Category: Scotland

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Hawk Hill Cross, Alloa, Clackmannanshire

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Cross: OS Grid Reference – NS 90135 92660

Also Known as:

  1. Parkmill
  2. Pillar Stone of Brath

Getting Here

Hawk Hill Cross, Alloa

From Alloa head east along the A907 road and park up at Morrison’s supermarket a half-mile on. From here, keep walking along the same road, but make sure you go on the dirt-track running parallel with the main road, and which runs alongside the field in which this monument is clearly visible. Just make sure you only visit it when the crops aren’t growing (between September through to April is OK).

Archaeology & History
This is a highly impressive monument, but I for one doubt that it has a wholly christian origin… The fact that a stone circle was on the same ridge totally visible a couple of hundred yards away, and a cluster of Bronze Age cairns immediately west, adds to my doubt; along with the sheer size of this thing trying to grab attention to itself. You’ll have to visit it yourself and see what I mean.

The stone was first described in the Old Statistical Account of the area in 1795, and it told:

“About a mile east of the town, there is a large upright stone, 7 feet 4 inches above the surface of the ground. It is three feet broad, and thought to be very deep in the Earth. The old people used to speak of the figure of a man on horseback, which they had seen on it. If any thing of that kind, or letters (as it is said), have been formerly observed, they are now totally effaced.”

However, in a footnote to this entry, it was said that,

“when the adjacent farm was enclosing, upwards of 20 years ago, a ditch was made close to the stone, when many human bones were discovered; which proves that a battle or skirmish had some time or other taken place near that spot; and probably some man of eminence was buried hard by, as it was a common practice of the Picts on such occasions. There are two stones resembling this one, in the neighbouring parish of Alva, at no great distance from the church, but not close to one another. They are both near the foot of the Ochils.”

It seems most probable that this great cross-carved monolith had some relationship to our heathen mythic history—an idea which has been put forward by others historians in bygone times. In Daniel Wilson’s (1851) huge work, he told us:

“On ground about half a mile to the east of the town of Alloa, called the Hawkhill, is the large upright block of sandstone sculptured with a cross which is represented in the annexed engraving. It measures ten and a quarter feet in height, though little more than seven feet are now visible above ground. A similar cross is cut on both sides of the stone, as is not uncommon with such simple memorials. During the progress of agricultural operations in the immediate vicinity of this ancient cross, in the spring of 1829, Mr. Robert Bald, C.E., an intelligent Scottish antiquary, obtained permission from the Earl of Mar to make some excavations around when, at about nine feet north from the monumental stone, a rude cist was found, constructed of unhewn sandstone, measuring only three feet in length, and at each end of the cover, on the under side, a simple cross was cut. The lines which formed the crosses were not rudely executed, but straight and uniform, and evidently finished with care, though the slab itself was unusually rude and amorphous. The cist lay east and west and contained nothing but human bones greatly decayed. Drawings of the cross and a plan of the ground, executed by Mr. Bald, are in the possession of the Society of Antiquaries. Here we possess a singularly interesting example of the union of Christian and Pagan sepulchral rites: the cist laid east and west, according to the early christian custom, yet constructed of the old circumscribed dimensions, and of the rude but durable materials in use for ages before the had superseded the aboriginal Pagan creeds.”

Old drawing of the site (after Wilson 1851)
Hawk Hill Cross, looking north

A few years later there was another account of this cross published in the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries, Scotland (1889), echoing much of what Wilson described, telling of the discoveries of many human remains found hereby. And when the Royal Commission (1933) account of the place was written after their inspection team visited the site in 1925, they told:

“This slab…is set up on a knoll about 200 yards south of the main roadway between Alloa and Clackmannan and about midway between the site of the (Hawk Hill) cairn…and that of the (Hawk Hill) stone circle… It is packed round the base with fairly large stones and stands with its broad faces east and west. A cross of Celtic form is incised on both sides, the incisions being about half an inch in depth. On the east face the shaft is made to spring directly from a base, without the intervention of a basic line. The design on the west face is similar, but the shaft here has been almost entirely obliterated by weathering. The slab is 8 feet in height, 2 feet 7½ inches in width at the base, and 9 inches in thickness.”

Notice that the more recent accounts don’t mention the horse carving: an intriguing element which was however mentioned in some early local history works of the place.  Indeed, some postulate that this may have Pictish origins. They may be right. As local historian T.C. Gordon (1937), told,

“that the old people of the parish could remember seeing on the soft surface of the stone the figure of a man on horseback.”

Cross on the east face
Cross on the west face

On the day I visited this stone I couldn’t make out any carved horse, but it seemed that something may once have been carved near the bottom the western face…perhaps… One writer also suggested that the nearby place-name of Gaberston may have related to this stone cross, with the word literally meaning ‘The Pillar Stone of Brath (Brude),’ which as Mr Gordon said, thus provides “the link between the stone and (the Pictish leader) Brude, and this link is strengthened when we remember that the burn that runs through Alloa is called ‘the Brathy Burn.’”

The possible Pictish motifs of a horseman were mentioned again in a letter from the local County Planning Officer to the Alloa County Clerk in 1971, along with a recommendation that the cross be removed and placed into a museum to prevent further weathering and erosion. Thankfully this suggestion was not followed through and the cross remains where it belongs: in its position in the landscape to beguile and intrigue us over its hidden commemorative past. Long may it remain upon its hill.

A very impressive site indeed…

Folklore

Thought locally to have played a part on an alignment or ley line with a little-known Druid Stone by the roadside in Alloa, the Hawk Hill cairn, and Hawk Hill stone circle to its east. The historian T.C. Gordon (1937) told that the cross marked the site where the Picts fought against the Saxons, saying:

“We know that Finguine, son of Deleroith, died in that battle in 711 AD, and maybe Brude too. A stone cross still marks the place at Hawkhill.”

References:

  1. Gordon, T. Crouther, A Short History of Alloa, Alloa Advertiser 1937.
  2. Lothian, James, Alloa and its Environs, Alloa Advertiser 1861.
  3. Miller, Peter, “Notices of the Standing Stones of Alloa and Clackmanan,” in Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries, Scotland, volume 23, 1889.
  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. Wilson, Daniel, The Archaeology and Prehistoric Annals of Scotland, Sutherland & Knox: Edinburgh 1861.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Castleton, Dollar, Clackmannanshire

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Standing Stone: OS Grid Reference – NN 98284 00060

Also Known as:

  1. Canmore ID 25931
  2. Home Farm
  3. Standingstone

Getting Here

Castleton Standing Stone

Easier to locate if you approach from the Pool of Muckhart side: just off the A91, along a small lane that tells you it’s “Walking & Cycle Friendly”!  A half-mile along, up the hill, watch out in the fields to your right, where a clump of trees are enclosed 100 yards off the roadside, before you reach the track to Castleton Farm.  There’s a gate allowing access up the field, but you;re just as well asking at the farm, where the folks there are most helpful.

Archaeology & History

This, to me, is a gorgeous standing stone in a truly beautiful setting, living amidst a richly coloured landscape breathing life all around you.  I get one helluva good feeling when I visit this place—but it’s the cradle of the landscape itself with Law Hill, Gloom Hill and the Ochils stretching around here that adds the genius loci.  But that aside…

The northern cup-marked side
Castleton standing stone, looking south

Originally standing to the west of Castleton farmhouse a couple of hundred yards away, this large three-sided stone was moved and resurrected sometime in the 1920s to its present position.  It stands some eight feet tall, with a couple of its upright faces covered in what looks like curious cup-markings, but these are not man-made and are due entirely to Nature’s handiwork (despite what some archaeologists have said).  Immediately east is a small copse of trees within the remains of an unrecorded walled enclosure; although it is certainly of a later date than our standing stone.

Stone shown on 1866 map

The monolith was first described in the 1859 Name Book as, “a large standing stone about 8 feet high in the angle of the garden wall close to the W side of the farm steading, which gave name to the farm.”  It was shown on the first OS-map of the area by the farm-side when the building was known as Standingstone.

Folklore

In the 1859 Name Book it was told that the stone was “considered a…memorial of some event”, but we know not what.

References:

  1. Royal Commission on the Ancient & Historical Monuments, Scotland, The Archaeological Sites and Monuments of Clackmannan District and Falkirk District, Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 1979.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Firbrush Point, Killin, Perthshire

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Dun (destroyed):  OS Grid Reference – NN 603 337

Archaeology & History

Not to be confused with the ‘fort’ shown on modern OS-maps on the wooded slopes a few hundred yards to the south, the denuded remains of this site were shown on an 18th century map of the area (the Breadalbane estate plans). Probably Iron Age in nature, the local historian William Gillies (1938) described the place in his fine work,

“According to the atlas of 1769 there were ruins of an ‘Ancient Castramentation’ at Firbrush Point on the farm of Auchmore. An examination of this little peninsula revealed the foundation of a very thick wall that at one time ran across its neck, and formed a defence on the landward side. It is probable that the stones were removed for the erection of the small pier and harbour close by.”

An assessment of the site by some of the Scottish Royal Commission lads in the late 1970s found no remains of the thick walling and it seems all remains of this fort have sadly been destroyed.

References:

  1. Gillies, William A., In Famed Breadalbane, Munro Press: Perth 1938.
  2. Royal Commission on the Ancient & Historical Monuments of Scotland, Archaeological Sites and Monuments of Stirling District, Central Region, Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 1979.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian 


Dunruchan ‘E’ Standing Stone, Muthill, Perthshire

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Standing Stone: OS Grid Reference – NN 78997 16819

Dunruchan E stone, looking N

Also Known as:

  1. Aodann Mhor
  2. Canmore ID 24790
  3. Cornoch
  4. Shillinghill

Getting Here

Follow the directions to reach the standing stone of Dunruchan D, and there on the moor immediately to your south, 100 yards or so away, it stands before you!

Archaeology & History

Dunruchan E stone, with Dunruchan D to rear

This is the southernmost of the impressive standing stones on the plain below Dunruchan Hill.  Notably more ’rounded’ at the top than most of its associates—giving a more distinct ‘female’ nature to the stone than its companions—we find again, scattered around the base of this 7-foot tall monolith, a number of smaller rocks that gives the impression an old cairn was once here.  Certainly there are a scatter of several other cairns nearby and we get the distinct impression with all of the Dunruchan stones, that a prehistoric cemetery was once in evidence here.

Ground-plan of stone & cairn
Cole’s drawing of Dunruchan E

Although this is the last of the known standing stones in this area, there is every probability of other prehistoric remains hidden amidst the heathlands—perhaps even more large standing stones that have fallen and are overgrown with vegetation. When Fred Cole came here one time with the great rock art writer, Sir James Simpson, one such fallen standing stone was reported a short distance tot he east, but it has yet to be recovered.  There may be more.

In Fred Cole’s (1911) report of this particular “south stone”, or Dunruchan E,  he wrote:

“This monolith, in respect of position, somewhat resembles the last, because it stands on the west arc of a rudely circular setting of small stones, which, however, are not placed on a mound (as in the case of Stone D), but merely lie on the flat of the moor. Five of these blocks are large enough to be noticeable, and they occupy the positions shown by the outlined stones in the ground-plan (fig. 21), the farthest to the east being 15 feet distant from the inner face of the standing monolith A.  The dimensions of this Stone are: height 6 feet 9 inches, basal girth 16 feet 1 inch. In the illustration (fig. 22) I show this Stone with the other great one near set on its platform, and to the right two of the numerous small, low cairns which are scattered about this part of the moor. ”

Folklore

According to an account in the Ordnance Survey Name Book of 1860, “these stones are believed to mark the graves or commemorate the death of Roman soldiers who fell in a battle fought here between the Romans and the Caledonians.”

References:

  1. Burl, Aubrey, From Carnac to Callanish, Yale University Press 1993.
  2. Cole, Fred, “Report on Stone Circles 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. Hunter, John, Chronicles of Strathearn, David Phillips: Crieff 1896.
  5. Thom, A., Thom, A.S. & Burl, Aubrey, Stone Rows and Standing Stones – 2 volumes, BAR: Oxford 1990.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Dunruchan ‘D’ Standing Stone, Muthill, Perthshire

megalithix

Standing Stone: OS Grid Reference – NN 79044 16881

Also Known as:

  1. Aodann Mhor
  2. Canmore ID 24790
  3. Cornoch
  4. Shillinghill

Getting Here

Dunruchan D Stone – with Dunruchan E in background

Follow the directions to reach the Craigneich standing stone, then across the road and uphill past the Dunruchan B standing stone, uphill further past the Dunruchan C standing stone and onto the moorland plain just behind it. You’ll see two large standing stones ahead of you on the moor to the south, a coupla hundred yards away.  The nearest one is Dunruchan D.

Archaeology & History

Fred Coles’ 1911 drawing

Another fine large standing stone in this curious but excellent megalithic complex on the hills south of Comrie. This great monolith leans at a slight angle, and would be some 10 feet tall if the ages had kept it perpendicular. It’s truly impressive; and it emerges from the edge of a large raised cairn which almost surrounds it.  The cairn is overgrown yet some 3-4 feet tall and made up of thousands of small stones. It’s the most notable of the cairns scattering the plains of Dunruchan, and gives the best impression of the standing stones here being memorials to some ancient chief, queen or shaman.  As far as I know, this cairn has not been excavated, so we know not yet who or what lies beneath it.

Carved parallelogram design

A small section of the standing stone has some faded carving on its eastern side. These seem to be relatively recent, though a curious parallelogram design echoes the carving (albeit larger) on the Gleneagles B standing stone, 10 miles southeast, and which is thought to be Pictish.  The carving here, however, doesn’t have that feel to it.

The stone and the cairn were noted in Fred Coles’ (1911) survey, in which he called this the “south-west stone” and wrote:

“New features are presented in combination with this Stone. In lieu of being set absolutely solitary on the heath, there are, extending for a considerable area almost around its base, many stones and boulders laid in the form of a flattish circular cairn or platform (see ground-plan). The monolith, which leans over towards the north, is set to the south of the crest of the cairn, and there is a considerable fall from the crest to the level of the moor around it, indicating that a very great quantity of small stones must have been employed in making the cairn. The interior, shown dotted on the plan, bears signs of having been partially excavated, probably the cause of the Stone being so much out of the vertical. The stony cairn or platform measures 15 feet in diameter, and consists of moderate sized stones. The base of the great Standing Stone is oblong, and measures in girth 14 feet 2 inches. Down the slope of its back the length is 10 feet, and its present vertical height 8 feet 6 inches. The longer axis is almost exactly due east and west. From this spot the next Stone in order can be easily seen…”

Coles’ groundplan of cairn & stone

Several other small cairns scatter this grassy and heathland plain, all of them overgrown and none of them excavated.

Dunruchan D, looking south

As with the other Dunruchan monoliths, this one has been included in the megalithic stone row surveys by both Alexander Thom (1990) and Aubrey Burl (1993), but the staggered alignment this has with the other standing stones is more likely fortuitous than deliberate.  But this doesn’t detract from the magnitude of the megalithic cluster on this  small section of moorland.  A truly brilliant site!

Folklore

According to an account in the Ordnance Survey Name Book of 1860, “these stones are believed to mark the graves or commemorate the death of Roman soldiers who fell in a battle fought here between the Romans and the Caledonians.”

References:

  1. Burl, Aubrey, From Carnac to Callanish, Yale University Press 1993.
  2. Cole, Fred, “Report on Stone Circles 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. Hunter, John, Chronicles of Strathearn, David Phillips: Crieff 1896.
  5. Thom, A., Thom, A.S. & Burl, Aubrey, Stone Rows and Standing Stones – 2 volumes, BAR: Oxford 1990.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Duncroisk, Glen Lochay, Perthshire

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Dun (lost): OS Grid Reference – NN 539 386 (approximation)

Looking towards Laraig Bhreislich, from the south

Also Known as:

  1. Dun croisgh
  2. Lairig Breisleich
  3. Laraig Bhreislich

Archaeology & History

Although this site doesn’t appear in the modern records, the remote situation of the place suggests that some remains of the site could remain and be uncovered by diligent explorers and students. It is one of several lost “circular forts” that were described in William Gillies’ (1938) detailed historical text, that were first highlighted on a map of 1769. His brief description of this old fort told,

“The name ‘Duncroisg’ in Glenlochay, bears witness to the fort that once stood at the southern entrance to Laraig Bhreislich, the pass leading over the mountain to Glenlyon.”

There is is the possibility that some of the remote shielings clustered on the level at Airigh Allt an Eilein and Riabhaich used stones from this ancient site for their construction. On the level to the south of here are the overgrown remains of a prehistoric cairn, not included in archaeological surveys.

Note – Huge sections of prehistoric man-made walling have been located in the area, comprised of gigantic boulders, more reminiscent of enclosure walling.  The remains are extensive and huge, but severely overgrown in this remote landscape.  Watch This Space!

Folklore

Although not named specifically, this site would have been another of the Forts of the Fiann, or tribes of the hero-figure, Finn. The valley immediately adjacent to the location of the fort is still known as Fionn Ghleann, with the waters of Allt Fionn Ghleann strongly flowing through.

References:

  1. Gillies, William A., In Famed Breadalbane, Munro Press: Perth 1938.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Balbirnie Carving (01), Markinch, Fife

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Cup-and-Ring Stone: OS Grid Reference – NO 28587 02966

Also Known as:

  1. Balfarg
  2. Fif 1 (Morris 1981)

Getting Here

The cup-and-ring marked slab

Follow the same directions to find the Balfarg Stone Circle.  From the A92 going north from Glenrothes, turn E onto the country lane to Star and Kennoway. 100 yards on there’s a sign for Balbirnie; turn right here and about 200 yards on, where the road bends right, the circle’s just below you). This carving is perched on its side in one of the preserved grave cists within the circle, easily visible at ground level.

Archaeology & History

This carving (and its adjacent compatriot) was found inside the Balbirnie stone circle when it stood in its original position more than 100 yards northwest of the place it presently occupies (at NO 2850 0304). Thankfully, when the megalithic ring was moved and reconstructed, its original status was kept, including the repositioning of this impressive small cup-and-ring stone – despite it being a copy of the original.

Early photo of the carving

Like a good number of prehistoric tombs, this small carved stone was stood on edge, facing into the stone-lined tomb (cist), obviously representative of some important element in the Land of the Ancestors: perhaps a map of the landscape therein; perhaps a personal token; perhaps indicative of the spirits of the dead; perhaps a magickal amulet for safe guidance. There are a number of ritual possibilities here, and whichever it was, we can be sure the symbols were representative of the animistic cosmology of the neolithic people living hereby, linking the living with the dead.

As you can see from the original photograph, a number of cup-marks along the edges of the stone are accompanied by two or three cup-and-rings, one of which is very faint. Some carved lines run between some facets of the carving, linking one mythic element to another. Ron Morris (1981) described the carving, simplistically, as,

“Under a cairn, within a ring of stones, one of 5 cists had, carved on the inside of a side-slab (sandstone), ¾m by ½m by ¼m (2¾ft x 1¾ft x ¾ft): 2 cups-and-one-ring—one faint and incomplete—and also 8 cups, 2 with ‘tails’. Greatest diameter of ring 12cm (5in), and carving depths up to 2cm (1in).”

References:

  1. Burl, Aubrey, Rings of Stone, BCA: London 1979.
  2. Morris, Ronald W.B., The Prehistoric Rock Art of Southern Scotland, BAR: Oxford 1981.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Balbirnie Carving (02), Markinch, Fife

megalithix

Cup-and-Ring Stone: OS Grid Reference – NO 2850 0304

Also Known as:

  1. Balfarg
  2. Fif 1b (Morris 1981)

Getting Here

Old photo of the Balbirnie 2 carving

This carved stone is now held in one of the museums. To get a better idea of its original locale, take the directions to reach the Balfarg Stone Circle (from the A92 going north from Glenrothes, turn E onto the country lane to Star and Kennoway. 100 yards on there’s a sign for Balbirnie; turn right here and about 200 yards on, where the road bends right, the circle’s just below you) and look at the small stone-lined tombs (cists), within which this carving was first found.

Archaeology & History

This carving (and its adjacent compatriot) was first found within the Balfarg stone circle that originally stood more than 100 yards northwest of the site it now occupies (at NO 2850 0304). Found inside the edge of another prehistoric stone-lined tomb (cist) within the stone circle, the small elongated stone possessed at least 16 singular cup-marks along one flat face of the rock. Two adjacent cup-marks may be linked by a small line running between them. As you can see in the old photograph here, most of the cups run in two parallel lines, similar to the primary feature found on the more famous Idol Stone on Ilkley Moor.

Described in association with the Balbirnie 1 carving by Ronald Morris (1981) as simply, “a slab in another cist (with) cup-marks,” like its partner just a few yards away this carving was again representative of some important mythic element in the Land of the Dead to the person whose body was laid here.

References:

  1. Morris, Ronald W.B., The Prehistoric Rock Art of Southern Scotland, BAR: Oxford 1981.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Caisteal Mhic Neill, Cashlie, Glen Lyon, Perthshire

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Dun:  OS Grid Reference – NN 49036 41779

Also Known as:

  1. Caistealan nam Fiann

Getting Here

Site shown on 1867 OS-map

Truly remote, but easy to find once you’re nearing the western end of Glen Lyon. Going upstream, past Cashlie Dam, watch out for the well-preserved stone kiln on the left-hand side of the road, just before Cashlie house.  50 yards or further along, cross the road and in the field by the riverside, the circular mass of stones sorta gives the game away.

Archaeology & History

Shown on modern OS-maps as a ‘homestead’ and described variously by archaeologists and historians as a fort or a round-house, this is just one example of around twenty large prehistoric constructions that scatter the stunning mountainous Glen Lyon region which legend tells were the forts of the great hero-figure, Finn.  Three other constructions of the same nature are found just a few hundred yards further up the Glen from here.  Each is of roughly the same age and nature by the look of things.  Their walls are extremely wide and made up of very large rocks, which would have taken huge efforts to construct.

Caisteal Mhic Neill ruins, looking east
Caisteal Mhic Neill, with An Grianan behind

Highlighted on the 1867 OS-map as a “Tower”, the exact nature of this and its adjacent sites has yet to be academically ascertained, with the Canmore website ascribing the monument as a “settlement” – although, tradition tells them to be Scottish forts or duns, so we’ll stick with that until excavations tell otherwise!

The great Gaelic place-name master W.J. Watson (1912) told that:

“The fourth of the Cashlie towers is a few yards south of the road, right in front of Cashlie farmhouse, now a shooting lodge.  Though a quantity of large stones marks the site, the structure has been so badly knocked about that we found it impossible to take measurements sufficient for a plan. It was, however, apparently not circular, but rather oval. Its walls appeared to vary from about 9 feet to 12 feet 6 inches in thickness.”

Close-up of Caisteal walling

This is one of several other duns (or homesteads as the OS-map calls them) close to each other.

Folklore

Ascribed as one of Glen Lyon’s Caisteilean nam Fiann, or “castles of the Fiann”, Mr Watson (1912) again told how “there is a widely known saying, the earliest notice of which occurs in Pennant, who got it doubtless from the Rev. J. Stewart:

‘…Twelve castles had Fionn,
In the dark Bent-glen of the stones.'”

References:

  1. Gillies, William A., In Famed Breadalbane, Munro Press: Perth 1938.
  2. Watson, W.J., “The Circular Forts of North Perthshire,” in Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries, Scotland, volume 47, 1912.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:  Many thanks to Andy Sweet of Stravaiging Around Scotland, for pointing me to the W.J. Watson article.  And of course, a huge thanks to Marion—”I don’t have a clue where I am!”—Woolley, for getting us here….

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Adamnan’s Cross, Camusvrachan, Glen Lyon, Perthshire

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Standing Stone / Cross:  OS Grid Reference – NN 62537 47690

Also Known as:

  1. Eonan’s Cross

Getting Here

Adamnan’s Cross, Glen Lyon

Take the road from Fortingall into the Glen. About 4 miles down, past the farmhouse of Slatich, then Craigianie, watch carefully as you round the small bend in the road, where you’ll see a small standing stone on top of a rounded mound, right by the south side of the road, just over the fence. Go through the gate to enter the field less than 100 yards further on and walk back onto the hillock.

Archaeology & History

In this magnificent landscape down the longest of Scotland’s glens, standing atop of a knoll known as Tom a’ Mhoid, or “the moot hill” (Watson 1926), is this small standing stone about 4 feet tall which has long been ascribed as an important relic of the early christian period. They may be right – but it could as much be a more archaic monolith, onto which the carved crosses on either side of the stone were later etched, in the light of the myths of St. Adamnan whose name scatters this great glen and after the legend cited below was ascribed to him.

Close-up, showing large cross

The stone ‘cross’ stands atop of what at first sight seems a natural knoll; but all round it we find an excess of man-made remains and walling, all but constituting the hill itself. These are clearly visible on the aerial imagery of GoogleEarth. Antiquarian dogs here would be invaluable to ascertain the correct age and nature of the structures around this ‘cross’.

Faint cross near top of stone

Of the crosses carved onto the stone: the one on the southern face is a small faint one near the top of the upright; whilst the other is much larger and is easily visible, cutting right across the northern face of the monolith.  They are clearly of differing styles and would seem to have been carved by different people, perhaps a few centuries apart.  Curiously—as Marion Woolley pointed out—the smaller, fainter cross is carved above a ridge on the upright stone, mimicking the position of the stone on the knoll in its landscape setting.  Whether this is just a coincidence, or has been done on purpose, we might never know.

In Duncan Fraser’s (1969) excellent local history work, he names the stone here Eonan’s Cross and he too strongly suspects “the stone itself was probably erected at least a thousand years earlier” than the coming of the saint, making this a christianized standing stone – which it certainly looks like.  Mr Fraser said that,

“His cross stone, we can be fairly sure, was a Bronze Age standing stone long before it acquired its unusual cross.”

He may well be right…

Folklore

The mythic history of this cross-marked standing stone was told eloquently in one of Hilary Wheater’s (1981) fine short works. After giving a brief story of the tale of St. Adamnan, she went on to tell:

“A terrible plague swept through Scotland in the seventh century. It reached the Vale of Fortingall and so violent was its ravages that all the inhabitants were wiped out. Slowly the sickness began to infiltrate the Glen and in a panic the people of Glenlyon went to their preacher and beseeched him, “Eonan of the ruddy cheeks, rise and check the plague of thy people. Save us from the death and let it not come upon us east or west.”

“Adamnan rose to the occasion and gathered the people of the Glen to a hillock where he usually preached to them. In a house not forty yards away it is said that a child was already dying of ‘the Death.’

“There on the rock, with the people gathered round him, Adamnan prayed. When he was finished he raised his right arm, exhorted the devil body of the pestilence to come to him and, pointing to a large round rock lying on the ground, ordered the plague to enter it. A large circular hole appeared in the rock as the plague bored into it and Adamnan followed up this apparent miracle by the very sensible act of sending all the healthy people of the Glen up to the shielings until all signs of the pestilence disappeared…

“Thus were the people of the Glen saved from the plague. When they came back from their mountain retreat they erected a stone slab with two crosses on it to commemorate their deliverance. The rock itself they called Craig-diannaidh, the ‘rock of safety’, and the round stone with the hole through which the plague descended into the bowels of the Earth lies to this day at the side of the road near the stone slab.”

Adamnan’s Cross

The rocky slope immediately above the stone, on the other side of the road, was once the home of an old urisk who, sadly, long-since left the area – though his spirit can still be felt there.  Accounts of many other supernatural creatures are found scattering this part of Glen Lyon…

References:

  1. Barnett, T. Ratcliffe, The Road to Rannoch and the Summer Isles, Robert Grant: Edinburgh 1924.
  2. Fraser, Duncan, Highland Perthshire, Standard Press: Montrose 1969.
  3. Watson, W.J., The history of the Celtic Place-Names of Scotland, Edinburgh 1926.
  4. Wheater, Hilary, Aberfeldy to Glenlyon, Appin: Aberfeldy 1981.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: Massive thanks to Marion—”I don’t have a clue where I am!”—Woolley, for getting us here….and for her photo of the faint cross, above.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian