
The gateway to the Atlantic at Kirkibost Island.
The gateway to the Atlantic at Kirkibost Island.
A fine beard of lichen.
The stone is surviving far better than some of its near neighbours.
Looking east.
Looking north east.
Truly impressive stone.
Note the chamber cairn just to the left.
We headed south west on the Committee Road (Solas) back to the A865, heading south east. Take the fourth farm track heading south west. Permission was given to us to park at the farm buildings.
You can see the stone from the buildings, just a couple of gates, fences and a burn to jump before reaching the site.
A truly tremendous stone standing at 2.5m. Its location must, in my opinion, have something to do with the seaway to the Atlantic and the natural harbour next the Clach Mhor A’che headland.
Luckily no battles or people ‘hanging’ today so a good look at the nearby chamber should be safe enough.
Visited 23/7/2019.
One of the largest and most impressive stones is that known as Clach Mor an Che – The Big Stone of The World – which stands at the edge of the seashore. This stone stands eight feet high and is about two and a half feet across. On the first occasion that I visited the stone the sun was just setting and small waves were lapping on the seashore – an idyllic scene if ever there was one. And yet folklore has it that local miscreants were tied to the stone for their wrongdoings. Some punishment! Although it was during the summertime, the Hebridean midges, known for their ferocity, would no doubt have inflicted their own form of punishment upon the wrongdoers! Not far from the stone are the remains of a chambered cairn called Dun na Cairnach, and at least one historian has suggested that the cairn and the stone were monuments to Che, one of the seven sons of Crithne, an ancestor of the Picts who is said to have been buried there following his death in battle.
Alan Pratt, North Uist
The Celtic Planet
You can see some pictures of the stone on Canmore.
There is another [stone] at the Key, opposite to Kirkibast, 12 foot high: the Natives say that Delinquents were ty’d to this Stone in time of Divine Service.
From
‘A description of the Western Islands of Scotland‘ by M. Martin, 2nd edition, 1716.