Close to Bernera Bridge Circle (see Access notes for that site).
A good spot to view these stones from (if you can mentally block out the bridge!)
Visited 1 August 2004
greywether
First a pedantic point. Ron Curtis, writing in 1988, dismissed any idea of this being a circular setting. Neither a full circle with half fallen into the water nor a semi-circle by design. His views were based on the position of the stone hole of the easterly of the two N stones relative to the holes for the other two large stones. This stone hole was established prior to re-erecting the stone.
Also, there is a small stub of a stone just over the fence to the E which is aligned E/W but would be N/S if it were part of a circle. It can best be described as a group of standing stones all facing roughly S looking over to what is now mainland Lewis.
If anything, this makes the site more interesting. The stones are located just below a wide level ridge of ground and, if they were meant to be visible markers, this would have been a more obvious location for them.
In their current location, clinging to the hillside, they are much less visible. So it must have been important to place them precisely there.
Astronomical? Well I can’t comment, but what I’ve read for this site sounds less convincing than the theories put forward elsewhere.
Access Information layby on right over bridge. Short, steep climb up steps to the site.
Visited 1 August 2004
Can only add to the praise already heaped on this site. I think it was the 360 degree view that did it for me.
Or maybe it was coming here after Callanish, Cnoc Ceann a’Gharraidh and Cnoc Fillibhir Bheag, looking back over the whole landscape and becoming even more aware of the linkages between the sites. Breathtaking.
Looks like access has recently been improved too. There is now a raised wooden walkway from the road and a kissing-gate at the fence.
Visited 30 July 2004
Headed for here after Airigh nam Bidearan. One barbed-wire fence to cross.
You need to aim for the modern cairn but, once there, we found it difficult to identify which stones were supposed to be the site.
You need an eight-figure grid reference for this and Canmore gives only six. There are lots of stones in the area that could be taken for fallen stones but are natural.
We quickly began to wonder why we were bothering with such a dubious and elusive site. I took a couple of photos (none of which is convincing) and left quickly.
Visited 1 August 2004
We visited this (or tried to) on the way to Airigh nam Bidearan and Druim nam Bidearan.
The problem in viewing the site is that, as stated in Canmore, an estate road now runs through it and it has subsequently been widened.
Also Canmore (unusually) gives no more than a six-figure grid reference – not accurate enough to know if you are in the right area of whatever remains.
What I can say is that, on the right as you ascend the estate road, a small excavation has been carried out by the side of the road near the (reconstructed?) beehive house. You can still see the pegs for laying out the grid. What looked like a back wall was all that was exposed.
Nothing in Canmore about this but it seems to be adding confirmation to the theory that this site was no more than a kale-yard belonging to the beehive house.
I took a photo of the excavated wall but I’m not going to post it since it has no TMA relevance.
Still worth a walk up this track though even if you are not going to the other sites. Good views over to Ceann Hulavig.
Visited 1 August 2004
Callanish. Once in a Blue Moon
First trip here. Strange that. All these years of megalith spotting but never Callanish. Until now.
Couldn’t manage a southern major standstill but did manage to be here on a blue moon day. Some consolation there, perhaps.
Yesterday was Walkabout. No camera just the guide book and my notes – trying to get to grips with this complex, beautiful site without thinking about it in frame-sized bites.
The weather is even better today. It’s around 6pm and we park at the avenue end waiting for the crowds to thin.
It starts badly with the arrival of a tourist bus at the same spot but they are Americans so are away in about 15 minutes.
I have the place to myself. I keep expecting someone to turn up. No one does. I keep filming. At about 7pm, I call it a day. A perfect day.
As we leave, I try to explain again to Mrs G my theory about how using a digital camera distorts time. She simply smiles that smile. She understands, you see. She had been to Callanish before.
31 July 2004
This site has been the subject of an hour-long TV programme which centred on the presentation of evidence for mummification of the burials in the roundhouses. This is summarised in Miscellaneous below.
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A recurring theme of the Uist postings is the way in which important sites are badly signposted (if at all) and poorly presented.
Perhaps you could argue that this leads to lower visitor numbers which helps with preservation and this site certainly needs all the help it can get.
Excavated out of a sand dune the sides of which are currently restrained by decaying plastic matting, it can only be a short time before windblown sand once again recovers the site – one which has produced a tantalising glimpse of life in late bronze age Britain.
This is not at all a criticism of the excavators who have done an excellent job in partly restoring the site when backfilling it might have been an easier option. Presumably there was just no local money available to make the job a more permanent one.
Strange. You would have thought that mummification is one of the few things that gets the general public interested in prehistory.
Visited 28 July 2004
What does this stone have in common with the Tay Bridge? They were both victims of the great storm
On the last Sabbath day of 1879
Which will be remembered for a very long time
At 5m high, was this the largest standing stone in the Kilmartin area? Now Kilmartin’s Grand Menhir Brisé.
Visited 25 June 2004
I hadn’t planned a return visit to this site. I had simply stopped in the car park to phone home and have a bite to eat before the two hour drive back.
Then I noticed that there was no one at the site (perhaps not unusual at 8.30pm out of season) and, more importantly, the sun was probably in a good position to show up the carvings on the centre stone.
So in I went delaying my departure by about half an hour while I wandered about taking pictures in these near-perfect conditions.
Visited 25 June 2004
Making a return visit to this site was the main reason for scheduling a further visit to Kilmartin as an add-on to the Achnagoul sites. These things are largely determined by the weather and, as it turned out, this resulted in my coming back less than a week since my previous visit.
It is, of course, the rosettes which are the main attraction here and wonderful they are to – deeply carved and visible in any lighting conditions. The main rosette on rock (1) – see Miscellaneous below for numbering – is 30cm wide.
I met Arran and Emma from hengeweb.com at the site and we looked for the other rocks in the forest. We could find only one which we thought was part of rock (2). However, having studied the plan of (2) in more detail, I’m not so sure – it could be part of (3) that we found.
As regards access, I’ve not tried the method described in the link below. I parked at the Carnassarie Castle car park and walked from there. This takes you past the Carnassarie stones to enter the forest at NM834010 on a track which meets up with the forest road described in the link – a short distance before the ruined house.
Visited 25 June 2004
A modest cup and ring marked rock but worth having a look at if you are visiting the Torran standing stone or Dun Toiseach.
Follow the track down from the road at the bend, enter the field via the gate and the rock is on the slope on the right.
Visited 25 June 2004
Finally, I get to the last of the 23 chambered cairns in mid Argyll which I had planned to visit – all but four of them for the first time.
A good one to end with and not before time too as it’s taking longer and longer to cut away the surrounding bracken and then do the trampling down dance.
This Clyde cairn has been cited as bearing more than a passing similarity to Irish court cairns not just because of the U-shaped court but also in the way the divisions between the compartments have been constructed.
From Achnagoul I, enter the forest by the gate in front of that cairn but do not follow the obvious track in the forest as it will take you too far E. You need to head N for about 100m. No obvious track that I could see – even on the way back – but the forest is not too thick and the clearing in which the cairn lies should soon become visible.
Visited 25 June 2004
I had expected this to be a good one but not as good as it turned out to be.
This Clyde cairn with one axial and one lateral chamber is truly megalithic in its construction with massive sidestones and capstone in the axial chamber. It’s one of the few chambered cairns in mainland Scotland where you can actually get inside.
Great location too with views down Loch Fyne.
There is plenty of parking space on the Achnagoul farm road just after you have turned off the main road.
The person I spoke to about access was not the farmer but said that the farmer had no problem with visitors. Useful to know if you turn up and there’s no one about.
Visited 25 June 2004
This site is definitely worth a visit – although, as can be seen from the photos, better to avoid the bracken-growing season. I needed a good 15 minutes on the secateurs before there was any chance of a photo.
Not my first visit but it must be about 20 years since I was here. Much better than I remembered it to be.
Both chambers are well preserved and the SE is a good example of a simple Hebridean Passage Grave. On a good day, there are clear views over to Ben Cruachan.
There is not much room for parking in the village but you can drive up a well-surfaced access road for the houses near the farm and then onto the rough farm track for a few hundred metres after which there is a large area suitable for parking. Ask at the farmhouse from where the site is visible – fenced off in the corner of a field.
Visited 22 June 2004
There’s not much to see here. An impressive cairn with a hollowed out centre and a few enigmatic stones in the SE.
It is, sadly, all that remains of a major passage grave excavated in 1871. An 8m passage from the SE led to a 6m chamber in the centre of the 26m diameter cairn. None of the passage/chamber is now visible apart from a few stones around the passage entrance.
It is, I believe, the most southerly example of the Hebridean style of chambered cairn.
On a single track road but with parking room at the site.
Visited 22 June 2004
Although surrounded on two sides by modern housing, the hills and loch on the other two still give this ruined cairn a pleasant outlook. It’s just a pity that some of the pleasure is destroyed by the litter at the site.
It appears to have a S orientation and to have been housed in a round cairn.
Visited 22 June 2004
A Historic Scotland site with all the usual features: information board, green metal fence and manicured grass.
Due, presumably, to the absence of any signposting, it’s less well known than the other HS cup-and-ring marked rocks in Kilmartin but well worth seeking out.
This was my first visit. On previous visits to Kilmartin it got dropped due to lack of time but this time other sites were dropped to make sure I finally got here.
Park at NR823977 then follow the track SW to the first junction. Turn right. Just before the house at the end, head N over rough ground and the fence soon comes into view.
Visited 22 June 2004
These stones are just “round the corner” from Kintraw.
No views to Jura from here though as higher ground lies to the E, S and W.
There is parking available just to the E of the access track.
Visited 22 June 2004
Although it is the 4m high standing stone which naturally attracts most of the attention here, the cairns are also interesting.
The largest (Cairn A) is 15m diameter and has a number of its kerbstones still visible. There was a false portal in the SW (no longer visible but it can be seen in 1699 sketch posted by Paulus) and in front of that lies a 2.3m recumbent monolith which may be in its original position as no stone hole was found.
A kerb cairn (Cairn B) lies to the SW of Cairn A. It is 7.3m in diameter and its kerbstones are still clearly visible.
There is space to pull off the road at the site and a new metal “kissing gate” has been installed.
Visited 22 June 2004
Having read the previous note, I had expected something of a challenge for the last site of the day. In the end, it was a dawdle – but I was probably lucky.
There is now one of these new cycle path things running through the area (shown on new Landrangers but not on Streetmap) which may help access a little. It doesn’t follow the railway line to the site but it does connect up (further SW) with the old military road which also runs past the site.
I went for the railway embankment option having first parked (as recommended in the previous note, thank you) by the cottages at the N end of Balqhuidder (or Balquhidaer) Station village. The opening can be easily missed but it’s right by the village name sign. It doesn’t look much, but once in the whole of the old road opens up before you.
Yes, I found the large gate and fence – but the gate was not padlocked. This was probably due to there being a clay pigeon shoot off the embankment but you can be sure I checked out the other way in/out over the lower fence just in case it was locked on the way back. (It wasn’t even although the shooters had shot off.)
The site’s not bad. A standard Clyde cairn in average condition. Nothing notable about it apart from the fact that it wasn’t discovered until 1980.
There’s a full description and plan in the link below.
Visited 15 June 2004
I have been meaning to return here to get better pictures for some time but when passing it recently I have been unsure about parking. The Horn Carver threatens to charge £5 for his space.
This time I thought- sod it. I’m going to park there and, if he gives me aggro, I’ll buy one of his disgusting products with the most tines and then personally use it to give him a colonoscopy – or maybe just pay the fiver, if it’s cheaper.
As it turned out – no problem. Well it was 6.30pm.
Visited 15 June 2004
Too grassy to be interesting. Not a stone in sight.
Next!
Visited 15 June 2004
Nothing here to recall ancient architecture or raise the megalithic spirits – it’s all been landscaped away behind a retaining wall and topped with trees.
The remains of a chamber with three tall backstones can be seen along with some further slabs but the overall layout is not at all clear.
Access was a bit confusing at first as Landranger seems to show a road which isn’t there. Anyway park at the Derculich sign and walk up the winding road past the farm to reach the road running NW by the burn. It’s on the right of this road.
Visited 15 June 2004
This Clyde cairn is interesting partly because of its location – at the extreme NE edge of the distribution of these cairns – and partly because of its layout. No axial chambers, a facade on the SE lateral chamber and a SE orientation (if that can be determined by the wider end).
These all point to a long cairn being added to a series of earlier small round cairns. Something found at other sites but probably not noticed here at the 1954 excavation since that was long before it became fashionable to look for multi-period sites.
Because of my later-than-planned start to the day, I had debated whether I should do the 6km walk or should I ignore the notices and just drive up. I decided to walk but I arrived at the gate at the same time as a garage breakdown truck on a call who gave me a lift. As luck would have it, I had just finished when he was on the return trip so I also got a lift back. Lix Motors – take a bow. Got me back on schedule.
Visited 15 June 2004
Clyde tomb probably. Definitely one for the enthusiasts only.
Remains of a two-compartment chamber with tall backstone and prominent sillstone. That’s it!
Take the track S at NN894235 and park immediately inside the gates – room for one car only. Follow the footpath from here W to the cairn. May be obscured by tall bracken – it was certainly getting that way today.
Visited 15 June 2004
A short long cairn (pardon?) – with good views of the surrounding area.
Open access thanks to Dumfries and Galloway’s Archaeosights scheme.
Visited 7 May 2004
Completely underwhelming chambered cairn situated above the Tulloch Burn.
The chamber exposed on excavation can hardly be seen now and the cairn is now largely grass-covered.
Access is easy though. It’s just off a Right of Way. Parking difficult if approaching from nearest road on E.
Visited 7 May 2004
An ok chambered cairn and a ruined stone circle once surrounded by forest but now cleared on two sides.
The cairn, which sits on the 300m contour, has the distinction of being the highest in S Scotland – possibly in all of Scotland.
Rather than follow the complex and uphill forest road approach from the S, I decided to go in from the minor road on the N where the altitude is about the same as the cairn.
Park at the cattle grid at the regional boundary then follow the boundary line down to the forest. (Not as daft as it sounds – it’s marked by a fence.)
Head E to where the forest has been cleared then SE to the corner of the remaining plantation. Heavy going.
Visited 20 May 2004
A long cairn situated on a Right of Way route to Beattock.
In forestry. Not too closely planted but views obscured. Around 260m OD.
Take the minor road W at St Ann’s bridge and follow the signs to Minnygap. Plenty of parking space. Easy going forest road for first half then rougher ground.
Visited 20 May 2004
A Clyde cairn in a fairly average state of preservation and with a non-typical SE orientation.
One tall portal stands guard over a long but ruined chamber.
Park at the bridge. One fence, some marshy ground.
Visited 29 April 2004
Whoever chose to bury their dead here had a good eye for location. This could be the best-located chambered cairn in Scotland.
Sitting on the 110m contour above Loch Awe, the E end of the cairn faces the Cruachan Hills.
No surviving chamber at the E though but this area has been disturbed by later building and there are some orthostat-like stones lying around.
There is a good chamber at the W end with most of its feature still visible.
Great spot. Took far too many photos and left reluctantly.
Park just N of the hotel. Take the track opposite N first then follow the telegraph wires to the wall. Climb the wall and continue on that line up hill. Steep but short.
Visited 29 April 2004
No, there’s not a lot to see here.
But, given that it’s on the way to the much better Port Sonachan and Ardchonnell, it’s by the roadside and the parking is easy, it’s worth a short stop.
Visited 29 April 2004
What a splendid site this is!
First, credit is due to the Forestry Commission. Often criticised in these postings for their close-planting policy, this is an example of how it should be done.
There is some planting to the N but it is kept well clear of the site and 360 degree views have been maintained. Indeed, it looks like the older, pre-forestry trees around the cairn have been felled to open up the site.
The cairn area has then been enclosed in a deer fence with a stile put in for access.
Then there is the site itself.
You come to expect sites to be either cairns with no chambers visible or chambers with little or no cairn material – certainly none above chamber height.
This one has both. A cairn so well preserved that you can still feel under your feet the outline of the horns at one end. And it’s not covered in vegetation.
Plus a chamber still well preserved and roofed at its inner end. Accessible enough to shelter from a shower – as I can testify.
Later, sitting having my lunch, I had a thought.
If this were a stone circle in a comparable state of preservation, lots of people would visit it. Because it’s a chambered cairn it probably gets very few visitors. Perhaps I should be grateful for that.
Easy access but with a high stile to climb at the end.
Visited 29 April 2004
I’ll bet there are a few hits at this site to see what’s going on.
Nelson’s Monument?
OK. Its current location is not its original one. It was taken in 1805 from a site 1.6 km north where it was one of a number of similar stones in the field giving it a very probable prehistoric provenance.
It is now inscribed with a dedication to Nelson from the workers at Lorn Furnace.
It is a majestic piece of granite set, in its present elevated position, in a wonderful location against a backdrop of the surrounding hills.
3.4m high.
Visited 29 April 2004
This stone is 2.8m high.
You don’t need to pay to get into the castle to see it. It’s on the approach to the castle.
Visited 29 April 2004
This round Clyde cairn is near Lephinkill but is even less worth a visit than its neighbour.
Although it sits in a clearing in the forest, there is, as far as I could see, no attempt at leaving an access route. To visit it, you need a GPS and attitude.
Visited 10 May 2004
Not much at this cairn to justify the steep climb up to it.
The V-shaped forecourt is still visible but the sidestones of the chamber have fallen inwards.
For the hardy, park in Clachan of Glendaruel then follow the N bank of the stream which passes the cairn. The forest section of this had been indicated on my visit by flourescent orange markers.
Visited 10 May 2004
This is certainly the most remote chambered cairn on Bute and there is nothing especially great about it. Indeed, a large part of the floor plan is obscured by vegetation.
My way in was perhaps not the most obvious but it was determined by the weather. On a glorious day, by taking the track to the viewpoint at Scalpsie Bay and continuing N along the wide ridge, I was able to enjoy views E and W of Bute for most of the trip.
Visited 10 May 2004
As promised, I’m back.
In the short time since my last visit, new access and a waymarked path have been put in.
And it was a better site than my reading had led me to expect. Not really overgrown at all.
The length of the cairn is perhaps the most impressive feature of the site but the three chambers still hold interest.
Visited 10 May 2004
See the directions from Dunan Mor.
A long Clyde cairn with two axial chambers and a standing stone nearby.
Also very overgrown. Definitely a site for the winter months.
Visited 23 May 2004
This is one of two chambered cairns on a forest walk.
This is the one you come to first – known as Dunan Mor. An easily-missed arrow on a post points the way to the lower Dunan Beag.
Covered in vegetation which is a pity because the round cairn covers an unusual arrangement of three chambers in a Y-shaped layout. The SE chamber is the most visible.
Visited 23 May 2004
This is nice.
No cairn left but a good megalithic chamber with well-defined septal stones dividing the compartments.
If you poke around in the bracken you will find the fallen tall portal stones and the facade stones.
The main chamber faces NE and the remains of a second chamber lie to the SW.
Don’t be fooled by Landranger into thinking that a path runs by this with nearby access from the road. There is no path.
To reach the site, walk to the S end of the forest on the opposite side of the road and then follow the fence line E. There is parking at the forest.
Best visited outside the bracken-growing season.
Visited 23 May 2004
This modest Clyde cairn is much more interesting than the nearby Moss Farm but, because it is surrounded by bracken most of the year with nothing visible above ground, it is probably less visited.
Visited 23 May 2004
This very ruined Clyde cairn is passed on the track to Machrie Moor.
Only three stones remain, the most visible being a standing stone 1.8m high which is probably a portal stone to a chamber facing W.
The other two stones are a likely chamber sidestone and a facade stone to the S.
Visited 23 May 2004
Double court tombs are my favourite Irish megaliths and this splendid example sits at around 130m OD with wide views in all directions.
The NE court is the better preserved right down to the kerbing edging the cairn.
The SW end would be close enough to the symmetrical other half were it not for a half dozen or so stones at the extreme end (where the court would be) which resemble the remains of another gallery. The enigma only adds to the interest.
Easy access. Off a narrow road but there is room to park one car. Follow the track up to and beyond the ruined house.
Visited 31 May 2004
Seven stones remain standing of this 20m diameter circle and those in the SE are largely concealed by field clearance.
The best bit of the circle is the four stones standing up to 2m high in the NW quadrant.
Visited 30 May 2004
There are a number of rock art sites on Doagh Island (Magheranaul Townland) but they were rather difficult to find.
You can find the rocks where you would expect the rock art to be but many were only partly visible through the turf. Light turf clearing showed the extent of the cover was more than I was prepared to deal with.
However, I did find one interesting motif. A cup with a tail surrounded by other radiating lines (at C4322849720 on the GPS) and another probable motif some 5 – 10m to the W of it.
Also looked at some rocks in the area around C426500 which are recorded as containing rock art. One at C4281849955 looked a possible candidate but was heavily weathered if it contained anything at all. In the flat light of the day, the photos taken here do not reveal anything.
Visited 30 May 2004
Perhaps it was because this was the last site on a long day or perhaps it was because of the moss which now partly conceals the carvings. Either way, it took me quite a while to locate the site even once I was in the right area and using an 8-figure grid reference on a GPS!
If you’re coming from Kilchoan, follow the path opposite the gate to the field down the side of the house and through the woods. When you emerge from the woods in front of the ruined Poltalloch House, follow the metal fence to your right until it joins up with a similar metal fence in the field. The carvings are just at the join on the right.
Visited 12 May 2004
This is a fascinating site – if you can turn a blind eye to the muddy mess in which it stands.
For a start, all the structural stuff (capstones, lintels etc) are here even if they have moved a bit.
Also interesting is the layout (high portal stones running parallel to the chamber, no facade) which point to this being an example of an early Clyde cairn.
Best visited on a dry day!
Visited 12 May 2004