Strathearn

Witch’s Stone, Bankfoot, Perthshire

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Standing Stone: OS Grid Reference – NO 04236 37526

Travel along the B867 road from Bankfoot to Dunkeld (running roughly parallel with the A9) and you’ll reach the hamlet of Waterloo about one mile north of Bankfoot. As you approach the far end of the village, keep your eyes peeled for the small turning on your left and head up there for just over a mile. The road runs to a dead end at Meikle Obney farm, but shortly before reaching there you’ll pass this large standing stone on the right-side of the road, just along the fence-line. It’s almost impossible to miss!

Archaeology & History

This is one of “the large rude upright stones found in the parish” that William Marshall (1880) mentioned briefly, amidst his quick sojourn into the Druidic history of Perthshire. It’s an impressive standing stone on the southern edges of the Obney Hills that doesn’t seem to be in its original position. And it’s another one that was lucky to survive, as solid metal staples were hammered into it more than a hundred years ago when it was incorporated into the fencing, much like the massive Kor Stone 6½ miles south-west of here.

Shown on the first Ordnance Survey map of the area in 1867, its bulky 6½-foot-tall body stands all alone on this relatively flat plain, with open views to the east, south and west. It gave me the distinct impression that it was once part of a larger megalithic complex, but I can find no additional evidence to substantiate this. Call it a gut-feeling if you will. Intriguingly, the closest site to this are two standing stones just out of view literally ⅔-mile (1.07km) to the northeast, aligned perfectly to the Witch’s Stone! Most odd…

Folklore

The story behind this old stone is a creation myth that we find all over the country, but usually relating to prehistoric tombs more than monoliths. The great Fred Coles (1908) wrote:

“the common legend is told of a witch who, when flying through the air on some Satanic behest, let the Stone fall out of her apron.”

References:

Coles, Fred, “Report on Stone Circles Surveyed in Perthshire – North-eastern Section,” in Proceedings Society Antiquaries, Scotland, volume 42, 1908.
Marshall, William, Historic Scenes in Perthshire, William Oliphant: Edinburgh 1880.
Stewart, Elizabeth, Dunkeld – An Ancient City, Munro Press: Perth 1926.

Acknowledgements: Huge thanks for use of the Ordnance Survey map in this site profile, reproduced with the kind permission of the National Library of Scotland.

Kor Stone, Logiealmond, Perthshire

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Standing Stone: OS Grid Reference – NN 9733 3004

Also Known as:

Car Stone
Carse Stone

Getting Here

Take the tiny long winding B8063 road that runs west off the A9 at Luncarty, meandering eventually to the entry of the Sma’ Glen. If you’re coming via Luncarty, after going west for 8 miles (12.9km) you pass the hamlet of Harrietfield and just a few hundred yards further a dirt-track on your right goes uphill to Milton. If you’re coming via Crieff/Sma’ Glen direction, along the B8063 road, cross the Bridge of Buchanty and after nearly 3 miles (4.7km) just past a bit of a hairpin, you’ll see the track up to Milton on your left. Walk up, past all the newly modernised houses and go through the gate, bearing right where, in the field on your right (thru another gate) you’ll see this big fella standing alone 200 yards to the east along the fence-line.

Archaeology & History

This is a bit of a hidden beauty! Standing nearly ten feet tall on the crest of an elongated ridge with the land ever so gently declining either side of its proud stand, it beckons the impression of partners long since gone (or something truly olde)… and so it proved to be. Very little has been written about the place, despite its impressive stature. It seems to have been described firstly in J.W. Thomson’s essay on the local parish in April 1837 (subsequently published in the NSA in 1845) where, ascribing it as usual to the druids of olde, he told that,

“at the western extremity of Logiealmond, there is one remarkable block about 12 feet high and 18 feet in circumference, standing upon its narrow end, with three other stones in its immediate vicinity. It is commonly called the Kor Stone.”

William Marshall (1880) also mentioned these three additional standing stones, saying that they were “apparently part of a row.” But they are long gone and we know not what became of them. They were probably uprooted and included in some of the nearby walling or buildings (quite a lot of suspicious-looking stones scatter the edges of many fields around Logiealmond). If we look closely at the surface of our Kor Stone, in earlier times someone has fixed metal loops into the monolith to make it part of an early fence or gate.

The stone was highlighted on the 1867 OS-map of the area and described in the accompanying Name Book,

“Carse” Stone on 1867 map

“A stone about ten feet high, supposed by some people to be the remains of a Druidical Circle, by others to be a mark on a division of lands: in support of the latter supposition they bring forward the fact of a large stone at Dunkeld and one near Fowlis – both similar to this one – and The Carse Stane being in the same straight line.”

The great Fred Coles (1911) ALSO gave the place his attention, but apart from a brief description of its size and position, he found no additional lore about the other three stones, telling us simply:

“It is an imposingly large and erect block of rugged whinstone, 9 feet 9 inches in height, with a basal girth of 15 feet 10 inches, but at about midway of its height the girth increases to fully 17 feet. The view…shows the Stone as seen from the east.”

In truth, the location of this giant stone on the ridge strongly suggests it was once part of a much greater megalithic neolithic monument. But whatever that might have looked like, we may never know. It’s an awesome site though. Well worth checking out if you’re in the area.

References:

Coles, Fred, “Report on Stone Circles Surveyed 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.
Marshall, William, Historic Scenes in Perthshire, William Oliphant: Edinburgh 1880.
Thomson, J.W., “Parish of Moneydie,” in New Statistical Account of Scotland – volume X: Perth, William Blackwood: Edinburgh 1845.

Acknowledgements: Huge thanks for use of the Ordnance Survey map in this site profile, reproduced with the kind permission of the National Library of Scotland.

Stroness (3), Fowlis Wester, Perthshire

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Cup-and-Ring Stone: OS Grid Reference – NN 9285 2754

Getting Here

If you can make your way to the Stroness (2) carving, then walk down the slope for less than 50 yards past quite a few other earthfast stones, you’ll eventually run into the stone shown here in the photos. You’ll find it easily enough.

Archaeology & History

This carving was found when I was heading down the hillside to meet up with my antiquarian colleague 500 yards lower down. The sun was just setting, so visibility wasn’t good, but as I rushed from stone to stone feeling each one in the hope of finding a carving, this one gave my fingers that distinct feedback of a cup-marking; then another; and what seemed like another. I had a small amount of water left in a bottle and quickly sprayed it over the surface of the stone and saw that there were indeed a number of cups on it. Two or three certainly – but possibly as many as five. I laid on the wet ground and looked across its even surface from several angles and caught what seemed to be a very faint semi-circle around one of the cups. But I wasn’t sure it was real. However, on a number of quick photos I took, several of them do appear to show such an arc around one of the cups. But I’m very cautious about it. Only when we (or you) go back up and have a look at it in good light will we be able to affirm or discount it.

One additional feature that needs mentioning is a small low arc of walling just above this stone. It’s man-made, it’s very old, but I couldn’t work out what it might be: hut circle, cairn (there’s one further up the hill), enclosure walling. I’m not sure, but it needs to be looked at when we have a full day.

Stroness (2), Fowlis Wester, Perthshire

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Cup-Marked Stone: OS Grid Reference – NN 92774 27569

Also Known as:

Buchanty Hill

Getting Here

The minor road that runs roughly north-south between the hamlets of Fowlis Wester and Buchanty is probably your best bet. Nearly 2 miles north of the village up the tiny winding lane, where the moorland at the roadside finishes and the fields begin – is where to take the track, left, up onto the hillside. But after just 75 yards, go left over the rickety-gate and follow the walling until your reach the burn. Follow this up all the way to its source (it’s boggy as hell) and, once you’re there, walk due north for 250 yards until you reach a cluster of rocks. Look around!

Archaeology & History

It’s a long way to come to see such a simplistic design —but for the real petroglyph researchers among you, it’s worth it the trek. It’s had scant attention. George Currie (2004) seems to have been the only person to mention this stone, giving the standard bland description typifying archaeology. He wrote:

“SE-facing slope, 1.2m long pointed rock aligned E-W; three shallow cups, 30-40 x 6-10mm.”

Inspiring stuff, ey?! Anyhow… As usual, there’s more to it than that. If we assume that the carving described above is the same one I visited yesterday (Mr Currie’s grid-ref is slightly different), even despite the poor daylight, it was obvious there was more than three cup-marks on this.

When I got to this stone, the evening sun was literally touching the horizon and so the light cutting across half the rock highlighted very little indeed. I was rushing, trying to fondle and see as much as I could before the darkening sky clouded everything, and as I almost frenetically sprayed showers of water across its surface, the two or three cups that I could see near the crown of the stone suddenly doubled in number. Two cups along one edge became three; whilst the sloping surface above these that had one cup suddenly seemed to have a companion. On the highest part of this gently sloping stone, the form of one of the two distinct cup-marks that first caught my eye seemed to slowly morph into one of the carved “footprint” designs, akin to those clustered on the Ardoch (2) carving 1½ miles south-west of here. However, this element needs looking at again, as it may have been a curious playful trick between stone and light showing me something that wasn’t there! Things like that happen with stones.

Altogether there are at least six cup-marks on here, but perhaps as many as eight. Obviously, if we (or you) visit the site when the light is much better, an even larger design might emerge from this old rock.

I spent perhaps just five minutes here, before heading back down to meet my companion 500 yards below in the midst of the boggy moorland. Usually a carving gets my fondles for a an hour or two, but conditions weren’t good for us to form a healthy relationship. And so, as I headed downhill, another unrecorded cup-marked stone appeared beneath my rushing feet (Stroness [3] carving)— and I spoke with that for only a couple of minutes. We need to come back up here and zigzag to find other companions that lay sleeping, forgotten for countless centuries…

References:

Currie, George, ‘Buchanty Hill (Fowlis Wester parish): Cup-marked Rocks’, in Discovery & Excavation Scotland, volume 5, 2004.

Bachilton, Methven, Perthshire

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Stone Circle (destroyed): OS Grid Reference – NO 0015 2411

Also Known as:

Skelfie

Archaeology & History

Sometime between the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, a Perthshire architect by the name of Thomas Ross was informed by a farm-worker called John Lawson who lived at Meckphen, that a stone circle had existed at Bachilton, but which had been destroyed when he was young. The information was gained by the great Fred Coles (1910) during his extensive survey work in and around Perthshire, but all trace of the site had gone when he came to write about it. He told us simply:

“Many years ago, several Stones of a Circle stood here, upon what appeared to be an artificial, and quite distinct mound which is still visible. The Stones were, however, undermined and buried, so as to be out of the reach of the plough, close to their respective sites.”

All subsequent searches for the site have proved fruitless and the circle’s long gone.

References:

Coles, F.R., “Report on stone circles in Perthshire principally Strathearn,” in Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries, Scotland, volume 45, 1911.

Ossian’s Cairn, Fowlis Wester, Perthshire

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Cairn: OS Grid Reference – NN 88987 30186

Also Known as:

Jock’s Cairn

Getting Here

Make a day out for this one! You could, of course, go barely half-a-mile straight up the hill (southwest) from Ossian’s Stone in the Sma’ Glen below – but it’s steep as fuck and I know that most of you wouldn’t do it. So, park-up and take the gradual 3 mile walk into the mountains. Coming via Crieff, along the A85 road east, turn left up the A822 Dunkeld road at Gilmerton. 2½ miles on, you reach the Foulford golf course on the right-hand side of the road, whilst directly across the road a dirt-track leads you into the fields, past the large Foulford cup-and-ring stone. Keep along this track, bearing right just before Connochan Lodge and follow this dirt-track uphill on and on for another 2 miles where you’ll eventually see the cairn-peak in the distance. Another shallow track leads uphill after about 2 miles: we walked up to where the ground levels out, walked across the dodgy swamp-land and up again to the tomb. It’s well worth it!

Archaeology & History

Visible for many miles round here from the surrounding hills, this somewhat mutilated giant cairn, highlighted on the earliest Ordnance Survey map of the area in 1867, hasn’t fared well in archaeology tomes. Apart from a passing note in Margaret Stewart’s (1966) summary article on prehistoric remains in central Perthshire—where she erroneously told it to be 400 feet lower down that it actually is—almost nothing has been said of this place. Most odd.

Despite it being ransacked over the centuries, it was obviously of some considerable size in its early days. Today, surmounting it, is a very large walker’s cairn which, no doubt, has accrued some of its own foundations from the prehistoric tomb on which it sits. To the side of this recent cairn, another one is growing, thanks to stones brought from near and not-too-far. But the original creation can still be seen in outline and mass all around. Indeed, as you walk all round the modern cairn, you’re walking over much of the early collapsed stonework sleeping gently beneath the moorland vegetation, and once you walk away and below the cairn mass itself, looking back up at it you’ll notice the very ancient raised plinth of stone on which our modern one now lives.

Its amorphous shape is somewhat amoeboid, measuring more than 22 yards across east-west, by 15 yards north-south, with a curious arc of low walling, very old indeed, on its northwestern side. Whether this walling outlines the original edge of the tomb, only an excavation will tell. The most notable remaining mass of ancient cairn material reaches out on its south-east to eastern edges, where some of it is beginning to fall away down the edge of the mountain slope.

Folklore

Local tradition assigns this cairn to be where the bones of the great hero-figure Ossian was removed to, when they were disturbed by the unruly mob of General Wade and his cohorts in the middle of the 18th century. Notes of the event were written at the time by one of Wade’s mob, a Captain Edward Burt, who told,

“the Highlanders, they assembled from distant parts, and having formed themselves into a body, they carefully gathered up the relics, and marched with them, in solemn procession, to a new place of burial, and there discharged their fire-arms over the grave, as supposing the deceased had been a military officer.”

This was essential, said Burt, as

Site shown on 1867 map

New cairn on old, looking W

“they (the Highlanders) firmly believe that if a dead body should be known to lie above ground, or be disinterred by malice, or the accidents of torrents of water, &c. and care was not immediately taken to perform to it the proper rites, then there would arise such storms and tempests as would destroy their corn, blow away their huts, and all sorts of other mis-fortunes would follow till that duty was performed. You may here recollect what I told you so long ago, of the great regard the Highlanders have for the remains of their dead…”

Oral tradition tells us that this cairn, high above Ossian’s Stone, is where the rites occurred. It makes sense too.

References:

Finlayson, Andrew, The Stones of Strathearn, One Tree Island: Comrie 2010.
Stewart, M.E.C., “Strathtay in the Second Millenium BC“, in Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries, Scotland, volume 92, 1961.

Acknowledgements: Huge thanks for use of the Ordnance Survey map in this site profile, reproduced with the kind permission of the National Library of Scotland.

Stroness (1), Fowlis Wester, Perthshire

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Cup-Marked Stone: OS Grid Reference – NN 91981 26817

Also Known as:

Buchanty Hill

Getting Here

Take the same direction as if you’re visiting the Ardoch (2) carving, starting from the Foulford golf course on the A822, roughly halfway between Gilmerton and the entrance to the Sma’ Glen. From here, take the track eastwards into the hills and literally ¾-mile along you reach the pylon; keep going along the same track for another 200 yards and on your left watch out for the track-cum-footpath going up the slope past Ardoch (2), onto the hilltop, then through the gate and down the path northeast for about ⅔-mile until you reach the burn. Keep going uphill for 80 yards and through the cronky gate, head 70 yards to your left to the large single rounded boulder.

Archaeology & History

One of several petroglyphs in the area, this is the most notable in terms of its size. It rests just below the two Stroness hut circles which sit on the small level piece of ground nearly 100 yards further up the slope. A considerable scatter of cup-marks cover much of the upper surface of the boulder, some faint, some not so faint, with a number of them painted in a slight cover of lichens at the topmost section of the rock. The carving was first described somewhat blandly by George Currie (2004), who simply wrote:

“Large boulder, 2 x 2m, just W of hut circles; 16+ cups, 40–50 x 14–20mm.”

It’s actually south of the hut circles; and there are certainly more than sixteen cup-marks, as the photos here indicate. At the time of my visit here recently, the sun was falling and was just below the level that permitted a perfect highlighting of the cup-marks, but there seemed to be at least 25 of them, scattered in no particular order over much of its upper surface. One curiosity that seemed apparent was a long carved line running along a long slender edge along on the southern side of the stone, from a large cup-mark down to near the southwestern edge, meeting another smaller cupmark. I not 100% certain that it’s actually been carved and it may just be one of Nature’s scratches along the rock, but it does seem to have that “man-made” stamp on it. Another visit in differing light will show us one way or the other.

References:

Currie, George, ‘Buchanty Hill (Fowlis Wester parish): Cup-marked Rocks’, in Discovery & Excavation Scotland, volume 5, 2004.

Stroness, Fowlis Wester, Perthshire

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Hut Circles: OS Grid Reference – NN 9201 2689

Getting Here

If you’re coming here you’re obviously making a day out of it! You’ll be taking the shortest route to the Ardoch (2) petroglyph, via the Foulford golf course along the A822, roughly halfway between Gilmerton and the entrance to the Sma’ Glen. From here, take the track eastwards into the hills, and literally ¾-mile along you reach the pylon; keep along the same track for another 200 yards and on your left watch out for the track-cum-footpath going up the slope past the petroglyph, onto the hilltop, then through the gate and down the path for about ⅔-mile until you reach the burn. On the other side, go through the gate and 100 yards uphill through another one, walk immediately to your left alongside the fence. About 20 yards from the wall, look at the ground. Zigzag about!

Archaeology & History

Two distinct but very overgrown hut circles sit next to each other on the first ridge above the burn. When they were first built—sometime in the Bronze Age most likely—the landscape here was slightly different to what we see today. Scattered woodland of hazel, birch and Scots pine lived all across these hills and the small burn 100 yards below would have been much faster flowing, with trout and smaller fish in plentiful supply. The large cup-marked stone between the burn and these huts would have had some magico-religious meaning to the people living here. Indeed, it may have been carved by the people who built the huts, or they might have rested here due to its presence. I point out these simple ingredients to give a little more life to a site which, today, seems so isolated, lonely and unimpressive. It’s essential that we paint the history of this and all our ancient monuments with the colourful shades they lived within: of the forests and their animals, so as to give these seemingly bland lifeless remains a feeling in order to rekindle their history.

Apart from the large petroglyph less than 100 yards below, these hut circle are apparently in isolation if we go by the record books. And they’re difficult to make out when the grasses are tall—as they were when I visited recently. They are both roughly the same size—about 11 yards across—and, most likely, each housed a small family. The one closest to the wall is the slightly smaller of the two. It was first reported by Miss Comrie (1972) who initially only noticed one of the two huts—probably due to the long grasses. She told that,

“On an area known as Buchanty Hill at 1000ft is a hut circle with a diameter of 11mand wall width of 2m. Situated in a hollow, sheltered from the north and with an entrance on the downward-side facing south. The walling has no obvious inner or outer facing.”

On my visit to this place, the silence was deafening and the fading daylight painted the hills with a stunning velvet breath all across the veil of Her body. It’s a gorgeous isolated place that you might aswell sit down with after you’ve finished looking at the rock art…

References:

Comrie, J.E.M., “Fowlis Wester Parish: Hut Circle,” in Discovery & Excavation, Scotland, 1972.

Millhills, Crieff, Perthshire

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Stone Circle (destroyed): OS Grid Reference – NN 88808 19823

Archaeology & History

In 1995, an aerial survey done in this neck o’ the woods found a number of distinct shadows in the landscape showing a considerable number of unrecorded prehistoric archaeological sites. One of them indicated a previously unrecognized “four poster” stone circle. It was described briefly on Canmore as follows:

“The four-poster is visible (as) a square setting 6m across. It is situated between the cropmarks of a palisaded settlement…and a possible enclosed settlement.”

No excavation has yet been performed. A very clear ring ditch was also discovered some 50 yards to the east in the same field.

Folklore

There is no known folklore or traditions relating to this site or immediate locale.

References:

Burl, Aubrey, Four Posters: Bronze Age Stone Circles of Western Europe, BAR 195: Oxford 1988.

Duchlage, Crieff, Perthshire

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Standing Stone (destroyed): OS Grid Reference – NN 8655 2079

Archaeology & History

There is seemingly no trace left of this once impressive tall, slender standing stone that had lived for thousands of years on the south-side of Crieff. It was destroyed by some retard in the middle of the 20th century (anyone know their name?). Highlighted on the 1866 Ordnance Survey map of the area, it was visited and described by the late great Fred Coles (1911) when it still stood at the side of the road. He told that it was,

“In shape a narrow rhomboid at the base, this Stone rises to an acute angle at a height of 6 feet. Its longer axis is E.S.E. 52° by W.N.W. 52°, and in basal girth it measures 8 feet 11 inches.”

Some 200 yards to the south-east there used to be the curiously-named Stayt of Crieff burial mound which had been used as a court hill for many centuries. This outlying standing stone may have been the “witness” on which oaths were sworn before the court. Sadly the history of the Stayt of Crieff mound is also somewhat sparse and it too has, appallingly, been destroyed. The destruction of these antiquities and their ancient traditions is nothing short of a fucking disgrace.

References:

Coles, Fred, “Report on Stone Circles Surveyed 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.

Acknowledgements: Huge thanks for use of the Ordnance Survey map in this site profile, reproduced with the kind permission of the National Library of Scotland.