Kilry, Glen Isla, Angus

Standing Stone: OS Reference – NO 2432 5449

The stone in the wooded glade

The stone in the wooded glade

Also Known as:

  1. Canmore ID 31093

Getting Here

Take the B954 north from Alyth, and turn left onto the unclassified road at Craigisla House, turning right at Dykehead, then take the right fork at Faulds. Park up by the school about ¼ mile further on, and the stone is in a wooded glade on the opposite side of the road along a track to the left of ‘Standing Stone’ cottage.

Archeology and History

Quoted in the Canmore database, A.J. Warden, writing in 1882, described the stone:

Kilry 04Kilry 03The standing stone on Broomhall estate is a large amorphous whinstone, standing in a small field near the confluence of the Kilry Burn and the River Isla.  It is c.7′ high and c. 10′ in circumference at the base. Tradition states that it commemorates a battle fought between the laird of Kilry and the Durwards of Peel.’

On the OS map the stone is aligned with the Pitmudie Stones and the Knowehead of Auldallan Stones to the north east.

References:

  1. Warden, A.J.,  Angus or Forfarshire: The Land and People, Descriptive and Historical – volume 3, Dundee 1880-5.

© Paul Hornby, The Northern Antiquarian


Formal, Bridge of Craigisla, Lintrathen, Angus

Standing Stone (fallen):  OS Grid Reference – NO 25618 54024

Also Known as:

  1. Canmore ID 31046

Getting Here

Standing Stone on 1865 map

Standing Stone on 1865 map

From Alyth village, take the B954 road north for several miles.  At the sharp bend of the road when you’ve crossed the Bridge of Craigisla, a few hundred yards along take the next road left.  Barely 100 yards along, stop!  Walk into the where the large farm-buildings are and keep your eyes peeled on the ground, just in front of the first farm building.  A large long stone measuring about 7-feet (2.1m) is thereby beneath your very feet!

Archaeology & History

Formal Stone, laying down

Formal Stone, laying down

At the edge of the farm-buildings this all-but-forgotten standing stone lays prostrate, almost hidden, and slowly being covered by the soil and grasses, nearly falling away past the eyes of history.  It’s a pity, as this fallen stone would have stood some six-feet upright, with a couple of feet of it underground.  When it was mapped by the Ordnance Survey lads in the 1860s, a portion of the stone remained standing.  This was echoed in the survey of the Object Name Book in 1861 in which the buildings of Formal were described:

“A fine farm house and offices the property of the late Robert Smith Esqr. of Balharry – in the stackyard is a broken standing stone, to which my attention was drawn by Alexander Annand of Blackdykes and the (parish) Minister.”

Thankfully the present-day farmer here would like to have the stone stood back upright, so hopefully its resurrection aint gonna be too far away.

Formal Stone, looking east

Formal Stone, looking east

Formal Stone, looking south

Formal Stone, looking south

The stone isn’t lying in its original upright position.  It used to stand nearly 10 yards east of here, and was knocked down and rolled into its present spot when an earlier adjacent building was erected.  Another large boulder in the corner where the walls meet (at NO 25585 54044), just through the gates, may also have had some megalithic relationship with the fallen monolith.

© Paul BennettThe Northern Antiquarian