Druidsfield (02), Lochearnhead, Perthshire

Cup-Marked Stone:  OS Grid Reference – NN 58759 23087

Also Known as:

  1. The Druidsfield 2 cup-marked stone
    The Druidsfield 2 stone

    Canmore ID 24126

Getting Here

Follow the same directions as if you’re going to the much overgrown, earthfast Druidsfield 01 carving. Adjacent is an upstanding block of large rock, right next to which is the flat surface of this Druidsfield 2 carving. If it’s overgrown, rummage around. You can’t miss it!

Archaeology & History

This carving and its compatriots have almost been forgotten about it seems.  Buried beneath rolls of vegetation, this long flat rock covered in cup-markings seems to have played a part in some larger megalithic structure—but whatever it was is difficult to work out.  As you walk around the place it gives the distinct impression that some form of tomb was once in evidence, which may have been the case.  The Scottish archaeology giant Audrey Henshall is said to have found no evidence of a chambered tomb, but this may have been something smaller, less impressive.

When Mr Haggart (1888) wrote about this carving, he too thought that the carvings had been part of a tomb—this being the horizontal surface at the bottom.  He wrote that,

“the one forming the floor area of the dolmen being a square-shaped boulder of diorite, having fifty cups, varying from three and a half inches to an inch in diameter, the outlines of which look as fresh as if chiselled a year or two ago.”

The main cluster of cups
The main cluster of cups

This indicates it had only recently been uncovered.  There are lots of other archaeological remains scattered all round here, from different periods of history; but the other Druidsfield 1 and 3 carvings are found right next to each other, indicating this very spot was some site of neolithic or Bronze Age importance.  An accurate excavation of the site and the adjacent Druids Circle would be worthwhile.  I counted at least 44 cups on this rock when we visited last week, many of which are still quite clear.

The most recent Royal Commission (1979) briefing of the stone added nothing of relevance. They listed the site but it seems they never visited the place.

The portable bullaun-like deep-cut rock known as the Druid’s Stone is kept in private grounds nearby.  When members of Scottish heritage came to visit an adjacent site a few years ago, the lady of the house told how they walked right past it without giving it any notice. “They didn’t even see it under their noses,” she said.  Nowt new there!

Folklore

The carvings here were said by one of the locals to have been part of a “druid’s circle, which we played in as children, and were always told had been a special place of the druids in ancient times.”

References:

  1.  Coles, F.R., “Report on stone circles in Perthshire principally Strathearn,” in Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries, Scotland, volume 45, 1911.
  2. Haggart, D., “Notice of the discovery of a stone cup and cup-marked stones at Lochearnhead,” in Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries, Scotland, volume 22, 1888.
  3. Royal Commission on the Ancient & Historical Monuments of Scotland, Archaeological Sites and Monuments of Stirling District, Central Region, Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 1979.

Acknowledgements – Huge thanks to Messr Paul Hornby for help and use of his photos.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Druidsfield (01), Lochearnhead, Perthshire

Cup-Marked Stone:  OS Grid Reference – NN 58761 23087

Also Known as:

  1. Canmore ID 24126

Getting Here

Druidsfield Cup-Marked Stone
Druidsfield Cup-Marked Stone

From Lochearnhead village going south along the main A84 road to Callander or Stirling, take the very last road on the right just as you’re going out of the village, up o Craggan and park up by St. Angus’ Church. Walk back down onto the A84, turning right and walk along for 100 yards. Then go back up into a boggy field, where you’ll notice some walling above you. Head to the top right of this, up to the edge of a garden. Hereby is a cluster of rocks in a jumble. That’s your spot!

Archaeology & History

Cup-marks along the edge and bottom of the stone
Cup-marks along the edge and bottom of the stone

This takes a bit of finding in the undergrowth and is best checked out at the end of Winter.  Once overgrown it truly takes some finding.  But beneath the vegetation is a slender earthfast rock with a long ridge, a little bit like a spine, running from one end of the stone to the other.  Along this topmost spinal column we find a cluster of ten cup-markings, getting smaller in size the further along the spine we travel.  It’s a curious feature.  At the widest end of the rock where the widest and deepest cup-marks occur, another four cups have been etched into the northeastern sloping face below the largest cups.

When we came here, the sunlight was blocked by the surrounding trees, so we were unable to see if other elements had been carved onto the stone.  It is found in conjunction with two other rocks—Druidsfield 2 and 3 carvings—right next to each other, with designs of quite different visual structures, seemingly unconnected in any linear sense.  There also seemed to be a possibility that this was once part of a prehistoric tomb.  Later we found that both D. Haggart (1888) and Fred Coles (1911) had made similar comments, with Haggart specifically telling there to have been a collapsed tomb here in the 19th century.  He may have been right.  Extensive walled structures abound hereby−including one which old locals told us were remains of a Druid’s Circle, which we found close by.

Folklore

The carvings here were said by one of the locals to have been part of a “druid’s circle, which we played in as children, and were always told had been a special place of the druids in ancient times.”

References:

  1.  Coles, F.R., “Report on stone circles in Perthshire principally Strathearn,” in Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries, Scotland, volume 45, 1911.
  2. Haggart, D., “Notice of the discovery of a stone cup and cup-marked stones at Lochearnhead,” in Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries, Scotland, volume 22, 1888.

Acknowledgements – Huge thanks to Messr Paul Hornby for help and use of his photos.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Dalchirla (east), Muthill, Perthshire

Standing Stones:  OS Grid Reference NN 82446 15893

Also Known as:

  1. Canmore ID 25355

Getting Here

Dalchira's standing stones
Dalchira’s standing stones

Along the A822 road between Crieff and Muthill, take the small western country lane just as you’re coming out of Muthill. Nearly 2 miles on, take the turn to the right, and then 100 yards or so from there turn sharp left. Keep along this country lane for about a mile till you reach the third track on your left.  Walk down the track and you’ll see the standing stones in the field on your left. A gate into the field is by the house.

Archaeology & History

A fascinating pair of relatively large standing stones 317 yards (289.5m) SSE of the tall singular monolith of Dalchira North in the adjacent field.  Traditionally said to have once been part of s stone circle, it was marked as such when the Ordnance Survey lads came here in 1863, but there is very little evidence of such a megalithic ring today—and even the small stone lying in between the two uprights is probably a more recent addition to the site.  It certainly wasn’t mentioned by Fred Coles (1911) when he came here, who gave only a brief description of the place.

Dalchira East & the skyline notch of Lurgan Hill
Dalchira East & the skyline notch of Lurgan Hill
Dalchira, looking east
Dalchira, looking east

The stones were included in Margaret Stewart’s (1968) list of megalithic pairings as measuring 7ft 6in x 4ft 3in x 2ft and 4ft 3in x 3ft 6in x 1ft respectively, and 8ft apart.  There is a small stone laid down in between them which has cup-marks on it, but these indentations are natural nodules in conglomerate rock.  But the measurements and angles of Dalchira East were examined by the late great Alexander Thom (1967; 1990) who thought they had been positioned specifically to observe and predict lunar movements across the sky, saying that the alignment of these stones “shows the declination of the Moon rising at the minor standstill.”  He may have been right.

Thom's geometry of Dalchirla
Thom’s geometry of Dalchirla

In Aubrey Burl’s notes to Thom (1990) he told that the size and shapes of these stones “have been interpreted as anthropomorphic, the taller, or alternatively the more pointed , usually at the west, being the male, the lower or flat-topped he female.” He subsequently included this site in his own work on megalithic stone rows (Burl 1993), without further comment.

Tis a peculiar site inasmuch there doesn’t seem to be much ‘feeling’ to the place.  I’m sure the site is gonna have its days, but more than likely the neat and tidy farmed theatre has subsumed the genius loci to all but the most auspicious of times—most likely generated when the pull of the Moon still tugs at any geomagnetic background memory… Still, it’s definitely worth looking at.

References:

  1. Burl, Aubrey, From Carnac to Callanish, Yale University Press 1993.
  2. Coles, Fred, “Report on Stone Circles Surveyed in Perthshire, Principally Strathearn” in Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries, Scotland, volume 45, 1911.
  3. Finlayson, Andrew, The Stones of Strathearn, One Tree Island: Comrie 2010.
  4. Heggie, Douglas C., Megalithic Science: Ancient Mathematics and Astronomy in Northwest Europe, Thames & Hudson: London 1981.
  5. Stewart, Margaret E.C., “Excavation of a Setting of Standing Stones at Lundin Farm near Aberfedly, Perthshire,” in Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries, Scotland, volume 98, 1966.
  6. Thom, Alexander, Megalithic Sites in Britain, Oxford University Press 1967.
  7. Thom, A., Thom, A.S. & Burl, Aubrey, Stone Rows and Standing Stones – 2 volumes, BAR: Oxford 1990.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Dalchirla (north), Muthill, Perthshire

Standing Stone:  OS Grid Reference – NN 82274 16125

Also Known as:

  1. Canmore ID 25356

Getting Here

The big fella in the field
The big fella in the field

Along the A822 road between Crieff and Muthill, take the small western country lane just as you’re coming out of Muthill. Nearly 2 miles on, take the turn to the right, and then 100 yards or so from there turn sharp left. Keep along this gorgeous country lane for about a mile till you reach the third track on your left and park up.  Walk down the track and you’ll see the standingh stone in the field on your right. Go all the way to the bottom where the farm is and go through the gate into the field.

Archaeology & History

The slim end of the wedge
The slim end of the wedge

Less than 2 miles southeast of the megalithic titan of  Dunruchan A, we find a slightly smaller monolith positioned on lower ground and humbled by a more manicured landscape close to the farmhouse.  But it’s still a big fella, albeit hemmed in by a mass of field clearance rocks piled up and around the base (two of which have odd carvings on them).  The stone is about ten-feet tell, being very slim on its north-south side and much wider on its east-west face.  For some reason I got the impression that the stone wasn’t standing in its original position; though in searching through my megalith library for further information on the site, l found that very little has been written about it.  The earliest literary evidence comes, as usual, from Fred Coles (1911), who simply told us:

“In a field south of Machany Water and NE of Dalchirla farm-steading 260 yards, there stands this tall and striking monolith… In essential features this stone much resembles most of the great schistose blocks which characterize the main portion of the Strathearn area; but it tapers upwards to a very thin and narrow summit that rather distinguishes it from its fellows. It stands 9 feet 4 inches above ground, and girths at the base 7 feet 11 inches.  It is set with its longer axis due north and south. Around its base there are several large masses of stone—not earthfast—amid a conglomeration of smaller pieces evidently cleared off the field.”

Fred Coles' 1911 drawing
Fred Coles’ 1911 drawing

The prehistoric cairn of Torlum to the north may have had some significance to the setting of the stone, but without excavation and details of its original site, we’re just grasping at straws when it comes to evaluating any potential geomancy or landscape relationships—with the megalithic stone row in the next field perhaps being an exception!

The moorlands above here, stretching for many a mile, is apparently lacking in any prehistoric remains if you listen to the official records. But with the Dunruchan megalithic complex only two miles away and the once-giant tomb of Cairnwochel over the southeastern horizon, we know that cannot be possible… Watch this space!

References:

  1. Coles, Fred, “Report on Stone Circles Surveyed in Perthshire, Principally Strathearn” in Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries, Scotland, volume 45, 1911.
  2. Finlayson, Andrew, The Stones of Strathearn, One Tree Island: Comrie 2010.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Coldstone Beck, Burley Moor, West Yorkshire

Cup-Marked Stone:  OS Grid Reference – SE 143 453

Getting Here

Coldstone carving, looking S
Coldstone carving, looking S

From Burley train station, take the road uphill onto the moor edge, turning right at the top. Go on for a few hundred yards and park up round the sharp bend. Walk up the steep-ish path on the right-hand side of the rocky valley of Coldstone Beck. Once your on the level with the moors, veer to your right (west) on the footpath parallel with the walling. Barely 50 yards along, watch in the grasses and heather to your left (south).  Keep looking and you’ll find it. (apologies for just a 6-figure grid-ref for this stone, but I paid little attention to its position when I was in walkabout mode)

Archaeology & History

A couple of hundred yards east of the Cold Stone monolith is another petroglyph that has evaded the diligent archaeologists of the region!  But it’s easily missed if the daylight conditions aren’t too good.  The most notable element on the stone is the large, possibly natural cup-marking on its top-right SW side.  It’s that which initially gets your attention and, due to its initial singularity on the rock, you’d turn away and shake your head, muttering that well known petroglyphic mantra of “dunno.”  But when the sun and air are clear or low on the horizon, other more faint etchings, almost lost in the worlds of erosion, catches the eye.

Carving faintly highlighted
Carving faintly highlighted
Looking straight down
Looking straight down

At least four cups are visible on the stone, perhaps six, mainly near its middle and faintly highlighted in one of the images here.  But there is also a pecked carved line here too, running across the shorter northern side of the stone.  Near the bottom of this line there is the faint impression of a carved ring, but whether this is a trick of the light or real, I won’t hazard to guess.  Not far away is the curiously shaped Chair Stone and its cup-marks. Others are in the vicinity.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Lichen Stone, Burley, West Yorkshire

Cup-and-Ring Stone: OS Grid Reference – SE 15065 43578

Also Known as:

  1. Dreadlocks Stone

Archaeology & History

Lichen Stone cup-and-ring
Lichen Stone cup-&-ring

This is another of the many unrecorded cup-and-ring carvings in the region—and one in a small cluster hereby.  It was rediscovered several years ago on a Northern Antiquarian outing and, thankfully, remains in good condition.  Encrusted by layers of gorgeous lichens, deep into the rock, it has hence proven difficult to explore the entirety of the exact design without tearing off the old lichen covering—which I’ve no intention of doing.

Lichen Stone, from above
Lichen Stone, from above

There are at least a dozen cup-markings etched onto the upper surface of this curved stone, with the majority of them clustering around its eastern side.  It seems there’s only one cup-marking on the western section of the rock, with the majority of them carved near the middle of the rock and then moving to its eastern section.  But the curious features are the interlinking carved lines which you can see have been highlighted on the top and sides of the stone.  Initially you get the impression that they’re natural, but it becomes obvious the more you look at them that they’re an integral part of the carving.  Some of the lines typically link-up with other cups, whilst a number of them have been carved along and down the vertical faces of the rock, primarily on the east and north-east edges.  At least seven of them have been done and they all reach down to ground-level.

Cups & carved lines
Cups & carved lines
Carved lines highlighted
Carved lines highlighted

It seemed obvious that an even larger design was apparent on the rock, but the stone had been covered in an age of lichen (hence the name) which I didn’t want to disturb; and although no distinct cup-and-ring can be seen here, it looked as if one such motif might have been hiding beneath the lichen cover.  But let’s leave the rock and lichen to their own quiet life and move on our way…. to the other carvings nearby, like the impressive Fraggle Rock, or the more basic Snake Stone.  Then follow your nose and seek out the other carvings in these fields…

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian

Cold Stone, Burley Moor, West Yorkshire

Standing Stone:  OS Grid Reference – SE 14236 45433

Getting Here

Cold Stone, looking NW
Cold Stone, looking NW

From Burley-in-Wharfedale train station, take the road uphill to the moors, turning right at the top, until you hit the bend where the stream and rocky valley of Coldstone Beck appears. Walk up the right-hand (west) side of the beck until the moorland levels out.  Walk along the footpath above Stead Crag for a coupla hundred yards, keeping your eyes peeled for the largest upright stone in the heather about 50 yards into the moors. The other way is to get to Woofa Bank Enclosure and keep walking east through the heather for a coupla hundred yards till you see the tallest upright stone in the heather.

Archaeology & History

Apart from my own short entry about this site in The Old Stones of Elmet, we have no archaeological account of this standing stone, less than four feet tall and nearly as wide at its maximum, living in a landscape renowned for its excess of neolithic and Bronze Age remains.  For those of us who love our megaliths it’s nothing special — but at the same time it’s worth looking at, if only because of the other mass of prehistoric remains close by.  It received its name from the adjacent Coldstone Beck a short distance to the east, whose etymology isn’t clear.

Cold Stone, looking east
Cold Stone, looking east
Gazing into a hazy SW
Gazing into a hazy SW

Although we know that many of the sites on this ridge are prehistoric in origin (incredibly some of it still aint registered by those who get paid to do such things), we also need to take into consideration that this site may have been effected by the early industrialists who also made their mark on this section of the moor: they have scarred some cup-and-rings along here, destroyed other remains and left incisions on some rocks which could easily be mistaken as ancient.  There is also the possibility that this upright and its adjacent stones were once part of a cairn.   If evidence comes to light that the Cold Stone is more recent, we will of course amend this site entry.

Folklore

A number of Cold Stones are found scattered across upland Britain, in the form of crags or solitary stones.  In North Yorkshire and beyond, the name is sometimes a corruption of a Call Stone, i.e., a site where village matters were called out prior to the institution of a bell-man.  The old Market Cross in Kendal village, also known as the Cold Stone was where village notices were proclaimed.

References:

  1. Bennett, Paul, The Old Stones of Elmet, Capall Bann: Chieveley 2001.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Corrie (1), Gartmore, Perthshire

Cup-and-Ring Stone:  OS Grid Reference – NS 49502 95052

Also Known as:

  1. Canmore ID 43472

Getting Here

The cup-and-ring stone

On the A81 road from Aberfoyle to Strathblane, about a mile south of Aberfoyle take the tiny right turn (keep your eyes peeled!) to Gartmore.  At the end of the village, turn right at the T-junction.  Just over a mile along the tiny road, just over the tiny road-bridge, turn right again up up the dead straight road to Drymen for nearly a mile and park up.  A dirt-track is on your right: walk along here for ¾-mile (1.2km) and in a large field on your left a huge rock sits (no carvings on it).  Keep walking on the track and where the field ends, a path to your left runs above a small burn.  Naathen, 150 yards along here, look down at the waters and there’s a clump of large rocks. Check ’em out!

Archaeology & History

Morris’ old photo (from PSAS 1967)

This stone and others were mentioned in MacNair’s (1973) essay in the popular history guide to the region, after it had seemingly been rediscovered a few years earlier by Ron Morris (1967; 1969), who listed it in his petroglyph catalogues.  It was originally located at the top of the slope above the burn, but was rolled down here shortly after Morris discovered the cup-and-rings on it.  The farmer at the time had made a bore-hole into the rock with the intention of blowing it up, but Morris found it just in time and the stone managed to survive!

Faint CnR’s just visible

It’s a large rock with a decent ornate design that was clearly visible when Morris surveyed it (see photo, right).  It comprises of, “a cup-and-two-rings, 18cm (7in) diameter, 6 cups-and-one-ring (2 of which are tangential) and at least 8 cups.  All rings are complete.  Greatest carving depth 2cm (¾in).”  There also appears to be a line of four or five small cup-marks running in a short line by one of the lower cup-and-rings, but these are very faint indeed.  The double cup-and-ring mentioned by Morris is the one at the top-centre in my photo, but the next cup-and-ring down may also be a double-ring.  At the top-right of the photo is where two cup-and-rings are conjoined.

Since being rolled down the slope to the side of the burn, the carving’s much more in the shadows and is more difficult to work out.  Sadly on the day when I visited here, Nature bestowed on me a wet and cloudy day, so the design was even more difficult to see, as my photos illustrate.

Morris (1981) told that “other stones in the immediate vicinity bear possible cup-marks,” and one of these may exist just a couple of stones away (Corrie 2), leaning up into the grasses: this is another rock that has been pushed down the slope and has curious natural cup-markings on it, with one or two that could be man-made, but we need a geomorphologist to have a look at it and tell us one way or the other.

References:

  1. Edlin, Herbert L. (ed.), Queen Elizabeth Forest Park, HMSO Edinburgh 1973.
  2. MacNair, A.S., “History,” in Edlin’s Queen Elizabeth Forest Park, HMSO 1973.
  3. Morris, Ronald W.B., “The cup-and-ring marks and similar sculptures of Scotland: a survey of the southern Counties,” in Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries, Scotland, volume 98, 1967.
  4. Morris, Ronald W.B., “The Cup-and-Ring and Similar Early Sculptures of Scotland; Part 2 – The Rest of Scotland except Kintyre,” in Transactions of the Ancient Monuments Society, volume 16, 1969.
  5. Morris, Ronald W.B., The Prehistoric Rock Art of Southern Scotland, BAR: Oxford 1981.

© Paul BennettThe Northern Antiquarian

Aithernie, Scoonie, Fife

Tumulus (destroyed):  Grid Reference – NO 3769 0339

Also Known as:

  1. Canmore ID 31344

Archaeology & History

Aithernie tumulus on 1855 OS-map
Aithernie tumulus on 1855 OS-map

A mile or so WNW of the fantastic standing stones of Lundin, and just a coupla hundred yards above where the lesser standing stone of Balgrummo lives, we could once see an impressive prehistoric burial mound on the small hilltop of Aithernie.  Sadly, like oh too many prehistoric sites in our landscape, it was vandalised and destroyed in the 19th century by the prevailing stupidity of the period.  Thankfully we have a couple of accounts describing the place.

The site had already passed into memory when the Ordnance Survey fellas got up here in 1854, but an account of it was made in the ‘Object Name Book’ of the parish a decade earlier.  Thankfully the story of the site was known locally and, along with the New Statistical Account describing the olde mound, A.S. Cunningham (1906) told the story of when it was “opened” and then of its subsequent demise. He wrote how,

“…in 1821 a much more interesting relic of antiquity…was opened in a field on the estate of Aithernie.  When digging moulding sand for Leven Foundry, the workmen struck right into the heart of an ancient tumulus.  This cemetery of prehistoric times contained as many as twenty rude stone cists.  These cists were typical of the prehistoric burial places found throughout the country.  They were constructed of slabs placed on edge, with a covering stone, and cemented with clay puddling.  Above the coffins was a covering of stones, the stones having hundreds of years before been so firmly cemented together with clay and sand that the workmen required the aid of picks to enable them to “rifle the tombs.”  Small urns were found in two of the coffins, and five of them contained larger urns, 14 inches in diameter and 24 inches in depth, and in another cist quantities of charred wood beads were discovered. All the coffins, except the five in which were the large urns, contained human bones, and innumerable bones were found outwith the mouths of the cists.”

When the Royal Commission (1933) lads visited the place in 1925, they reported “no existing indication of a tumulus” remained.  Gone!

References:

  1. Cunningham, A.S., Rambles in the Parishes of Scoonie and Wemyss, Purves & Cuningham: Leven 1906.
  2. Royal Commission on the Ancient & Historical Monuments, Scotland, Inventory of Monuments and Constructions in the Counties of Fife, Kinross and Clackmannan, HMSO: Edinburgh 1933.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Bandrum, Saline, Fife

Bandrum OS-mapStanding Stones:  OS Grid Reference – NT 0348 9188

Also Known as:

  1. Canmore ID 49710

Getting Here

Go east on the B913 through Saline for a mile till you reach Steelend.  Across the road from the houses there’s a dirt-track running uphill (south) into the fields.  When you’re near the top, turn west into the fields, following the straight line of fencing towards the small clump of trees on the skyline.  Near the top, a few hundred yards along you’ll see the large fat stone up against the wall.  But keep walking east and another stone appears before your eyes!

Archaeology & History

The big fella, by the gate
The big fella, by the gate

Near the very crown of this long hill, right by the gate separating the fields, you cannot miss this huge and very heavy-looking standing stone, whose position in the landscape was evidently of some importance to the people who put it here.  It’s in a gorgeous spot. You can see in all directions for some considerable distance particularly to the west, and the eye catches other points on the land where prehistoric monuments of other forms speak to each other. (that’s assuming you visit here on a clear bright day, as opposed to when Paul Hornby and I visited the spot when, for much of the afternoon we could barely see 100 yards as the land all around us was cloaked in fog!)

The big fella, face on
The big fella, face on
And through the fog, from the little fella to the big fella
And through the fog, from the little fella to the big fella

The site was included in Alexander Thom’s (1990) magnum opus on megalithic stone rows, in which he cites it as a debatable 2-stone row monument.  For if we walk westwards, along the walling, we find another large, possibly prehistoric upright about 50 yards along.  In Aubrey Burl’s (1993) work on the same subject, he merely copies Thom’s earlier questioning of the second stone in his listings.  But in Mr Beveridge’s (1888) regional history work more than a century earlier, he told clearly that on “the ridge of the hill behind Bandrum House, there are built two standing stones.” Of their origin and purpose, Beveridge could find none; but a few years later, A.S. Cunningham (1902) thought simply that

“of the two standing stones on the march fence behind Bandrum House…it is questionable if they ever served any other purpose than a dividing line for properties.”

Bandrum Stone on 1854 map
Bandrum Stone on 1854 map

The site was highlighted on the earliest OS-maps of the region in 1854—albeit with only the largest of the two stones marked, at the meeting of the gates—and then many decades later those other official doods, the Royal Commission (1933) lads, made their way up here and included the site in their inventory, where they told:

“On the crest of rising ground at an elevation of 700 feet above sea level, at the end of a dole near to the extreme east end of Saline golf course about a quarter of a mile due west of Bandrum farmhouse, stands a huge whinstone boulder of irregular form.  It measures 7 feet 10 inches in height to the highest point of a somewhat rounded top, and has a slight inclination towards the west.  Its girth at the base is 13 feet 7 inches and at the middle 14 feet 10 inches.  The broadest faces are to the north and south… At a distance of 162 feet due west, there is another large boulder measuring 3 feet 10 inches in height and approximately 10 feet in circumference at the middle, set with a marked inclination towards the east and built into a continuation of the same dike.  The two suggest the remains of a stone circle, the rest of which has been swept away by the cultivation of the neighbouring fields.  There is however, no record of other stones having been removed.”

Thom’s (1990) account of the site was simply put:  “Bandrum. NT 036 915. Huge whin boulder, 7ft 10 (2.4m) h. 162ft (49m) W another 3ft 10 (1.2m) h.”  He gave no indication of astroarchaeological alignments.

References:

  1. Beveridge, David, Between the Ochils and Forth, William Blackwood: Edinburgh 1888.
  2. Burl, Aubrey, From Carnac to Callanish, Yale University Press 1993.
  3. Cunningham, A.S., Romantic Culross, Torryburn, Carnock, Cairneyhill, Saline and Pitfirrane, W. Clarke: Dunfermline 1902.
  4. Royal Commission on the Ancient & Historical Monuments, Scotland, Inventory of Monuments and Constructions in the Counties of Fife, Kinross and Clackmannan, HMSO: Edinburgh 1933.
  5. Thom, A., Thom, A.S. & Burl, Aubrey, Stone Rows and Standing Stones – volume 2, BAR: Oxford 1990.

Acknowledgements: Huge thanks to Paul Hornby for his photos of these standing stones. Cheers Paul!

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian