The Witching Stone

Nearest town:
Girvan (5km S)
OS reference:
NS201027
OS sheet:
76
Latitude:
55° 17' 7.26 N
Longitude:
4° 49' 59.3 W
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The Witching Stone

markj99
markj99 Feb 18, 2024

Visited 17.02.24

I’ve passed by The Witching Stone countless times, however, the field was usually in crop or I was on my way to somewhere. Yesterday, while travelling home from a Bill Bailey concert, I noticed that the field enclosing The Witching Stone was being drained so it seemed like a good opportunity to finally visit the standing stone.

My first difficulty was finding a place to park on the busy A77. After some trial and error I parked down the track to the cottages S of the Old Alginate factory at Dipple. The lane is a high tide detour off the Ayrshire Coastal Path. There is room to park just beyond the cottages. The track leads onto the beach. After following the coast S for c. 0.5 mile I headed to a gate in the NW corner of the field. The Witching Stone was c. 150 yards SE from the gateway across a sodden field (I had wellies on obviously).

The Witching Stone, as it is known locally, is a natural pointed boulder leaning c. 30 degrees SE. It is set upright with broad sides on a NE-SW axis. The stone measures c. 4 x 3 x 1 feet. The overall height is reduced to c. 3.5 feet by the lean. It is located at NS 19924 01730 (transcribed from OS Aerial Mapping).

There is no obvious reason why this rather ordinary stone has been preserved in the field. It is not listed on Canmore and a Google search for Witching Stone Girvan produced no relevant result.

The Witching Stone

follow that cow
follow that cow Dec 17, 2004

This is a sad and solitary little stone situated in a farmers field on your right hand side, between the road and the seashore, travelling south on the A77 about 1km past the seaweed(alginates) factory.

As it is quite small it may, or may not, be of human design.

Folklore

The Witching Stone
Standing Stone / Menhir
follow that cow
follow that cow Dec 17, 2004

The Witching Stone was pointed out to me by an elderly relative on the occassion of scattering the ashes of my mother in law over her favourite childhood beach.
He told me that as children playing nearby they would always take a wide berth to avoid this stone as it had a sinister and frightening aspect.
I can find no listing of this stone in my OS disc nor of the name of the adjoing beach known by him as Curragh Beach, therefore the OS location given is only a questimate.

Miscellaneous

The Witching Stone
Standing Stone / Menhir
C
CARL Jul 28, 2015

Drive by – 28.7.15

The stone is easy to see alongside the A77 but parking anywhere near is impossible. The stone stands in the middle of a recently ploughed field. It is approximately 1m high x 0.5m wide at the base. It has a pointy top.
The stone must be a considerable pain for the person who has to plough the field :)

Sites within 20km of The Witching Stone

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