

The only Standing stone on the cairn. This stone is on the east side next to the small road up to the village.Please be careful when parking.
ActionMan measures the eastern cup-mark on the decorated split stone.
The poem below is part of an anthology of poetry from Perthshire. The poem gives you a hint at the mystery of a site passed and ignored by so many people on the journey to work every day.Good to know that at least one soul has taken the time to stop and ponder this place that sits within 10 yards of the busy main Crieff – Perth road.
The Burial Mound at Fowlis Wester
It’s easy to wait here, the wind blowing through
The branches of the elms still my heart
I came in uninvited although that was not strictly true
My troubles asked me to come here & be with them
They who built this they knew how to honour
The dead but now in life I circle it
Round clockwise a couple of times
Once for the rain and twice for those other hands
I would like to read the stone but they won’t
Show me their language instead I read
The trees & one of them tells me that
In 1896 John Martin carved out his name
I wonder if like me he held his breath
& let the time turn to sunlight
Some startled crows get even more startled
As the traffic rolls but not these thought
Which cluster in this circle & the rabbits who
Burrow here do they understand time
& does it hold them as it does me
A beguiling set of stones traveling to our deepest
Distance the gods of their flight are worried
About strange concessions & I am jealous
Of them & what they have seen because
I am part of a river here in strathearn & I am flowing
From one silence to another & make no mark
I have no stones I just watch the shochards
Bringing in spring I say my farewells
I get my bus & I’m back in the river.
George Dunn