megalithic – Page 22

Whispering Knights, Rollright, Oxfordshire

06/07/201317/10/2025 megalithix

Chambered Tomb: OS Grid Reference – SP 29936 30841

Also Known as:

Five Knights

Getting Here

Stukeley's 1743 drawing — Stukeley’s 1743 drawing

Follow the directions to reach the Rollrights stone circle, from Chipping Norton. Walk past the entrance to the circle along the road for a coupla hundred yards, keeping your eyes peeled looking into the field on your right. You’ll notice the large rocky mass of these Knights a hundred yards down in the field, which can be reached by a footpath running straight along the old hedge from the roadside straight to the collapsed tomb.

Archaeology & History

A brilliant site—albeit nowhere like how it once was—where I slept a few times when I lived in the old hut at the Rollright stone circle down the road. A field-mouse lived here when I slept at the place and, hopefully, its ancestors still reside hereby (Rollright Trust’s poisons notwithstanding!). On my first encounter with the little fella, I felt him running into my waist-side whilst laying, dozing in the old tomb. He nudged into me—then again —and yet again; before I leaned over to see what was going on! And the little mouse looked up at me, without a care in the world, as if to say, “What are you doing lying on my path!? Can I get past please?” (though I’d not had a bath for a good 3 months, so didn’t smell like any modern human, which I think explained his total lack of fear)

Laying there, I smiled at the little fella, who then decided to jump up the side of my waist and walk over the top of me to get to the other side! He jumped down into the grasses and disappeared! However, a few minutes later, I felt another tiny ‘thud’ at my side and looked down to see the same lovely mouse wanting to go back along his obviously traditional route – and looking up at me again, whiskers twitching inquisitively, realised I was still here; and so once again took it upon himself to climb over the scruffy smelly human-sort who was blocking his route!

He was a gorgeous little mouse and we got to know each other quite well over the unwashed springs and summers I slept here….. But anyway, that’s not what you folks are interested in hearing about! Back to the archaeo-shit….

The Whispering Knights is one of the main sites in the cluster known collectively as the Rollright Stones, which also comprises of the standing stone commonly called the King Stone, plus the King’s Men stone circle a coupla hundred yards down the road from the Knights. They all sit atop of the ridge which separates the counties of Oxfordshire and Warwickshire along the edge of the prehistoric road known as the Jurassic Way. The sites are non-contemporaneous having been erected over a period of many centuries. The Whispering- or Five Knights are by far the oldest part of the complex dating from a period never previously anticipated. They comprise of four upright megaliths in close proximity, and a fifth fallen stone which is said to be the capstone on the original monument. This stone alone weighs some 10 tons.

The general archaeological opinion is that the place is a ‘portal dolmen burial chamber’ of which the capstone has fallen. The Oxford archaeologist George Lambrick (1988) postulated the stones to have been covered with a mound of earth, but any evidence supporting this has long since gone.

This great monument was initially thought by archaeologists to have been built sometime around 1800 BCE—a favourite date of academics for many an unexcavated site for many decades—until they turned their astute attention to the place in the 1980s. And what they found was astonishing. Well…astonishing for the archaeologists! Affirming the local folk tradition that the Knights were the “oldest monuments in Oxfordshire,” the dates truly went back. Way back! Datable remains at the site gave results from between 3500 and 3800 BCE: two thousand years earlier than anyone had ever expected of them.

Although five stones remain of the site, when the great William Stukeley (1743) visited the Whispering Knights, he described six of them to be visible with the great stones here to be sat upon a tumulus, saying:

“Tis composed of six stones, one broader for the back part, two and two narrower for the sides, set square to the former; and above all, as a cover, a still larger. The opening is full west to the temple or Rowldrich. It stands on a round tumulus, and has a fine prospect southwestward down the valley, where the head of the Evenlode runs.”

O.G.S. Crawford (1932) told us of a description which Sir Henry Dryden gave of the Knights in 1898, when he wrote:

“About 356 yards E from the (Rollright) circle and S of the road, is the dolmen about to be described, called the Five Whispering Knights. It is in a ruinous state. It now consists of four stones, upright, or nearly so, and one prostrate, all of coarse limestone…

Height, 8ft 3ins (4ft by 2ft 6ins)

    ”      , 7ft 3ins (3ft 6ins by 1ft 10ins)

    ”      , 6ft 7ins (3ft 8ins by 1ft 4ins)

    ”      , 5ft 4ins (4ft 9ins by 2ft)

Capstone (then fallen), 8ft 4ins by 5ft 9ins, by 2ft 4ins

“The chamber appears to have been about 5 feet 6 inches W and E, and the same N and S. If, as usual, there was an entrance, with or without a passage, it was probably to the ENE… There is not, so far as I know, any record of remains having been found in this dolmen. In a small stone pit about 700 feet NE by E from the circle it is stated that 12 skulls were found in 1835. In another stone pit near it was found in 1836 an urn and beads…”

During the last century, very little has really changed at the Knights. The ring fencing surrounding the stones has kept it pretty much protected, despite it ruining all sense of healthy ambience. But they have gained greater and greater attention the older they have got. Archaeologists are not the only ones exploring the site. Fascinated astronomers, engineers and architects have been and seemingly uncovered other mythic ingredients here.

When the legendary Alexander Thom came here, he used the archaeological data that was being espoused at the time, which said the Knights and the Rollright stones had both been built around 1750 to 1800 BC. With these dates as his guide, he found that someone standing at the centre of the Rollright circle, on the morning of the equinoxes—March 21 and September 21—the sun would rise right above the Whispering Knights. And the effect, he thought, was a notable one: with the light from the rising sun going straight through a hole in one of the stones in the circle as it rose up behind the Knights. It would have looked both spectacular and eerie in the rising mists of first light, like a laser cutting through the still morning air… However, although Thom’s measurements were very accurate, the archaeologists had got their dates wrong. Very wrong! For the Whispering Knights were about 1500 years older than the stone circle—and so the alignments Thom pronounced, based on the archaeologist’s erroneous proclamations, were also incorrect.

There may be other alignments connected to the Rollright complex. In a survey of the site as part of the Dragon Project experiments conducted here in June 1980, Leslie Banks and Christopher Stanley flew over the place and found, adjacent to the Whispering Knights, a quite distinct “trace of two dark green parallel lines in a field of ripening corn” running northwest to the roadside. To this day nobody quite understands the nature of this enigmatic alignment:

“In the absence of excavation we can only speculate,” said Stanley. “But the most likely explanation is that it is what archaeologists refer to as a Cursus. Cursuses are thought to be prehistoric religious processional ways.”

As with many of the alignments described here, the jury is still out on this one!

Folklore

The folklore here is prodigious! The prime story of the neolithic tomb of the Whispering Knights tells that originally they were in fact a group of traitors who moved away from a King and his army in ages past, and who were plotting against him, when the great Witch of Rollright (a southern version of the great cailleach, found in more northern counties, Scotland and Ireland) turned them all to stone (this tale is intimately bound up with the King’s Men stone circle and the associated King Stone).

Another tale tells how the King Stone and the Whispering Knights venture, at midnight, less than half a mile south to drink from a spring in the small woodland at Little Rollright Spinney, although it is difficult to ascertain precisely which of the two springs the stones are supposed to visit. In some accounts, the stones reputedly drink from the well every night, but others tell that they only go there at certain times of the year, or on saint’s days. When Arthur Evans (1895) wrote of these tales he described there being a “gap in the bushes… through which they go down to the water,” but the terrain has altered since his day.

Other accounts imbuing the stones with life tell how they only ‘awaken’ when disturbed by humans. A story well-known to local people is that of when the Knights had its capstone removed one day by a farmer who used it to build a bridge across the stream at Little Rollright. As Evans told us,

“it took a score of horses to drag it down the hill, for at first it would not move, and they had to strain and strain to get it along till every bit of the harness was broken. At last they got it to the brook by Rollright Farm, and with great difficulty laid it across to serve as a bridge. But every night the stone turned over back again and was found in the morning lying on the grass.”

Three nights of this led the farmer to think he should replace the stone which, so the fable goes, took only one horse to move it back uphill and into position. A variation of the same tale was told by T.H. Ravenhill, who wrote:

“The Lord of the Manor of Little Rollright desired to possess the King’s Stone in order to bridge Little Rollright brook. So he dug it up and tried to cart it away, but found that he had not enough horses. He hitched on more, and yet more, and still he found that he could not move the stone. Finally he succeeded and hauled the stone away to the Manor House. The same night he was alarmed by strange sounds about the house, which he attributed to the presence of the King’s Stone, and decided, therefore, to replace it on its mound. No sooner had he harnessed the first horse to the cart than it galloped away up hill with ease, taking with it the stone, which leapt to position on reaching its resting place.”

There are still more variations that are worth mentioning. One from 1876,

“said that a miller in Long Compton, thinking the stone would be useful in damming the water of his mill, carried it away and used it for that purpose, but he found that whatever water was dammed up in the day disappeared in the night, and thinking it was done by the witches (at Long Compton) and that they would punish him for his impertinence in removing the stone, he took it back again; and, though it required three horses to take it to Long Compton, one easily brought it back.”

In yet another version, the stone was wanted by a local farmer for his outhouse. In taking it downhill, the horses that pulled his wagon died and the vehicle itself was irreparably damaged. It got even worse for the poor chap: his crops failed, his family were taken ill and his cattle died. Eventually when all but his last horse remained, he made another cart and it pulled the stone back uphill with ease. Thereafter, so the tale goes, all his adversities stopped and he lived a normal life. In one version of this tale, the great monolith was said to have been taken north-north-west down to the stream at The Hollows, Long Compton. Tales such as these are, once more, found throughout the world.

The truth of these stories was seemingly unquestionable to some local people in the 19th century,

“one man going as far as to say that there were those now living who had spoken to men who had helped to bring the stone down and up again.”

In William Stukeley’s day, one Farmer Baker was so troubled by his actions that he couldn’t rest until he returned the old stone.

The doyen of the early geodelic sciences or Earth Mysteries movement, John Michell, suggested how the legends of megaliths moving of their own accord harked back to ancient days when the people of those times were more attuned to the terrestrial magnetic flows of the Earth.

The Whispering Knights were also a place where “young girls of the neighbourhood (use it as) a kind of primitive oracle.” One local told Arthur Evans that around barley harvest the young women of the district visited the Five Knights to listen to them whisper. One at a time they would rest their ears against the strange shapes of stone and, if fortune and conditions were right, they would hear the future told. This mass of animistic lore is very revealing indeed, telling us much about the way our peasant ancestors viewed the living world around them. (Eliade 1958)

In more recent times, the site has been explored by dowsers and ley hunters, who claim to have found a veritable bags of fascinating lost material around the Knights. Although originally ‘leys’ were described by Alfred Watkins as quite acceptable prehistoric trackways linking site to site to site, in recent years the original theory has been ignored and superceded with a host of almost incredulous fluctuations. Leys these days can run just about anywhere – and do!

One writer who tells about the leys around Whispering Knights is Lawrence Main. (1997) He dowsed and found a ley running south to the famous White Horse at Uffington. Roy Cooper (1979) was the first person to write about this alignment and extended it further north to the impressive and legendary Brailles Hill. That one seems reasonable. However,

“Other leys I dowsed,” said Main, “Linked the King Stone, the stone circle, and the Whispering Knights with each other; the King Stone with Banbury Cross; the Whispering Knights with Hook Norton church; and the stone circle with the churches at Todenham and Stretton-on-Fosse.”

Another dowsing ley hunter is Dennis Wheatley (not The Devil Rides Out dood). He wrote a couple of short works on his lengthy experiments at the Rollright stones and reported how he found a

“tangential aerial energy course…across the country (which) latches on to a solitary standing stone, six miles south, known as the Hawk Stone.”

Perhaps of greater importance here is that Wheatley also discovered how,

“all of the Rollright ring’s stones engage in aerial energetic cross-talk with the King Stone producing a triangulation of energy lines.”

This cross-talk of Wheatley’s involves more than seventy energy lines running between the circle and the King’s Stone. He tells us that a greater “aerial cross-talk” also occurs between the circle and the Knights; and “a lesser energetic triangulation” runs between the King and the Knights.

Along similar lines are the findings of the dowser Reginald Smith. (1980) Beneath the Whispering Knights he claimed to have found,

“a concealed spring which runs underground to the northwest and may betoken a consecrated site; but 100 feet to the east there seems to be another blind spring with issue to the northeast.”

References:

Bennett, Paul & Wilson, Tom, The Old Stones of Rollright and District, Cockley Press: London 1999.
Burl, Aubrey, Great Stone Circles, Yale University Press: New York & London 1999.
Cooper, Roy, ‘Some Oxfordshire Leys,’ in The Ley Hunter 86, 1979.
Crawford, O.G.S., Long Barrows of the Cotswolds, John Bellows: Oxford 1932.
Devereux, Paul, Places of Power, Blandford: London 1990.
Devereux, Paul, The Sacred Place, Cassell: London 2000.
Eliade, Mircea, Patterns in Comparative Religion, Sheed & Ward: London 1958.
Evans, Arthur J., ‘The Rollright Stones and their Folklore (3 parts),’ in Folklore Journal, 1895.
Gelling, Margaret, The Place-Names of Oxfordshire – volume 2, Cambridge University Press 1971.
Graves, Tom, Dowsing: Techniques and Applications, Turnstone: London 1976.
Grinsell, Leslie V., The Ancient Burial Mounds of England, Methuen: London 1936.
Lambrick, George, The Rollright Stones: The Archaeology and Folklore of the Stones and their Surroundings, Oxford Archaeology Review 1983. (Reprinted and updated in 1988.)
Main, Lawrence, Walks in Mysterious Oxfordshire, Sigma: Wilmslow 1997.
Ravenhill, T.H., The Rollright Stones and the Men Who Erected Them, Little Rollright 1926.
Robins, Don, Circles of Silence, Souvenir Press: London 1985.
Smith, Reginald A., ‘Archaeological Dowsing,’ in Graves, Tom (ed.), Dowsing and Archaeology (Turnstone: Wellingborough 1980).
Stanley, Christopher C., ‘A Rollright Processional Way?’ in The Ley Hunter 90, 1981.
Stuart, Sheila, Lifting the Latch, Oxford University Press 1987.
Stukeley, William, Abury: A Temple of the British Druids, London 1743.
Thom, Alexander, Megalithic Sites in Britain, Oxford University Press 1967.
Wheatley, Dennis, The Rollright Ring, Braden Press: Swindon n.d. (c.1990)

Links:

The Whispering Knights on The Megalithic Portal

Gleneagles ‘B’, Blackford, Perthshire

01/07/201324/09/2025 megalithix

Standing Stone: OS Grid Reference – NN 92431 09804

Also Known as:

Blackford
Canmore ID 25924
Loaninghead
Peterhead Farm

Getting Here

Gleneages symbol Stone — 19th century drawing of the old stone

Along the A9 dual carriageway between Blackford and Auchterarder, take the A823 road south, up Glen Eagles as if you’re going towards Pool of Muckhart and Dunfermline. Less than 100 yards up the road, turn immediately to your right and park-up. On the overgrown grassy land on the right-hand side of the road, you’ll see this solid monolith calling for your attention. You can go through the gate. You can’t really miss it!

Archaeology & History

Looking south, to the fairy-haunted Ben Shee

Described by archaeologists as a Class 1 Pictish Symbol Stone (and shown on OS maps as such), this is a fine solid standing stone more than 5 feet tall, with a lovely view up Gleneagles to the fairy mountain of Ben Shee beckoning in the distance. Immediately north on the other side of the dual carriageway, the tree-lined mound 100 yards away is an ancient fort (which we’ll deal with in another entry); and of course we have the nearby companion of the Gleneagles A standing stone a coupla hundred yards west. Whether or not this stone and its western companion ever had anything to do with the lost stone circle of Gleneagles, we might never know.

Although it seems consensus opinion that the standing stone here is prehistoric, the monolith was of some venerable importance to the Pictish people of the Ochils, who, according to the Royal Commission lads (1999) carved on this stone “the faint symbols of a goose and rectangle.” The rectangle, however, is in fact a parallelogram—as the images here clearly show. Archaeologist Richard Feachem (1977) thought the design was in fact “a double-sided comb.” I have my doubts (a much smaller and probably more recent parallelogram design was recently identified on the upright face of the large Dunruchan D standing stone, about 10 miles WNW of here). The ‘goose’ is carved above this geometric form and is much fainter, which may imply it was carved much earlier. In Elizabeth Sutherland’s (1997) survey, she suggests the bird may be an eagle. It is equally possible that it is a swan.

The earliest detaied account of this stone and its companion is in Mr Hutchison’s (1893) fine essay, where he wrote:

“On the south side of the road from Blackford to Auchterarder, about 150 yards west from Loaninghead where the line of the road is crossed by that from Gleneagles to Crieff, stands a fine stone of Highland grit. It measures 4ft. 10in. in height above ground, 10ft. in girth at the base, and 6ft. 9in. in circumference at top. It shows four sides of nearly equal measurement:— that facing north being 2ft 4in., south 2ft. 8in., west 2ft 5in., and east 3ft. On the north is an incised figure in the form of an parallelogram, 10in. broad by 9in. high, divided into three equal portions by two horizontal lines.”

References:

Calder, Charles S.T., “Notice of Two Standing Stones (one with Pictish Symbols) on the Lands of Peterhead Farm, near Gleneagles, Perthshire,” in Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries, Scotland, volume 81, 1947.
Feachem, Richard, Guide to Prehistoric Scotland, Batsford 1977.
Finlayson, Andrew, The Stones of Strathearn, One Tree Island: Comrie 2010.
Hutchison, A.F., “The Standing Stones of Stirling District,” in The Stirling Antiquary, volume 1, 1893.
Royal Commission on the Ancient & Historical Monuments of Scotland, Pictish Symbol Stones: A Gazetteer, Edinburgh 1999.
Sutherland, Elizabeth, A Guide to Pictish Stones, Birlinn: Edinburgh 1997.

Lundin Links, Largo, Fife

26/06/201316/06/2025 megalithix

Standing Stones: OS Grid Reference – NO 4048 0272

Also Known as:

Canmore ID 32656
Lundie Stones
Standing Stanes of Lundy

Getting Here

Along the A915 coastal road from Leven to Largo, as you reach Lundin, look out for signs for the Lundin Ladies Golf Course on the left. Go there and then ask someone at the golf course if you need help; but from here you just walk west over the greens till you are ambling along the back of some houses. You can’t really miss the giant stones a couple of hundred yards ahead of you. If you somehow get lost in Lundin itself, ask a local the directions to the Lundin Ladies golf course. You can’t really go wrong.

Archaeology & History

If you like your megaliths and you venture anywhere near here, make sure you come and visit these stones. They’ll blow you away! The only downfall we have is their location—stuck on the golf course; which, of course, means that meditating here is only possible between sunfall and sunrise (though I’ve usually found that’s the best time to be at stone circles anyway!), or perhaps in the pouring rain. Whichever is your preference, these stones need looking at!

The size of them is the first thing that hits you. They belong more to the Avebury complex than sitting out on their geographical limb near the southern Fife coast. But then, that presupposes other stones of this size didn’t used to be here—and as far as I’m concerned, other giant megaliths and associated monuments must once have stood nearby. But much of the landscape hereby has been taken over by traditional agriculture and any earlier megalithic remains have seemingly been lost.

We know there were at least four stones here in the 18th century and that also, “ancient sepulchres are found near them” according to the New Statistical Account of 1837—but all remains of these burials seem to have been lost or destroyed. These facts are echoed in Leighton, Swan & Stewart’s (1840) gigantic survey. Thought by a variety of archaeological and historical sources to be the remains of a great stone circle “with a diameter of 54 feet”—it’s an assertion that I’m not too sure about myself. They are just as likely to be the remains of a great stone avenue, perhaps leading to a stone circle, long since gone, as much as any small circle of giant uprights.

In 1933, the Royal Commission survey described the size of these great red sandstone monoliths,

“Each of them has been packed at the base with a setting of small stones. Although it is not the highest, the one on the south-east, which stands with a slight inclination towards the north and the east, presents the most massive appearance. The girth at the base is 12 feet 8 inches, but measurements taken at 5 feet from the ground give the following dimensions: north face, 5 feet 2 inches; south face, 5 feet; east face, 1 foot 11 inches; west face, 2 feet 2 inches; girth, 14 feet 3 inches; and the stone becomes even wider as its height increases, until near the top where it again shrinks to a very slightly rounded extremity. The height is approximately 13 feet 6 inches. The surface is pitted by the action of the weather and shows greatest traces of decay on the east, where a crack has developed. The south stone is set with a decided inclination towards the south. It is of very irregular form with a girth at the base of 9 feet 4 inches, expanding to 10 feet at 5 feet higher up, and suddenly becoming gently attenuated at the top. The stone, which does not exhibit the same noticeable traces of weathering as the one first described, is approximately 17 feet high. The north stone, which is set with a slight inclination towards the west, appears to be still taller. It rises to a height estimated at 18 feet and has a sharply pointed top. It shows evidence of weathering at the northwest corner. Like the others, it increases in bulk from the base upwards to the middle of its height, the girth being 9 feet 6 inches at the base, and 10 feet 2 inches at 5 feet up.”

Big buggers by anyone’s estimation! Not mentioned here is the very distinct anthropomorphism, in one stone particularly—that at the southwest: a slim curvaceous body with neck and head at the top, frozen in stone no less. Surely this was intentional by the people who erected these giants? The southern pairing stand like man and wife, awaiting ceremony and customary servitude from us mere mortals. The single northern stone—whose partner was removed in the 19th century—has a similar slim stature and size, like its southwestern companion. Was its now dead partner a similar shape and stature like the southeastern stone? – another petrified pairing of man and woman? …Tis a curious feeling I have of this place…

Our megalithic magus Aubrey Burl (1988) did note the “writhing pillars” of stone here, but ventured no further with it. He did tentatively suggest (and include in his work on the subject) that the Lundin stones were one of his “four poster” circles, but thought it “impossible to prove.” He did however revise the Royal Commission measurements on the respective standing stones, informing us that,

“The NNE is the tallest, 16ft 8ins (5.1m) high, the leaning SSW stone is 15ft (4.6m) high, but the lowest, at the SSE, is also the biggest, 13ft 8ins (4.2m) tall and 6ft 5ins (2m) thick.”

He also told that there were little cairns “about 18ins (46cm) high” around the base of each standing stone when he was here in the 1980s. These were not visible when we visited in May 2013.

When the late great engineer and archaeoastronomer Alexander Thom (1971) came here, he found the layout of the stones to have astronomical meanings, telling:

“It was obviously an important site, so placed on flat ground that there was plenty of room for geometrical extrapolation. The alignment is seen to indicate the setting point of the Moon at the minor standstill. Trees and houses now block the view, but as the new large-scale OS maps are now available…it was possible to construct a reasonably accurate profile of Cormie Hill. In good seeing conditions, a large tumulus could have been seen on the Moon’s disc, and the tumulus shown on the Ordnance Survey happens to indicate the upper limb when the declination was -(ε-ι-Δ). When the Moon set on Cormie Hill it would rise on the Bass Rock, and we see how the stones were so placed that the lower limb just grazed the Rock when the declination was -(ε-ι).”

Thom's lunar alignments — Thom’s lunar alignments

Thom reiterated his thoughts again in 1990, though pointed out that “the measurements should be checked” to see whether they were right. A few years earlier, Dr Douglas Heggie (1981) had done just such a thing and found the alignment seemed to be a poor one. And so it has turned out to be… Other megalithic sites however, have quite definite solar and lunar correlates in their architecture…but it seems our Lundin stones aren’t quite what Prof. Thom had hoped for.

Along the eastern face of the “fattest” stone we see a number of large cup-markings, but these are all Nature’s handiwork. They were mentioned in Sir James Simpson’s (1867) early survey on the subject. However, we did see, near the base of the stone, just above ground level on its southern-face, a very distinct cup-marking with what may be the remains of a broken-ring around it. You can make it out on the photo here, but I wouldn’t stake my reputation on its legitimacy!

Folklore

Described in the Royal Commission (1933) report “as the burial stone of Danish chiefs,” this is a common tale found at other remaining megaliths along the Forth. The earliest account of this fable I’ve found is in the Edinburgh Magazine of November, 1785, where it was written:

“Various have been the conjectures as to the origin of the erection of the (stones); they are commonly known by the name of the Standing Stanes of Lundy, a seat belonging to a very old family of the name of Lundin, now to Sir William Erskine, near Largo in Fife.

“Tradition tells us, they were placed there in memory of that victory gained by Constantine II over Hubba, one of the generals of the Danish invaders, about the year 874. It is certain that battle was fought near this spot; but whether these were in memory of the action or not, I cannot determine: it is more than probable they were of a much older date.”

Legend also told that there was treasure at the stones, which was one of the reasons Daniel Wilson (1863) told the northwestern stone was broken and left only as a stump in 1792.

References:

Burl, Aubrey, Four Posters: Bronze Age Stone Circles of Western Europe, BAR 195: Oxford 1988.
Burl, Aubrey, The Stone Circles of Britain, Ireland and Brittany, Yale University Press 2000.
Burl, Aubrey, A Guide to the Stone Circles of Britain, Ireland and Brittany, Yale University Press 2005.
Heggie, Douglas C., Megalithic Science: Ancient Mathematics and Astronomy in Northwest Europe, Thames & Hudson: London 1981.
Leighton, J.M., Swan, J. & Stewart, J., History of the County of Fife – volume 3, John Swan: Glasgow 1840.
Royal Commission on the Ancient & Historical Monuments, Scotland, Inventory of Monuments and Constructions in the Counties of Fife, Kinross and Clackmannan, HMSO: Edinburgh 1933.
Ruggles, Clive, Astronomy in Prehistoric Britain and Ireland, Yale University Press 1999.
Simpkins, John Ewart, Examples of Printed Folk-lore Concerning Fife, with some Notes on Clackmannan and Kinross-shires, Sidgwick & Jackson: London 1914.
Simpson, James, Archaic Sculpturings of Cups, Circles, etc., Upon Stones and Rocks in Scotland, England and other Countries, Edmonston & Douglas: Edinburgh 1867.
Thom, Alexander, Megalithic Lunar Observatories, Oxford University Press 1971.
Thom, A. & A.S., & Burl, Aubrey, Stone Rows and Standing Stones – volume 2, BAR 560(ii): Oxford 1990.
Wilson, Daniel, The Archaeology and Prehistoric Annals of Scotland, Sutherland & Knox: Edinburgh 1863

Acknowledgements: With huge thanks to Paul Hornby, for the photos and the journey! Also a big thanks to Gill Rutter for help in clarifying “Getting there.”

Rocking Stone, Warley Moor, Halifax, West Yorkshire

09/06/201308/10/2024 megalithix

Legendary Rock: OS Grid Reference – SE 03399 30199

Also Known as:

Sleepy Lowe

Getting Here

The old rocking stone, on the right — Looking east at the stone

From Denholme, take the A6033 Hebden Bridge road up, but shortly past the great bend turn off right up the steep road towards the moorland windmills until you reach the flat dirt-tracked road, past the reservoir below. A coupla hundred yards past the track to the reservoir, take the footpath south into the tribbly grasslands and moor. A few hundred yards down you’ll note the large rock outcrop ahead of you. The rocking stone is there!

Archaeology & History

A small moorland arena with a neglected history. Many lost memories surround this site, with barely legible ruins from medieval and Victorian periods prevailing against scanty snippets of neolithic and Bronze Age rumours and remains. The rocking stone here—which moves slightly with a bit of effort—sits amidst a gathering of other large rocks, some of which have debatable cup-markings on their smoothly eroded surfaces.

Our rocking stone, resting 1350 feet (411m) above seal level, was first mentioned in John Watson’s (1775) magnum opus, who gave a quite lengthy description of the site, telling us that,

“On a common called Saltonstall-moor, is what the country people call the Rocking-stone… The height of this on the west side (which is the highest) is, as I remember, about three yards and a half. It is a large piece of rock, one end of which rests on several stones, between two of which is a pebble of a different grit, seemingly put there for a support, and so placed that it could not possibly be taken out without breaking, or removing the rocks, so that in all probability they have been laid together by art. It ought to be observed, that the stone in question, from the form and position of it, could never be a rocking stone, though it is always distinguished by that name. The true rocking stone appeared to me to lie a small distance from it, thrown off its centre. The other part of this stone is laid upon a kind of pedestal, broad at the bottom, but narrow in the middle; and round this pedestal is a passage which, from every appearance, seems to have been formed by art, but for what purpose is the question.”

Watson's 1775 drawing of the Rocking Stone — Watson’s 1775 drawing of the Rocking Stone

Watson then goes onto remark about other rocking stones in Cornwall and further afield with attendant “druid basins” on them, noting that there were also “rock basins” found here on Warley Moor, a few of which had been “worked into this rocking stone,” which he thought, “helps to prove that the Druids used it.” And although these rock basins are large and numerous over several of the rocks on this plateau, like the cup-markings that also scatter the surfaces, they would seem to be Nature’s handiwork.

Turner's 1913 drawing — Turner’s 1913 drawing

Some 60 years later when the literary thief John Crabtree (1836) plagiarized Watson’s words verbatim into his much lesser tome, it seemed obvious he’d never ventured to explore the site. But in the much more valuable historical expansion written by John Leyland around 1867, he at least visited the site and found the old stone, “still resting on its shady pedestal.” Later still, when Whiteley Turner (1913) ventured this way on one of his moorland bimbles, he added nothing more to the mythic history of these west-facing megaliths…

Folklore

Still reputed locally to have been a site used by the druids; a local newspaper account in the 1970s also told how local people thought this place to be “haunted by goblins.”

References:

Bennett, Paul, The Old Stones of Elmet, Capall Bann: Milverton 2001.
Crabtree, John, Concise History of the Parish and Vicarage of Halifax, Hartley & Walker: Halifax 1836.
Leyland, F.A., The History and Antiquities of the Parish of Halifax, by the Reverend John Watson, M.A., R.Leyland: Halifax n.d. (c.1867).
Smith, A.H., The Place-Names of the West Riding of Yorkshire – volume 3, Cambridge University Press 1961.
Turner, Whiteley, A Spring-Time Saunter round and about Bronte Lane, Halifax Courier 1913.
Watson, John, The History and Antiquities of the Parish of Halifax, T. Lowndes: London 1775.

Borland Glen, Glendevon, Perthshire

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Stone Circle: OS Grid Reference – NN 99766 07093

Also Known as:

Canmore ID 223154

Getting Here

View from the arc of stones above the circle

Takes a bitta finding this one. Best found by going along the gorgeous, little-known Dunning Glen in the eastern Ochils, till you reach Littlerig house. Cross the road from there and follow the line of the burn and forest till it veers sharp left. Keep along the fencing until the marshland levels out and streams fall away both east and west. From here, walk uphill until you reach level ground, then, looking down the Borland Glen, zigzag downhill for 100 yards. Keep your eyes peeled for stones emerging from the Juncus grasses.

Archaeology & History

This four-poster stone circle isn’t included in Aubrey Burl’s (1988) survey of that name, nor his 2000 AD magnum opus on megaliths. The site appears to have only recently been rediscovered. Shown on modern OS-maps in non-antiquated lettering, this may be due to verification being required to authenticate its prehistoric status. It’s certainly in a peculiar position in the landscape here — and seems more likely to have been built just 100 yards uphill on the level grassland plain where views east, south and west open up almost with the majesty of Castlerigg!

Fondling & puzzling over cup-marks on one of the stones

When Paul Hornby and I ventured here yesterday, we mistook the arc of three stones on the flat plain with the ring of stones that are down the Borland Glen slope ahead of us, so good was the position! But at least one thing came of this: of the arc of three stones shown in the photos here, one of the rocks possesses cup-markings, which you can make out here in one of the close-ups.

The dimensions of the four stones that make up the ‘circle’ down the slope was measured and described by the Scottish Royal Commission lads as follows:

It comprises four stones, which define a trapezium measuring 3.2m along its N and W sides, 2.7m along the S and 2.5m along the E. All the stones are set square at the corners with their long axes lying E and W, and they present a long flat face to the interior. The two on the N are markedly larger than the others, and that on the NW is also the tallest. The dimensions of the stones are as follows: NW – 1m by 0.5m and 0.65m high, NE – 0.8m by 0.4m and 0.3m high, SE – 0.73m by 0.43m and 0.2m high and SW – 0.73m by 0.38m and 0.4m high.

One of the most notable features a visitor to this site will find, is the utter silence as you walk up the slopes to reach the place. And then, once away in the opening landscape, a view of velvet Earth in all Her beautiful shades surrounds you – assuming you go here on a sunny day! Well worth the wander if quiet hidden megaliths are your pleasure…

References:

Burl, Aubrey, Four Posters: Bronze Age Stone Circles of Western Europe, BAR 195: Oxford 1988.
Burl, Aubrey, The Stone Circles of Britain, Ireland and Brittany, Yale University Press 2000.

Acknowledgements: Many thanks to Paul Hornby for use of his photos.

Carie, Kenmore, Perthshire

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Standing Stone: OS Grid Reference – NN 64772 38018

Also Known as:

Canmore ID 289028

Getting Here

Along the A827 Loch Tay road between Morenish and Lawers, keep your eyes peeled for the Carie farmhouse on the mountain-side of the road (Tombreck is on the other side). The farmer here is very helpful and will let you walk up the land behind his abode if you ask. Go behind the trees round the back of his abode, following the small burn up for a couple of hundred yards until you see the stone in the long grasses on the right. It’s not too difficult to find.

Archaeology & History

Nothing seems to have been written about this small standing stone, found close to the large cluster of cup-and-ring stones of Ben Lawers. It sits alone in now-boggy ground, in a small dip of land near the stream above Carie Farm. The stone is barely a foot thick, but stands 3½ feet tall and is more than 4 feet wide. Its isolation is curious and makes it difficult to contextualize; but the stone is worth visiting if you’re exploring the rock art on the slopes above.

Wizard’s Stone, Dollar, Clackmannanshire

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Legendary Stone: OS Grid Reference – NS 9656 9904

Getting Here

Wizard's Stone on the 1866 OS map — Wizard’s Stone on 1866 OS map

From Dollar town centre, take the road up to the gorgeous Castle Campbell, but instead of turning up towards the castle, keep on the road, uphill, for another quarter-mile. As the road begins to level out, a small field and driveway on your left heads up to Kiloran house. Stop here, and note the stone in the field, right by the fence alongside the footpath which runs uphill by the field-side up into the woods. That’s the Wizard’s Stone.

Archaeology & History

The small Wizard's Stone, Dollar — The Wizard’s Stone, Dollar

This site doesn’t seem to be the remains of an authentic prehistoric standing stone (unlike the one along the same ridge a mile east at Castleton), but is more of a memorial rock relating to some witch traisl that occurred here several centuries ago. By virtue of this, I felt it needed to be included on TNA.

Not listed by Canmore, the stone is found in an area with a rich cluster of heathen place-names—most intriguing of which is the ‘Lochy Launds’ woodland, right above where this Wizard’s Stone now rests. The stone has been broken into smaller pieces in recent years—as the photos here show—and the small standing stone which remains is barely 3 feet tall at the edge of the field.

The local writer and historian Rennie McOwan (1989) told that it marked the spot where a warlock was burned in the 16th century. Years later, a local land-owner called John Moir erected the stone here as a memorial to the event. This was subsequently echoed by fellow local history writer Bruce Baillie (1998), when he wrote:

“A large whinstone in a field in a field is known as ‘The Wizard’s Stone’, having been set there by one of the Moirs to take the place of a rotting stake said to mark the spot where the last Dollar witch (and, naturally, the last Scots one), named Forrester, was burnt, though this is probably folk confusion with the vicar of Dollar, Thomas Forrest.”

Angus Watson (1995) could find no early references of this stone, other than it being mentioned in the 1860 Ordnance Survey Name Book. Further information on the site would be most welcome.

Folklore

Wizard's Stone, looking down to the road — Wizard’s Stone, looking down to the road

Reputedly one of the haunts and gathering places of the witches of the area, this spot was also known as Lochyfaulds, which the place-name giant W.J. Watson (1926) tell us means the ‘place of the Black Goddess,’ like the “Valley of the Black Goddess” of Glen Lochay, 40 miles to the northwest of here near Killin. Modern folklore ascribed the wizard here to have been Merlin—as highlighted in the adjacent place-name of “Merlin Park.”

References:

Baillie, Bruce, History of Dollar, DMT: Dollar 1998.
McOwan, Rennie, The Green Hills, CDL: Alloa 1989.
Watson, Angus, The Ochils: Placenames, History, Tradition, PKDL: Perth 1995.
Watson, W.J., The History of the Celtic Place-names of Scotland, Edinburgh 1926.

Giant’s Knowe, Culloch, Muthill, Perthshire

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Cairn (destroyed): OS Grid Reference – NN 7848 1762

Also Known as:

Canmore ID 24797
Crock-nafion
Fingalian’s Knowe

Archaeology & History

Landscape of the Giant's Knowe (image credit, Marion Woolley) — Landscape of Giants Knowe (photo by Marion Woolley)

Amidst the colourful and nurturing landscape close to the gigantic Dunruchan standing stones and just along the road from the solitary Craigneich stone, in the field across the road above Straid farmhouse could once be seen a fascinating-sounding prehistoric site that has sadly been destroyed. Some of the remains of this old monument can be found in the field-clearance of stones just over the fence, above the top of the field (many fields round here have scatterings of large stone clearings at the field edges), but we have no detailed accounts of the site. It was mentioned in early notes by the Ordnance Survey to have been,

“A large circular heap of small stone and gravel entirely removed in 1831. An urn filled with ashes and several stone coffins were found under it.”

The local historian John Shearer (1883) later told us that,

“A small mound of earth on the farm of Strayd, called Crock-nafion or the Giant’s Knowe, or the Fingalian’s Knowe, was cleared away several years ago. An urn containing burnt bones was discovered.”

Any additional information about this site and its folklore, would be greatly appreciated.

Folklore

To the west along Glen Artney whence our view takes us from here, old legend told that the valley was once the abode of a great giant who lived in a cave in one of the mountains thereby. In mythic lore, giants were the creation deities of hills, mountains and other geological forms, whose narratives were overturned and demonized by the incoming christian cult many centuries ago. It is likely that this once great tomb was deemed as the burial-place of our local giant – which would make this prehistoric site neolithic in age. But — logical though it is — this idea is pure speculation…

References:

Hunter, John, Chronicles of Strathearn, David Philips: Crieff 1896.
Shearer, John, Antiquities of Strathearn, David Philips: Crieff, 1883.

Robin Hood’s Stone, Allerton, Liverpool, Lancashire

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Standing Stone: OS Grid Reference – SJ 3997 8638

Archaeology & History

Robin Hood's Stone (after Alfred Watkins) — Robin Hood’s Stone (after Alfred Watkins)

Similar in size and appearance to one of the cup-marked Tuilyies standing stones in Fife, Scotland, it was our old ley-hunter, Alfred Watkins, who described this stone in his Ley Hunter’s Manual (1927), along with giving us the old photograph taken by one of his mates here, which also showed the cup-and-ring carvings near the base of the stone. Are they still visible? (I’ve not been here, hence mi ignorance!) Watkins thought the cup-markings at the bottom represented some of the local leys—but unfortunately they don’t.

Folklore

Legend says that the deep grooves running down the stone were made by men sharpening arrow-heads on it (like a whetstone). There was also the usual christian Victorian fable that the stone was used by the druids and that the grooves on the stone were where the blood of their human sacrifices was channelled to the ground! The stone was also said to have some relationship with the nearby Calder Stones (which seems probable).

References:

Cowell, Ron, The Calderstones – A Prehistoric Tomb in Liverpool, Merseyside Archaeological Trust 1984.
Watkins, Alfred, The Ley Hunter’s Manual, London 1927.

Links:

Mike Royden’s Local History Pages – Robin Hood’s Stone

Tuilyies, Torryburn, Fife

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Standing Stones: OS Grid Reference – NT 0291 8660

The Tuilyies standing stones on 1854 OS-map

Also Known as:

Canmore ID 49451
The Tuilyies

Getting Here

Go west out of Dunfermline on the A994 till you hit the Torryburn roundabout, taking the A985 Kincardine road. Barely a half-mile along, stop at the first parking lay-by at the roadside – and there, over the barbed wire fence, you’ll see your standing stones right in front of you.

Archaeology & History

Overlooking the northern shores of the Firth of Forth is this fascinating group of standing stones which, old lore told, was once an old stone circle. You can see what they meant. The Tuilyies consists of a small group of three stones, between 3 and 7 feet tall, arranged in the form of a scalene triangle; and about 20 yards away stands the more impressive outlying 8 foot tall upright stone, somewhat akin to a petrified ancestor, with both natural and man-made cup-markings on at least two sides of its slim body. This outlying stone is of a very different character to that of its close neighbours—and a different type of stone as well—and is very similar in both size and appearance to the Robin Hood Stone at Allerton, near Liverpool. Curious…

The east-facing cup-marked Tuilyies stone

Whether the stones here were part of a stone circle we don’t know for sure. It was suggested as such in 1793 and Aubrey Burl (2000) includes them in his primary survey, but we have little evidence to prove as such nowadays. The parish of Torryburn not only had to contend with industrial agriculture knocking down any stones that may once have stood here, but in the 17th century the village also had to tolerate the psychiatric delusions of one reverend Allan Logan: one of the many deranged priests who saw witchcraft and demons in everything natural or animistic, persecuting local people for their old traditions, herbalism and peasant-lore. (Beveridge 1885; Cunningham 1902; Webster 1820, etc) These old stones were unlikely not to have received his depraved attention. But thankfully, some remain standing…

The Tuilyies seem to have been described first of all in the 1793 Old Statistical Account of Scotland—and in that narrative we find one of the earliest descriptions of cup-markings. It told that,

“In a pretty extensive plain field NE of the village of Torryburn, there is a flat stone, raised upon one end, of a shape nearly oblong and measuring, from the surface to the top, about 8 feet, and about 4½ in breadth, Round the edge of it there is a deep circle, and on each of the sides a number of ridges, all of which wear the appearance of art and antiquity. At about 18 or 20 paces from this stone, there is a number of smaller ones, which, from their present position, seemed to have formed part of a circle.”

Many years were to pass before these old stones heard from the men of words again. This time it was the renaissance of cup-and-ring designs that brought them back to light, when Sir James Simpson (1866), in his massive precursory essay to British Archaic Sculpturings (1867) talked about them:

“The stone at Torrie, Fifeshire…is a flattened sandstone flag, deeply guttered in longitudinal lines, and presenting cup- markings on its eastern side. It has been attempted to be made “a holed stone,” like (the) this block at Ballymeanoch (Argyll), but the artificially splayed perforations from the opposite sides do not meet in the middle. About fifty paces from it are the remains of a small circle of stones.”

Unusually, J. Romilly Allen only mentioned the stones in passing, simply repeating Simpson’s earlier words. Even local historians gave the site scant attention. In David Beveridge’s (1885) magnum opus he gave only a brief mention of the stones; and A.S. Cunningham (1902) did likewise. Thankfully after a visit to the stones by the Royal Commission lads in May 1925, a more detailed description was given. They wrote:

“The site of the cup-marked standing stone…is a plateau, 150 feet above sea level, in a field on Torrie Estate about half a mile to the northeast of the village of Torryburn, and on the north side of the drive to Torrie House. At a distance of 60 feet from it are three huge boulders, and the four are said to be the remains of a circle, although that idea is not borne out by their present disposition.

“The cup-marked stone rises to a height of 8 feet above the ground and has its narrow faces to the north-east and south-west. It is of irregular form, narrowing somewhat at 7 inches from the base, expanding outwards at the middle, and contracting again to a roughly convex top. On the east face the lower portion is covered with cup-marks. which vary from 1½ to 5 inches in diameter and from 1½ to 2 inches in depth. At a height of 6 feet from ground level, in the south-west angle of the stone, is a cavity 7 inches in depth, while there is a similar cavity of like depth opposite to it on the west face. The stone is also marked on the east and west faces, as well as on the top and down the narrow sides, with a series of perpendicular grooves of varying depth, but all these channels are due to weathering. Its measurements are: north face, 1 foot 3 inches; south face, 1 foot 4 inches; east face, 4 feet 4 inches; west face, 4 feet 3 inches; girth at base, 10 feet 8 inches; at 7 inches up, 8 feet 10 inches; at middle, 10 feet 5 inches.

“The three other boulders are set in the form of a triangle immediately to the south of this cup-marked stone, at intervals of 12, 15 and 16 feet apart. One has evidently fallen from an upright position and now lies with its major axis north and south. None of the three shows any markings. They are of whinstone, while the cup-marked standing stone is of grey sandstone.”

But as for the lack of cup-markings on the outlying smaller stones, when Ron Morris (1973) examined the site in the ’70s, he found what seemed to be some cup-marks on the largest of the group of three stones, as shown in the photos. On this he reported,

“25yds S of the well-known cup-marked standing stone are 3 large boulders. The W of these, measuring 7′ x 4½’ x 3½’ high, bears on its slightly W-sloping top surface 7 cups cup to 2″ diameter and ½” deep.”

When I visited the site the other day, these were difficult to see—cos as the photos here show, Nature gave us a bittova dark grey day and such carvings are notoriously temperamental when weather conditions aren’t to the stone’s liking!

Folklore

The Old Statistical Account of 1793 told that the stones were supposed to have “been the scene of a battle in some former period, and these stones…mark the graves of some of the chiefs, who had fallen in the engagement.” The lore was echoed in David Beveridge’s (1885) huge local history work, where he informed the reader that many standing stones along the Forth,

“are all connected with the Danish incursions. One specially may be mentioned, standing near Torryburn, the parish adjoining Culross, in a field which is still known by the name of the Tuilzie, or Battle Park.”

References:

Allen, J. Romilly, “Notes on some Undescribed Stones with Cup Markings in Scotland,” inProceedings of the Society of Antiquaries Scotland, volume 16, 1882.
Beveridge, David, Culross and Tulliallan: Its History and Antiquities – volume 1, William Blackwood: Edinburgh 1885.
Burl, Aubrey, The Stone Circles of Britain, Ireland and Brittany, Yale University Press 2000.
Cunningham, A.S., Romantic Culross, Torryburn, Carnock, Cairneyhill, Saline and Pitfirrane, W. Clarke: Dunfermline 1902.
Morris, Ronald W.B., “The cup-and-ring marks and similar sculptures of Scotland: a survey of the southern Counties – part 2,” in Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries, Scotland, volume 100, 1969.
Morris, Ronald W.B., “Torryburn, Torry – Cup-Marked Rock’, in Discovery & Excavation in Scotland, 1973.
Royal Commission on the Ancient & Historical Monuments, Scotland, Inventory of Monuments and Constructions in the Counties of Fife, Kinross and Clackmannan, HMSO: Edinburgh 1933.
Simpson, J.Y., “On Ancient Sculpturings of Cups and Concentric Rings,” in Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries, Scotland, volume 6, 1866.
Simpson, James, Archaic Sculpturings of Cups, Circles, etc., Upon Stones and Rocks in Scotland, England and other Countries, Edmonston & Douglas: Edinburgh 1867.
Webster, David, A Collection of Rare and Curious Tracts on Witchcraft and Second Sight, D. Webster: Edinburgh 1820.