Category: Jura (Isle of)

Ardfernal, Jura, Argyll

megalithix

Standing Stone:  OS Grid Reference – NR 56009 71718

Also Known as:

  1. Canmore ID 38262

Getting Here

Go up Jura’s only road until it becomes a dirt-track and head along the track to the east to the natural hillock on the coast.  You’ll pass the three standing stones of Knockrome before you get to this one, right by the end house.

Archaeology & History

Found in a beautiful setting, this is a thick little stone but is less than four feet tall and it may have had some shapely relationship with one of the hills (Corra Bheinn) on Jura.  The Royal Commission (1984) described it merely as, “an erratic boulder measuring 3.1m in girth at the base, and 1.2m in height with its longer axis aligned roughly east and west.”  Several other stones can be found nearby.

References:

  1. Royal Commission on the Ancient & Historical Monuments of Scotland, Argyll – volume 5: Islay, Jura, Colonsay and Oronsay, HMSO: Edinburgh 1984.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Cnoc a’ Chuirn Mhoir, Jura, Argyll

megalithix

Cairn:  OS Grid Reference – NR 68298 94211

Archaeology & History

This ‘hill of the big cairn’ is near the top end of the island, past the cup-marked stones of An Carn, just beneath the top of the prominent knoll, a half-mile east of the track.  It’s about 200 yards from the summit on the southern side of the hill.  More than 50 feet across and about 3 feet high, what may be kerb-stones can be seen on the west-side of the tomb.  The Royal Commission (1984) lads tell us that,

“its northern edge is buried under field-gathered stones, and a small enclosure of comparatively recent date overlies the cairn.”

References:

  1. Royal Commission on the Ancient & Historical Monuments of Scotland, Argyll: volume 5 – Islay, Jura, Colonsay and Oronsay, HMSO: Edinburgh 1984.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Barnhill, Jura, Argyll

megalithix

Cairn:  OS Grid Reference – NR 7057 9700

Archaeology & History

Very close to being at the top of the island.  If you do manage to get here take a gander at the legendary Gulf of Corryvreckan: one of the largest whirlpools on Earth, where the cailleach swirled her stuff when angry! This is the ‘hill where sorrel grows,’ and where George Orwell wrote 1984 – but more important for us is where the Royal Commission for Historic & Ancient Monuments of Scotland (Argyll, vol.5) designated that,

“a stony mound about 5.5m in diameter and 0.5m high, situated on the crest of the ridge east of Barnhill, appears to be a prehistoric burial cairn.”

Sadly I never managed to check this out when I was last up here as I didn’t know it was here!

References:

  1. Royal Commission on the Ancient & Historical Monuments of Scotland, Argyll: volume 5 – Islay, Jura, Colonsay and Oronsay, HMSO: Edinburgh 1984.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian