A sandstone boulder decorated with 17 cup-marks on its upper surface and measuring around 0.7m by 0.8m can be found in an area of rig and furrow cultivation here.
BigSweetie
This slab features several cup marks including one which appears to be surrounded by a ring.
It was found on Balgay Hill and donated to the McManus Galleries in 2006.
I couldn’t find any reference to its discovery so have given it a grid reference which places it at the top of Balgay Hill.
We climbed here yesterday, and while there’s not much to be seen in terms of antiquities – save for well-disguised remnants of the fort’s wall – the views are fantastic.
Although it sits within the shadow of it’s much larger neighbour Arthur’s Seat which blocks the view to the west and south-west, there are extensive and wide-ranging views north to West Lomond Hill and east to Traprain Law and Berwick Law.
Make sure you check the opening hours at the museum in the centre of the town before walking out here, especially on a blisteringly hot day.
Spanish austerity means the opening hours we’d seen published were no longer up to date, and it was shut when we arrived. Very disappointing!
Despite the planes overhead and the motorways nearby, I didn’t actually find this a depressing site like some of the previous visitors evidently have.
Maybe it’s because it was a bright sunny day, the grass had just been cut, and there was a total absence of feral children.
Visited here last weekend, and noticed an interesting alignment.
If you stand in the centre of the fort with Arthur’s Seat behind you on the horizon, then you find yourself pointing at a small hill on the horizon to the east. I haven’t figured out what it is yet though – it may of course just be a natural hill!
This alignment roughly passes through the entrance, beyond which is a large boulder.
Interestingly this fort is now listed as a quarry by the RCAHMS, having previously been designated a fort and marked on the OS map as such.
At the west end of the fort a small amount of quarrying has taken place, but it seems quite clear that this place is a fort.
Seaton Law is a rocky outcrop on a ridge that is a continuation of the Garleton Hills to the west. Although the fort is only slightly raised above the immediately surrounding land, it offers a 360 degree view over the area. Traprain Law and Berwick Law are both visible.
With the bigger fort of Kae Heughs further to the west it may be that Seaton Law was built as an outpost to offer an extra dimension of defence from an attack along the ridge.
The approach to the fort from the east slopes gradually and is steeper than it first appears. The top of the fort is wide and flat, covered in tussocks of grass which make it difficult to identify any features below.
At the west end of the fort there appears to be a section cut off from the main body of the fort by what may be a wide ditch. However since this is the end affected by quarrying, the depression may be associated with that rather than representing a true ditch.
Further to fitz’s post, this stone seems to stand directly in between Traprain Law and Berwick Law – tell me that was an accident!
Getting here is very easy indeed – National Cycle Route 7 passes by the bottom of the railway embankment (so there’s a good footpath from Killin, Balquhidder, Strathyre, Lochearnhead – take your pick!)
The high gate doesn’t appear to ever be locked. I’ve been up here twice now and both times there was no lock. It’s a popular walking route too so access seems possible at all times.
Walk along the railway embankment until you reach Moth’s “metal framey-sheltery-type structures” (actually cattle feeding units) and go through the gate here behind them. Once through turn right amongst the tress and there is a large mound in front of you, next to the burn. The cairn is on top of this mound.
Although clearly not a hillfort (as it’s not on a hill!) this site is typical of a type of monument found in Glen Lyon (and also nearby, see Queen’s View). Variously described as forts, ring forts and homesteads, they are curious sites that certainly appear to be defensive. Massive walls, in this case between 3 and 4 metres thick, and their location below mountain passes into and out of Glen Lyon seem to suggest a defensive use for them originally.
These stones are utterly fantastic. Six stones – plus numerous suspicious-looking lumps and bumps – snake their way up over the moor here. The smallest stone is 5 foot something, but Dunruchan A, the largest, is a whopping 11ft 4in, and totally dominates the skyline.
From each stone, at least one other can be seen.
Dunruchan D and E, the two highest up stones, would appear to be a typical Perthshire pair comprising one pointy slab-like stone and a chunkier, round-topped partner.
It’s easy to see why Dundurn was chosen as the site of a fort, as it rises steeply from the flat ground around it making it easy to defend. The slopes are littered with stones that are from the fort’s walls, which have now tumbled from their original position on the flat summit.
The views from the top are stunning, and show further it’s strategic importance, offering a sweeping vista of the wide flood plain of the River Earn below, and covering several major mountain passes.
I couldn’t find the stone that’s supposed to still lie here, but the site was very overgrown with bushes and trees. A large part of the mound is made up of bedrock just below the surface, so how likely it is a stone circle once stood here I’m not sure. However, it does have the right feel to it, whatever that means, and with it’s proximity to the churches it certainly ticks a lot of boxes. I didn’t have a chance to get a good look at the whole of the mound, so it’s possible that there are sections of it with a thick enough layer of earth to support standing stones.
The way up here is very easy – just follow the Clunie walk from Pitlochry. From the car park in the centre, head under the railway bridge across the road and watch out for a footpath sign-posted to the left – over the super-fun suspension bridge. At the end of the bridge turn left, and at the junction head straight over and up the hill (sign-posted Clune walk) to the A9, crossing carefully. The track continues up beside Middleton of Fonab farm and then enters the forestry plantation (still sign-posted) where it becomes narrower. It then joins on to a wide forestry track which you follow for a couple of hundred metres before turning left at the junction of forestry tracks. The circle is another few hundred metres along here, off the track to your right.
The Townsends live in the far left house and are very happy to give permission to view the circle when asked. All the other cottages are rented out as holiday homes.
CANMORE lists this stone as a cross, and it’s marked on the current OS map as a cross slab, but it was marked on the 1961 OS map as a standing stone, and visiting it seems to confirm that, it definitely looks like a christianised standing stone. So after a few second opinions I’ve added it here.
The stone is a large slab, 2.0m in height by 0.6m wide and 0.2m thick, giving it similar proportions to the nearby Clach Glas. On either side is carved a large simple cross.
Writing in 1925, JH Dixon described how it was supposed to have been connected with a chapel of St Maroc on the terrace above the Tay’s flood plain, although no trace of such a building can now be found.
The Clach Glas is not too far from the embankment for the railway on the flood plain of the Tay. It is around 1.7m tall by 1.0m wide, and is approximately 30cm thick, making it slab-like in appearance. It stands on a small but pronounced mound in which packing material is visible, and there was said to have once been more stones lying on the ground to the south and east, although these are no longer there. In the centre of the south face of the stone are two cup marks.
The stepped terracing of this fort is clearly visible at the southern end, and standing on the top of the fort reveals the full extent of the fort’s area, stretching to the north. The fort appears to be split into two sections by two massive ditches running E-W through the fort’s interior, which may be evidence of an entrance.
This stone stands on a mound 1.8m high, and has packing stones visible around its base. The stone itself is (naturally) shaped like a cross with one arm broken off (Crois is Gaelic for cross, Chnoca Breaca is “speckled hill”) and is around 2m tall by 40cm wide at the base, and 25cm thick. It is about 90m from the shore.
This tiny circle consists of 4 stones, only 2 of which still stand, the other two lying close to their original positions. None of the stones are more than 0.55m tall, and sit in very shallow sockets – one of the stones moves when touched. The circle is situated on a small mound close to the edge of a forestry plantation, and leading away from it are a perfectly-straight line of 5 hut circles, one of which crowns the summit of Elrig.
Visiting this circle it struck me how important the standing stones must have been to the people who erected them. From the looks of the landscape, this area would have been a temporary summer settlement, but the inhabitants still felt the need to build a stone circle – however small.
There’s what looks very like a standing stone here, complete with packing stones at the base. To begin with I thought (since it’s not listed anywhere) that it was maybe a marker for the track, but it’s on the wrong side of a ditch beside the track so would be useless for this purpose. I’ve e-mailed the county archaeologist to get his opnion.
This is probably a site best visited in autumn, winter or spring. The stones are awfully wee, and were being dwarfed by the grass growing around them today. Access is via a farm track (no vehicles) and the stones are high up, so wet ground shouldn’t be a problem.
Although the mound on which the stones sit is was excavated in 1894 and reported to be a natural morain deposit, it does look very suspicious, and there are stones on the east side of it which could be the remnants of a kerb.
Finally found this site here today in glorious sunshine (and have the red face to show for it) after failing miserably in miserable weather 2 weeks ago. This is the remains of a four-poster, with 2 of the stones still standing, one half fallen over, and one lying on the ground.
The stones sit at the end of a much later building, and one of the stones has been incorporated into the farmstead.
This is definitely a site to visit in summer (or summer weather) rather than winter. The ridge on which the stones stand is littered with stones, and if you don’t know exactly what you’re looking for they can be difficult to spot. However, when the grass is dry it’s possible to see a very faint sheep track contrasting with the rest of the grass, and this will lead you direct to the stones (see directions below). There appears to be the remnants of a stone-marked track running past the stone setting – perhaps an original route through the glen, up away from the river and the wetter ground?
Visited here on a gloriously sunny crisp day today. It’s shocking to have to admit, but despite having lived in Dundee on and off between 1997 and now, this was my first visit to Balgarthno.
The site had been cleared of grass, and was completely “bald”, save for quite a bit of broken glass. However, I didn’t get the feeling of sadness that others have mentioned – I found it quite a cheery place, even despite the noise of the A90, the power lines and the industrial estate.
One thing I did notice that isn’t mentioned on CANMORE or here is that there appeared to be a “causeway” of some kind stretching off to the east. It was a frosty day so that may have helped show it up, but there was a definite raised section running about maybe 30m in length by 3 or 4m in width, with what appeared to be a very shallow ditch on either side. There’s no sign of this to the west, so it doesn’t look like a natural feature, it does smack of an “entrance” or processional causeway of some kind.
This has variously been described as a homestead, a dun, a fort and a ring fort, the last by the Forestry Commission information board at the site. The walls are around 3m thick, and defense is what immediately springs to mind. The 24m diameter seems too big for it to be domestic, particularly given its location. It sits high above Loch Tummel, guarding a strategic path through the hills, and is reminiscent of the forts around Glen Lyon (see Caisteal Cona Bhacain).
This stone is situated in a caravan park, and as such we found it hemmed in by caravans and white plastic garden furniture. However, while the initial thought is that the site isn’t very atmospheric, at least it is safe. The stone is actually well-protected by the nearby caravan and tree, and will no doubt fare better than some stones out in the middle of nowhere.
This stone has now been removed, but only temporarily. It wasn’t scheduled since Historic Scotland deemed the site’s archaeological importance to have already been compromised by excavation in 1854 when the stone was lifted so that underneath it could be examined.
But when planning consent was given for the development of the site (open cast coal mining of 750,000 – 1,000,000 million tons over four years, followed by development as a retail and business park) it included the stipulation that the stone had to be re-set in its original position.
The stone is currently in storage, and it’s estimated it will be re-erected in about 3 years time. Unfortunately the plans show that there will be a roundabout on the stone’s original site, so the county archaeologist faces the dilemma of putting it back there, or re-locating it close by so that the public still have access to it.
I’ve listed this site as a cairn to reflect what it says on the map, but to me it looks more like a bell barrow. The large central mound – which has apparently been extensively robbed and now has a flat top – seems to be made of earth rather than stones, and is covered in grass. Around its base there is a clear ditch and bank.
This struck me as quite a sad site, despite it being in quite an atmospheric woodland setting. Around about the cairn brambles, ferns and nettles are quite overgrown, but the cairn itself is clear – the Woodland Trust (who run Huntly Wood) periodically clear the site of vegetation.
Most of this fort was obilterated when the Wallace Monument was built in the 19th century. The Abbey Craig is an old lava flow rising out of the flat, low Carse of Forth, and it’s defensive properties are clear to see. There is a sheer drop on the W side, which affords views along Blairdrummond Moss towards Loch Lomond, while on the E side, which looks along the Carse of Forth, had a timber-laced heavy stone wall, enclosing an area of 175 ft by 125 ft. Look hard in the undergrowth around the Monument and you can still see vitrified material.
You can walk the grounds freely to look for the remains of the fort, but you have to pay to get into the Monument itself. I would highly recommend this. Even if you’re not really interested in the history of William Wallace or seeing his enormous sword, it’s well worth paying just to go straight up the narrow stairs to the top, where you get amazing views along the Ochils and the Carse of Forth to the E, and along Blairdrummond Moss to the W. You can also get a great view of Dumyat from a unique perspective, and can look down on the nearby standing stone at Airthrey.
The fort of Dumyat, which sits on a spur of the larger hill of the same name behind it, is in an excellent defensive position commanding wide-ranging views across the Carse of Forth to the south, and on the western edge of the Ochils.
The name Dumyat is believed to derive from Dun Maeatae – the fort of the Maeatae. The Maeatae or Miathi were a tribe in central Scotland. Xiphilinus, writing in CE 208 of Septimus Severus’ campaigns, said “the two most important tribes of the Britons (in the North) are the Caledonians and the Maeatae. . . . The Maetae dwell close to the wall which divides the country into two parts and the Caledonians next to them. Each of the two inhabit rugged hills with swamps between”.
Whether or not the wall Xiphilinus mentions is Hadrian’s or the Antonine Wall has been debated by historians. But the description of “rugged hills with swamps between” matches perfectly with Dumyat, which stands proud above Blairdrummond Moss, which until the late 18th century and early 19th century was still mainly swampland, passable only by those that knew the raised pathways.
The fort itself has several phases of development stretching from the late 1st millenium BCE into the early 1st millenium CE. To the E and NE of the fort, the land rises steeply up to the summit of Dumyat the hill. To the S there is a 1000 ft sheer drop to the floor of the Carse of Forth. The easiest access is from the W, so this is where the defences are most significant.
The first phase of building consisted of two closely-set heavy stone ramparts enclosing an area 320 ft by 180 ft entered by a single gateway on the W. Outside the gateway are further defences believed to be from a second phase of development. Inside the outer walls is a smaller enclosure crowning the summit of the site, and measuring 85 ft by 50 ft, with walls 12 ft thick. This inner enclosure may have been contemporary with the outer walls, or it may represent a later development, where a smaller fort was built within the ruins of an older and larger one. However interestingly the inner enclosure was linked to the outer by a section of wall, possibly suggesting that they were contemporary.
Having thought about it further, the stone on the golf course is too far to the south-west of Comrie Castle for Coles to have described it as a mile and a furlong to the south. So I now think the original site was in the fields of Inchadney Park, or on the piece of land known as Eilean nan Ubh and Eilean Mor. Along the edges of these fields are piles of field clearance, including stones big enough to be the ones shown in Coles’ report. I’ll go back again later this summer and make an extensive search of the undergrowth!
Around the bottom of the Knock, there is what appears to be a “causeway” of some kind. I first noticed it when me, Scotty and Martin visited here in 2002, and it was so flat that at first I thought it must have once carried a railway. However, checking the map shows that the only railway that used to run near here was south-west of Crieff and not north-east. Besides, the “causeway” is considerably wider than engineers would have built for a railway embankement.
It certainly appears to be too flat to be natural (unless it’s perhaps a grass-covered lava flow from the Knock) and does have the look of having been made or modified by human hands. You can see parts of it in the photos I’ve posted.
It curves around the bottom of Kate McNieven’s Craig, then heads off south-west along the edge of the rest of the Knock. Could it even be a cursus of some kind?
Situated close to the track that leads up to Falls of Acharn stone circle, this barrow enjoys good views to the North from it’s position on a shelf above Loch Tay.
Canmore describes it as a “sharply-defined, turf-covered mound, 6.7m N-S by 6.1m and 1.1m high.”
After speaking to the county archaeologist David Strachan, we came to the conclusion that the stone I found half-buried was probably the side-slab of one of the cists that was discovered “many years ago.” It was probably stood upright by workmen when the cist was ploughed open to mark the grave, and left standing since then. It doesn’t have the appearance of a standing stone, especially if that stone was supposed to have been the remains of a circle.
This doesn’t take away from the fact that there may well have been a stone circle on the site at some point, either around the cairn (long since ploughed away) or nearby.
This stone stands on its own in a field close to Belhie farm on the haughs of Aberuthven. First appearances suggest that it’s an isolated site, but in fact the surrounding area features a complex of ritual monuments, mostly only showing up as crop-marks. (see main Belhie grouping)
As can be seen from the photos above, the stone enjoys great views in all directions to the surrounding hills. This open aspect will be changed forever if the plans for a film studio come to fruition, with a hotel and golf clubhouse planned for either side of the standing stone, which would stand at the end of a car park.
This definitely looks and feels like a genuine standing stone. It’s not marked on the OS map from the 1860s (see link below), but a lot of sites in Perthshire weren’t. I believe that this is a real standing stone, and if it isn’t, it’s a brilliant fake.
From the road, this cairn doesn’t look like anything particularly special. But hop over the fence into the field, and it becomes much more interesting. There is one standing stone at the base of a large cairn, in amongst the trees. Walking around the cairn it becomes clear that it sits on a flattened platform with possibly the remains of a slight ditch around it. Me and Scotty were here the day after some light snow, and the snow appeared to be collecting in the slight depression that is all that remains of the ditch.
When walking around the base of the cairn, keep your eyes peeled for other stones of a similar size to the standing stone. They appear to be at fairly regular intervals around the base, 10 in all (including the standing one). Looking even harder, you’ll see the remains of several cist covers. We counted four the remains of four large slabs, as well as lots of smaller pieces which may also once have been covers. There’s also a cist intact if you look carefully. As far as I know, this site has never been excavated.
Although there’s no evidence left of there being a circle here, what it lacks in stones it makes up for in location. It sits out in the middle of a large flat floodplain in a sweeping bend of the Tummel, and can be seen for miles around. At the time of building, with the landscape free of trees, caravan sites, farm buildings and the A9, it must have been an even more impressive site! This is the tree-covered cairn that can be seen to your left across the river as you drive into Pitlochry from the south.
The cairn originally had a ditch and embankment around it, with a “row of upright stones round the mound”. These stones were apparently toppled around 1840 and used to repair the nearby river embankment.
Two seperate authors writing in the 1920s in books about Pitlochry mention stones from a destroyed stone circle lying at the end of the golf course. The land is marked on the Explorer map as marshy, so perhaps predictably CANMORE found “no trace of these stones” as they are some distance from the car park, and it’s just possible you might get your feet wet looking for them!
However, the stones are here, some of them turfed over, but here nonetheless. A bit of poking around and scraping away of long grass and mud revealed 4 large stones. I didn’t find the ten foot long stone described in 1925, as a party of golfers were getting more and more suspicious. But there were several long bumps in the ground which could do with another look. I will no doubt be back sometime soon.
A stone circle once stood here on the knoll known as Cnoc Dubh (black hill). The stones were removed early in the 19th century to build Balnadrum farmhouse, and Cnoc Dubh was levelled to build a tennis court in what is now the grounds of the Pitlochry Hydro.
Around 1823 this stone was dug up and moved about 20 feet. At a depth of 3 or 4 feet under it was found an urn containing ashes, a piece of tartan too decomposed to be identified or moved, and copper and silver coins dating from the reign of Mary Queen of Scots. The urn was reburied in situ.
Around 1951, the stone was moved again, the farmer dumping it by the side of the field at NJ 5184 3048, where it lay “largely obscured by a grass-grown pile of stones, and farm rubbish” when visited in 2002 by the RCAHMS.
I visited here today after stopping at Clach a’ Mharsainte nearby. I first spotted this stone on the 1867 OS map, and haven’t found any reference to it anywhere else. I originally listed it as a standing stone, but it is in fact a earth-fast flat-ish boulder. It was covered in two inch-thick moss, and I tried to scrape some away, but the heavens opened and it would take a while to clear the whole stone, so I left it. I’ve changed this site to Natural Rock Feature until someone can investigate further, but I wouldn’t be surprised if under all that moss there were some cup-marks.
Visited here today during a perfectly-timed break in the rain. The stone stands just off the road in front of the timeshare complex – you can’t miss it, it’s right next to a huge blue sign! The stone is a fairly regular cuboid in shape, but the top has a point to it. Standing behind the stone (with the timeshare behind you) you’ll notice something striking – the top of the stone appears to mirror the shape of Schiehallion’s peak. Checking the compass shows that Schiehallion is exactly to the SE.
There is a plaque affixed to the stone which suggests the stone may have been moved in some way by builders many years ago, but it seems to imply that it was re-erected in it’s original position, so it’s alignment with Schiehallion may have been unaffected.
Visited here on a cold winter’s day today. The stone stands next to the shop and café of the Auchingarrich wildlife centre, on an obvious round mound which looks like it could be artificial, or at least an artificially-enhanced natural knoll. Some large stones, which may actually be bedrock, can be seen poking through the grass at the side.
The stone itself is huge at 8’ 7” tall, and is certainly an impressive specimen, rising from the centre of the mound. It commands good views of the surrounding area, and stands at a height of 450 feet above sea level.
I visited here today, and met the horses that Mr Brand mention below. They behaved themselves with me though – I asked them to stand in the top corner of the field so that they wouldn’t be in any of my photos, and they duly obliged. A lovely pair of horses!
But back to the stone. It stands on a very slight mound, and what appears to be a few packing stones can be seen at it’s base poking through the grass. Fred Coles described this in 1910 as the last remaining stone of a stone circle, although he didn’t offer any reasons as to why he thought there were more stones originally.
This was definitely a circle rather than a pair. Four stones were originally marked on the old OS map, and when Fred Coles visited in 1911, he was told that up until around 17 years previously, three stones had still been standing. The third then fell, and the farmer dragged it away.
The site now consists of the two remaining stones standing approximately 6m apart on the circumference of a circle that appears to have been cleared – the surrounding land is rough and overgrown with long yellow grass, while within this circle is smooth ground, with short green grass.
Visited here today on a bitterly cold day. The Roman Stone – the big one, as Mr Brand mentions below – leans at an alarming angle over it’s smaller neighbours. The cup-marks on the flat stone are quite shallow, but very obvious nonetheless.
The name Roman Stone presumably comes from the fact that in the field nearby was a Roman camp.
Historic Scotland lists this as the remains of a stone circle, but as Fred Coles pointed out in 1911, there is a lack of any evidence to suggest that these stones ever formed part of a circle.
This is a very, very sad site. As if a stone circle being reduced to a single remaining standing stone wasn’t bad enough, a tip and quarry have sprung up beside it.
The site originally consisted of a large natural mound o sand and gravel, on top of which, at the western edge (ie closest to the road), was a circle of stones. When the mound was excavated for gravel, several cists containing human remains were found, and also a stone hammer which is now in the National Museum. This quarrying has left little of the mound, the remains of which stand at the top of the bank which rises beside the main road.
CANMORE describes the standing stone as surmounting the summit of the ridge, which should make it just visible from the road, or at the very least from halfway up the bank. CANMORE also mentions that the ridge had been quarried away to within 2m of the stone – that was in 1975. The stone has now fallen, and is half-buried by sand and mud. The remains of the mound seem to be even smaller than described by CANMORE, and it’s surely only a matter of time before the mound is destroyed altogether, and the stone thrown to one side. I will be contacting the RCAHMS about this site, in a bid to stop any further damage to the site.
as Mr Brand says below, the photies aren’t too clear, but “in the flesh” it’s much easier to make out. it looks as though it’s one central cup-mark surrounded by a ring of others (similar to photies I’ve seen of ones in Argyll) or perhaps an unfinished rough ring
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