nickbrand
An attempt to outline the cup marks with water...
My mistake – should have done more research! Big Sweetie and I visited again today, in the company of 2 other Scottish Megaraks. The stump of one of the other stones in the group is visible 5m east of the survivor. Hidden down in the turf again about 5m south lies a recumbent pillar which was probably part of the group. I have uploaded 3 photos, 2 showing the relationship of the survivor and stump, and one showing the recumbent with turf peeled back (thanks, Milgi!).
Original entry: This is incorrectly marked on the OS map as the ‘Refuge Stone’, which in fact is some 2/3 km away. It is a small piece of sandstone, around 3 feet tall and perhaps 2 feet wide at the base, standing in a field a couple of hundred metres in from the road. There are no markings of any type discernible.
On further investigation, this may indeed be one of the refuge stones marking the preceptory of Torphichen. Canmore states:
“This quadrilateral upright boulder stands on the summit of a low flat-topped ridge. Of hard red grit, it is c. 4’ high, 2’ 8” x 2’ wide at bottom, and 3’ 5” wide at top. The ONB notes that the outline of a Maltese cross, almost obliterated, may be seen on the N face of the stone, when viewed from a few yards away. This is one of the stones marking the area of the sanctuary associated with Torphichen Preceptory RCAHMS 1929, visited 1923”
I visited this stone today on the way back from a trip round West Lothian. This is a large block of sandstone, seven feet tall and approximately 3 feet wide, and runnelled in a fashion very reminiscent of the Tuilyies main stone only a few miles away. The field it stands in is usually home to some horses, so ask at the stables here before going into the field. The lady there told me they will soon be erecting a fence around it to stop the horses rubbing on it, at the behest of Historic Scotland.
This is a huge ice-scarred boulder, and traditionally it is held that the Gaelic bard Ossian was buried here.
Funnily enough, though, it may have marked the grave of someone previous even to Ossian. Seton Gordon writes in his “Highways and Byways in the Central Highlands”, quoting from an earlier source of the moving of the boulder by General Wade’s road-making soldiers:
“There happened to lie directly in the way an exceedingly large stone, and as it had been made a rule from the beginning to carry on the roads in straight lines, as far as the way would permit, not only to give them a better air, but to shorten the passenger’s journey, it was resolved the stone should be removed, if possible, though otherwise the work might have been carried along on either side of it.
The soldiers, by vast labour, with their levers and jacks, or hand screws, tumbled it over and over, till they got it quite out of the way, although it was of such an enormous size that it might be matter of great wonder how it could ever be removed by human strength and art, especially to such as had never seen on operation of that kind; and upon their digging a little way into that part of the ground where the centre of the base had stood, there was found a small cavity, about two feet square, which was guarded from the outward earth at the bottom, top and sides, by square flat stones.
This hollow contained some ashes, scraps of bones, and half-burnt ends of stalks of heath; which last we concluded to be a small remnant of a funeral pile.”
There follows some speculation that it was a Roman officer... Gordon also quotes from the Ordnance Gazette, on what happened afterwards:
“The people of the country, to the number of three or four score men, venerating the memory of the bard, rose with one consent, and carried away the bones with bagpipe playing and other funeral rites, and deposited them with much solemnity within a circle of large stones, on the lofty summit of a rock, sequestered and difficult of access... in the wild recesses of Glen Almond.
Glen Shee comes from Gleann Sith, the Fairy Glen. This site is traditionally held to be the grave of the Gaelic hero Diarmid, killed during a boar hunt.
One of this site’s alternate names is Na Clachan Aoraidh, which means ‘the stones of worship’. The site is just to the west of Edintian (another alternate name for the site), a local farm, whose now anglicised name in reality is Aodann an t-Sithein, ‘Face of the Fairy Hill’.
This excellent little four-poster requires a bit of effort, as it’s up the top of a wooded hill. Surprisingly, the OS map tracks turned out to be relatively accurate this time, which is a bit of a first...
The stones form the corners of a 3m square, graded to the SW, where the largest (1.2m tall) stands.
It was a bit misty today, as you will see from the photographs, and I could only make the stones out when I got within around 30m. Pity, as the views are supposed to be pretty spectacular from here. I’ll have to wander back on a good day!
This magnificent little circle stands on the spur of Airlich hill just above the farm of Meikle Findowie. It consists of two circles, the larger outer one being around 8.5m in diameter, with 6 of the 9 stones still upright. The 3 largest (on the SW arc) are now recumbent. There is a smaller ring of stones inside these, all of which are very low, and only 5 remaining.
These are the sad remains of what was once a four-poster, which enclosed a cairn. Only two stones now remain, though excavation of the site in 1954 found the sockets for the other two. It was dated to approximately 1600 bc.
