George Currie and I mapped out this circle with a tape measure and compass the other week, and I've drawn a plan for it. As you can see from my plan above, this is a much disturbed site, but when you are standing there the circles are much more obvious. There appears to be a circle of diameter approx. 25m which is the clearest, but there may also be the remains of a smaller one around the 14 or 15m mark inside it. We also saw what might possibly be the remains of two outer rings as well. We also spotted what looks very suspiciously like a pair of cairns that have been flattened by forestry machinery.
Looking at the plan, you can see that stones A, B, C and G are all the same distance from the central stone, and are equally spaced out 30 degrees from each other (G is 60 degrees from C, but it looks like E has been shifted from its original position halfway between G and C) which would suggest that they are close to their original positions in an original circle of 12 stones. However, there is a definite lack of stones to the E. Just over a metre from the central cup-marked stone is another large stone, and this is exactly due E - could there be some significance to this? Who knows? (I don't!)
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The stone circle at Machuim is in quite a ruinous state, but nonetheless has an impressive feel to it. With a look more akin to the circles of Aberdeenshire than Perthshire, it is made up of several large stones crowning a round mound protruding from a long natural ridge across the field. It has previously been listed wrongly by writers as Machulm or Machuinn.
Only four stones remain standing, while there are a further three that look as though they once stood. The earth mound on which they stand is approximately 10.0m in diameter, and on its SE side reaches a height of 1.0m above the field surface. Some field clearance material has been placed within the circle, but there is also a circle of kerb stones around the base of the mound.
Although the condition of the circle is quite sad, it enjoys a position on the lower slopes of Ben Lawers, which rises impressively behind it, affording good views across Loch Tay to the hills on the other side.
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This stone, to the SE of Woodend Cottage, stands just back from the main road on a slight bank. Although it is in amongst trees and bushes, it is easy to spot, but wasn't always so. Coles visited here in 1908 and couldn't find the stone, suggesting perhaps that the undergrowth was more overgrown back then.
Irregular in shape but with a flat N side, it has a triangular feel to it, although not as much as it's near neighbour the Croft House stone. These two stones should perhaps be more properly thought of as a pair of stones rather than two individual ones. They are aligned NW-SE at a distance of approximately 400m from each other. As with other pairs of stones in Perthshire, this stone has a flat side, while the Croft House stone is a more rounded shape.
The stone leans to the N, while its top appears to point W to the summit of Ben Vrackie, visible rising over the horizon.
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This stone, across the road from the Tulloch B&B, stands on a grassy bank on the edge of a plantation, close to the main road.
Roughly triangular at the base, it rises to a rounded point at the top. One of the points of this triangle appears to point towards the summit of Ben Vrackie in the distance to the W.
The Croft House stone should perhaps be more properly thought of as one of a pair of stones with it's near neighbour Enochdhu. They are aligned NW-SE at a distance of approximately 400m from one other. As with other pairs of stones in Perthshire, this stone has a rounded shape to it, while the Enochdhu stone has an almost slab-like flat side.
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This cup-marked stone lies on top of a cairn in a field full of interesting things - nearby is a cup-marked stone, a long cairn, a medieval moated site (once thought to be a Roman camp) and a pair of standing stones.
The cairn was excavated in 1884, and found to consist of a pile of small stones overlaid with earth to a diameter of around 9m. Close to the base of the cairn, and S of the centre, fragments of human bone were found underneath two small flagstones. The cairn has a flat top to it, which is 5.50m in diameter, and rises to a height of 0.75m. Around the central cairn is a ditch which varies in width from 2.75m to 4.20m, and is 0.70m deep. Around this is a low bank 0.90m wide.
The stone lies on the cairn's flat top, but it is believed that it once stood upright here. On it's W side are 9 large cup-marks, while there is a further single cup-mark on it's N end. It has been mistakenly reported that in 1838, this stone was actually close to the two Bridge of Lyon stones. However it appears that this is as a result of some confusion, as the New Statistical Account actually describes the Bridge of Lyon stones as "two obelisks, the one about 6 feet high: the other lying on the ground, having been undermined some fifty or eighty years ago".
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Clach a' Phlaigh, or the Plague Stone, stands on top of Carn na Marbh, and is said to commemorate the plague victims who were buried here in the 14th century. A tablet on the stone is inscribed with the words:
"Here lie the victims of the Great Plague of the 14th Century, taken here on a sledge drawn by a white horse led by an old woman".
However, just as there is a belief that the mound is a barrow which was re-used, Clach a'Phlaigh may well be a genuine standing stone. If this is the case, there is another similar site nearby - the Bridge of Lyon cairn - which is also made up of a mound topped with a standing stone.
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This pair of stones are just one part of an interesting area on the banks of the River Lyon. Close by is a cup-marked stone, a long cairn, a medieval moated site (once thought to be a Roman camp) and a round cairn topped with a cup-marked standing stone.
Only one stone now stands, while 5m to the NE the second is partly buried, with only a metre of it visible. In 1838, the cup-marked stone which now lies on top of the nearby Lyon Bridge round cairn (supposedly Pontius Pilate's grave!) was actually close to these two stones, having apparently fallen at the end of the 18th century. This has led to suggestions this might be the remains of a four-poster.
However, the same cup-marked stone is supposed to have stood upright on the cairn on which it now lies, and the New Statistical Account actually says "two obelisks, the one about 6 feet high: the other lying on the ground, having been undermined some fifty or eighty years ago". This makes me think that perhaps the half-buried stone might be cup-marked on one of its buried faces, and that it was confused with the stone on the cairn which did once stand there.
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Just inside the gateway to Taymouth Castle, on a (natural) raised piece of ground beside the driveway, are the two Newhall Bridge standing stones. Both stones have been worked, with their inner faces having been smoothed down.
Seperated by a distance of 16m, they are aligned NW-SE, which would seem to discount the theory that they might once have formed part of a circle. As with other Perthshire "two-posters", one stone (the NW) is slab-like, while the other (the SE) is more square at the base.
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This crannog is in Acharn Bay, just W of Acharn village, and measures 42m from NE to SW, and up to 26m across. A possible landing point has been identified on the SW end. Timbers on the loch-bed to the N of the crannog may be associated.
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The Cuigeal-Mairi crannog is now submerged, except at times of low water, and as such is marked with a pole. Made of stones, it measures 30m in diameter, and is due W (on the opposite shore) from the Crannog Centre, and due N from Acharn.
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This is a stone-built crannog close to the SW shore of Loch Freuchie, not far from Glenquaich Lodge. It rises to a height of 1.8m out of the water, and measures 33m E to W by 17m across. It has been planted with conifers.
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Eliean nam Faoileag is a crannog made entirely of stones, built on a sand bank base. It measures 17m in length from N to S, and 10m across, although it used to be much bigger - in the last 30 years the level of Loch Rannoch has been raised about 2m. The sand bank curves round from the crannog and connects to the S shore of the loch, and before the loch level rose, was about 1.2m under the surface.
At some point in the past there was supposed to have been a small prison on the crannog, belonging to the Robertsons of Struan. The present tower is said to be a facsimile of the prison, built by a Baron Granbley in the 19th century.
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This impressively large stone stands 90m to the NW of the cairn circle variously known as Sma' Glen or Giant's Grave. The stone itself seems to be named the Giant's Grave, but on the 1867 OS map it is called Clach Ossian. What is now called Clach Ossian is a couple of kilometres further up the glen, however, there appears to have been some confusion regarding these names over the years. Clach Ossian, Giant's Grave and Soldier's Grave all seem to have been used by different writers and historians for different sites, and seem almost interchangeable. The names Clach Ossian and Giant's Grave are supposed to relate to Ossian, while the name Soldier's Grave is supposed to represent the grave of one of Wade's road builders. Given the confusion writers seem to have had in the past identifying these sites correctly, who knows what the correct name for this stone is.
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I saw this one on CANMORE when I was compiling my definitive list of Perthshire stones, and they had it down as a cup-marked rock with a possible stone circle:
http://www.rcahms.gov.uk/canmore/details_gis?inumlink=25168
Well there's no possible about it, this is definitely a circle! The stone at the centre measures 1.7m x 2.0m across it's top, and is between 0.7m and 0.9m high, depending which end you measure at. The upper surface is profusely decorated with many weathered cup-marks. CANMORE says at least 28, but I could only count 15 or 16 clearly.
Around this stone is a ring of 10 stones, with a circle diameter of about 18m (I was measuring with my feet, so it's not exact!). These stones appear to be equally-spaced from each other at a distance of about 4m. There are a few other stones lying about which may or may not have formed part of the circle, but it's difficult to tell exactly what's what as there are trees growing all over the place (which is what you'd expect in a forestry plantation I suppose), and the stones have a considerable amount of moss and grass on them. Nevertheless, this site is still well worth a visit, as it has a good feel to it.This post appears as part of the blog post " A round trip on 2 wheels from Garry Bridge" |
The stones of the Acharn Falls circle are arguably the best-positioned in Perthshire. Standing at a height of 378m above sea-level, the site commands breath-taking views across Loch Tay towards Ben Lawers and Schiehallion. Apparently formerly within a plantation, the stones now stand out in the open, and even a dry-stane dyke bisecting the circle doesn't diminish it's impressiveness.
A much disturbed site, of the original nine stones, four are still upright, while two others lie close to their original positions. Amongst debris from the dyke are what look like the broken-up remains of the missing three stones.
Excavation in 1924 revealed a shallow patch, around 0.60m square, of burnt earth, charcoal and calcined bones. Around this the soil was red in colour, which Burl suggests is where a pyre once burned.
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In a field just to the E of the picturesque village of Fortingall, on the banks of the River Lyon, stand three groups of standing stones. Closest to the road are a group of four stones (NE) and a group of three stones (SW), while further into the field, closer to the river, is another group of three (S). All are water-worn, smooth, rounded boulders.
In 1970, the two settings closest to the road (NE & SW) were excavated by archaeologists from Leicester University including Aubrey Burl. It was found that both had been four-poster variants, each comprising of four large stones at the corners of a rectangle, with four smaller stones mid-way between the larger ones. In both cases, the missing five stones had been pushed over and buried deeply in prepared pits at some point in the nineteenth century. The date is known as one of the stones was found to have a Victorian beer bottle under it.
Excavation showed that the SW circle originally had a floor of tiny pebbles within it, and stones of quartz were found by the SSW stone. To the SW of the circle part of an Iron Age jet ring was found. At the centre of the NE circle, a burnt patch containing pieces of charcoal and cremated bone was found.
The S setting wasn't subjected to a full excavation in 1970, but an exploratory excavation at the time revealed a stone hole 4.6m to the NW of the W stone, suggesting a circle of 14.6m in diameter. The three remaining stones stand in an almost straight line aligned SE-NW, but taking into account the stone hole, it would appear that this is the remains of an Aberdeenshire-style recumbent stone circle rather than a stone row or four-poster variant like it's neighbours.
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Shianbank NW is at NO 1555 2730
Shianbank SE is at NO 1556 2729
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This standing stone stands to the north-west of the Monzie stone circle, linked by the castle drive which meanders in an S-shape between these ancient monuments. In 1936 the stone stood "in the middle of a causeway 6 yds wide, like a Roman road" but there is no visible evidence of this now. Also disappeared is a possible barrow immediately the to the south-east of the stone, which has presumably been ploughed away. The stone leans heavily to the north, away from Kate McNieven's Craig which points towards the Witches' Stone from the Knock of Crieff.
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This stone measures 2.5m by 1.5m, and is a prostrate outlier of the Monzie circle. It was connected to the circle (3m away) by a rough cobbled causeway. On the stone's upper surface are around 60 cup marks, some up to 40mm deep. Many of them have rings, some as many as 4, measuring up to 400mm in diameter. There is also a carved dumbell.
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Variously described as a stone circle, cairn circle, kerb cairn and kerb circle, this circle consists of ten stones, although legend has it that it's impossible to count all of them. A short distance to the south-west is a large prostrate outlier, profusely decorated with cup-marks, cup-and-ring-markings and a dumbell. This stone was found to be connected to the circle by a causeway (3.4m long by 1.0m wide) of stone cobbles.
The south-east stone in the circle also features cup-marks, cup-and-ring-markings and dumbells. There is a gap in the circle at the south-east which suggests there may have been as many as 15 stones originally. At the west-south-west, the three largest stones are arranged close together.
Excavation in 1938 revealed much about the centre of the circle. Evidence of extensive burning by a hazelwood fire was found, and in an upper layer possible Early Iron Age pottery was uncovered. Further down, sited "eccentrically" near the centre of the circle, was a crude cist containing the cremated remains of an adult and a six year old child and fragments of quartz. Quartz was also found scattered around the stones.
The best time of year to visit would probably be autumn or winter, as the area around the circle is left thick with nettles and weeds during the summer months.
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Hi!
I'm a freelance eyewear designer in Edinburgh, exiled from my beloved Perthshire. I also run a website which includes a section on Scotland's many standing stones, stone circles and other old things:
Stravaiging around Scotland
Some things I like:
cake
ale
music
Perthshire
Moscow
You can read more of my ramblings here: http://www.stravaiging.com
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