few minutes walk across rather boggy terrain to reach it, a distance of only 130 metres (stout shoes or boots required).

There are four upright stones and one toppled one, laid out on an obvious semi-circle. A sixth stone lies prostrate and almost completely hidden in the boggy terrain enclosed by the setting.

It may well be that these are the remains of a stone circle, since the original report stated that probing had identified buried stones in the gaps.

Cuidrach Stone Setting

Kammer
Kammer Jan 13, 2005

Visited 30th July 2004: Armed with insuficient notes and a grid reference I tried to find this circle. I found some stones that weren’t conclusive, and subsequent research suggests that these are nothing to do with the circle.

So, where are the stones I was looking for? They’re not exactly tiny, so how did I manage to miss them? I was searching to the south of the little road to Cuidrach, but I’m not 100% sure that’s right. Hopefully someone else will have better luck than me.

Miscellaneous

Cuidrach Stone Setting
Stone Circle
Kammer
Kammer Jan 12, 2005

The following text is an excerpt from the 1989 edition of Discovery and Excavation in Scotland (page 44) describing the circle:

Snizert Parish
NG386596 Stone Circle
Situated a third of a mile south of the Cuiderach road, and 20m SE of a telegraph pole at a height of c40m. Below a small knoll and in boggy ground is a circular setting of 4 upright and two recumbent stones. It measures 3.4m NE to SW and c3.2m NW to SE, with stones standing to a maximum height of 1.1m. Where no surface stones appear to indicate breaks in the circle, probing has located stones now buried at these points.

This site is not on the NMR.

Sites within 20km of Cuidrach Stone Setting

Like all websites everywhere, we use cookies.