Standing Stone: OS Grid Reference – NN 78732 19579
Also Known as:
- Canmore ID 24795
- Roman Stone
The Auchingarroch stone
Take the B827 road south out of Comrie as if you’re heading towards Braco, and after a mile or so, as you start going uphill, turn left to go to the Wildlife Centre. Go along the track and park up at the buildings. The monolith is round the back of the first building (ask at the Centre, where the people there are very helpful).
Archaeology & History
F. Coles 19l1 sketch
Shown on the earliest Ordnance Survey map of the region as one of several ‘Roman Stone’ sites, this prehistoric upright is similar in size and feel to the other standing stones in the highly impressive Dunruchan complex close by. The big fella stands on a raised piece of ground more than 8½ feet tall and, said Fred Coles (1911) has “a basal girth of 12ft 8ins.” Quite a big stone! A dubious large cup-mark is visible on the thin western face and three faint ones on its east.
The monolith is surrounded all along the southern landscape arc with forested moorland and low mountains, with the primary extended views reaching mainly into the north and western arc. Although a rounded hillock immediately southwest of the stone looks promising, no calendrical or astronomical alignments have been found here.
Folklore
Auchingarroch, looking SW
As with the other standing stones in this region, legend ascribes it as marking the resting place of a Roman soldier who fell in a great battle close by with our local heathens, in what was known as “battle of Mons Grampius.”
References:
- Coles, F.R., “Report on stone circles in Perthshire principally Strathearn,” in Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries, Scotland, volume 45, 1911.
- Finlayson, Andrew, The Stones of Strathearn, One Tree Island: Comrie 2010.
- Hunter, John, Chronicles of Strathearn, David Phillips: Crieff 1896.
Acknowledgements: Thanks to Paul Hornby for the journey here; and more especially a different sorta thanks to Linzi Mitchell for her influence whilst the site profile of this megalithic erection was being written. Who sez that men can’t do two things at the same time?!
© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian
