Ian Murray

This little group of stones is sublimely placed, as they stand at the end of a tongue of raised land which is surrounded by low lying ground on three sides, and to its north by an ox-bow lake; which is the remnants of the ancient position of the Almond river. It must have been a commanding and secure site in the past. Alignment here is NE-SW for the upright stone, and with the recumbent stone and smaller outlier 50 yds away at edge of present field. Length of upright 51 in, breadth 16in and depth 14in. No cup marks seen. The recumbent stone next to it is very interesting in that it has an X mark on it which appears to be natural white quartz. I would name it the Saltire stone, and who knows what inspiration it has had over the millennia... L 51in, W 28in, H 11in.

The middle stone of a group of 3 in this area is 44in high, with a breadth of 18in at base, tapering to 12in at its top. It has been worked to a four-sided shape and aligns to the cardinal points on the compass. Cup marks are all sub-1in in size and the E face has one, while the N face has four in a line. Views to the S and E are extensive and overlook the probable position of the river Almond several thousand years ago. The rivers present position is about a thousand yards to the south.

The eastern stone of a group of three in this area. It leans to the south and downslope at quite an angle, is four-sided and not loose despite obvious rub marks. It’s four feet in length, with a breadth of 16 in and depth of 11 in, with height from top to ground of 40 in. It aligns NSEW with 27 small cup marks mainly on the North face and one on the east face.(They may be caused by minerals leeching from the stone, but I ain’t no geologist...) The stones in this group are all four sided which may mean that they’re more recent, however, this area is full of energy and bears all the hallmarks of the sacred landscape.

Apart from the other two sites close by, I came across evidence of stones which had been dynamited into oblivion sometime in the past and an alignment of eight stones which may be significant.
If visiting, please be aware that this land is private and is used for shooting between October and February. The gamekeeper was friendly however and although he didn’t know anything about the stones was ok about visits as long as people called at Lyndoch house on the way up.

Ian