BigSweetie
Directions – Head NW out of Blairgowrie on the A93 (sign-posted Glenshee) and when you reach the mill heritage centre (just before leaving Blairgowrie) on your left take the road to your right. Go up this steep hill, passing the Craighall standing stone in the field to your right. Continue on past Kynballoch House farm until you reach Drimmie Woods, where there is space to park.
Follow the road round on foot until you come to the large double gates into the woods and a cattle field. Climb over the fence here (not the gate) and follow the cattle track up to the left, then turn right and walk along the side of the field up to the edge of wood. Follow the fence at the edge of the wood – if you don’t like cows, it’s possible to walk on the wood side of the fence although it will take you longer as the wood is quite thick – until you come to the gate at the corner of the field where three fences come together. You should be able to see the stones by looking along the fence to your right.
From BRITARCH today:
The University of Bristol’s Department of Archaeology & Anthropology is
delighted to announce that it will be hosting an entire weekend of rock art
symposia this coming May.
- Saturday May 6: 3rd Bi-Annual Rock Art Symposium at the University of
Bristol
- Sunday May 7: British Rock Art Group Symposium
More details about both symposia, including how to enrol, can be found by
clicking on this weblink: bris.ac.uk/archanth/continuing/conf
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.
Dunruchan B with Dunruchan A visible on the horizon
Image credit: Andy Sweet
Dunruchan B with Dunruchan A just visible on the horizon
Image credit: Andy Sweet
the plaque in front of the stone
Image credit: Andy Sweet
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.
