Along the main A924 Atholl Road in Pitlochry, head west towards the Perth Road, under the railway bridge and, another 200 yards along, take the right-turn and walk over the river bridge. Once on the other side of the River Tummel, about 150 yards on turn left and walk along the minor road for 400 yards where, just past some houses, a path takes you on the left into the fields. You’ll be able to see a large tree-topped mound in the next field ahead of you. Follow the line of fencing and you’ll reach the site.
Archaeology & History
Dunfallandy, looking N
This is a gorgeous site in a beautiful setting, close to where the River Tummel meets with the River Tay. It has that archetypal fairy mound look to it and, if the folklore is right, the association would seem to be a real one! The old school ley-hunters that follow Alfie Watkin’s original notions of straight tracks would also be intrigued by this notable tomb.
An early description of it by the local writer Hugh Mitchell (1921) told that, around the middle of the 19th century, this large mound of rock and earth, “was surrounded by upright stones, but these were carted away about eighty years ago to repair a breach in the embankment of the River Tummel.” In Mitchell’s (1923) later work on the antiquities of the Pitlochry district he expanded on his earlier notes, pointing out, again, the notable clump of trees on the grassland plain where it lives:
The fairy mound in 1925Top of the mound
“The trees are growing on a Neolithic burial mound,” he wrote, “which is composed of small stones and earth, and is circular, having a height of about 8 feet and a diameter of about 50 feet. It is surrounded by a shallow ditch about 6 feet wide and 18 inches deep and having a raised margin round it. There was a row of standing stones round the mound which were carted away about 80 years ago… This mound has been partially excavated and any graves near the surface have been destroyed, but some of the old people say they remember seeing small stone cists, which appear to have been of the usual Neolithic type. The surrounding ditch is unusual, and in that respect the mound differs from any other in the district.”
When John Dixon (1925) came to describe the site a few years later, he merely echoed what Mitchell had written, although said that the “row of standing stones” Mitchell described was a “circle of standing stones.” Without a modern excavation, we may never know which is the more accurate. The closest it seems we’ve got to archaeologists looking at the site is when the old-school dudes Childe & Graham (1943) came here, but they just told us what we already knew, saying how it,
“is constructed of large rounded stones and earth and measures 60 feet by 48 feet on plan; its sides rise steeply to a flattened top the surface of which, though disturbed, shows no trace of any cist.”
Dunfallandy, looking SW
The cists, of course, had been shifted a century earlier. And when Colin Lidell (1994) included the site in his recent history of Pitlochry, he too could add no more than what the old antiquarians had given us…
It’s not changed much over the last century. The mound has got slightly smaller, in both height and width, and the ditch that surrounded the tomb wasn’t apparent on my recent visit—although the crops were high. My own personal thought is that we’re looking at a Bronze Age tomb, not a neolithic one—but I’d love to be wrong! The older the better in my opinion! It’s worth checking out when you’re in the area. I loved the place!
Folklore
On the east-side of the River Tummel, a few hundred yards from the tomb, there are several place-names of Dalshian, meaning “the flat or field of the peaceful folk, or fairies”, which the local writer Hugh Mitchell (1921) thought also related to the ground on which our tomb resides:
“There seems little doubt,” he wrote, “that this burial mound is the Sithean (Shian) which at one time gave its name to the whole flat.”
Traditions of the sith (fairies) and similar creatures are rampant in this neck o’ the woods.
References:
Childe, V.G. & Graham, Angus, “Some Notable Prehistoric and Medieval Monuments”, in Proceedings Society Antiquaries Scotland, volume 77, 1943.
Dixon, John H., Pitlochry, Past and Present, L. Mackay: Pitlochry 1925.
Feacham, Richard, Guide to Prehistoric Scotland, Batsford: London 1977.
Lidell, Colin, Pitlochry — Heritage of a Highland District, Perth & Kinross District Library 1994.
Mitchell, Hugh, “The Picts in Athol”, in Transactions Inverness Scientific Society Field Club, volume 8, 1921.
Mitchell, Hugh, Pitlochry District: Its Topography, Archaeology and History, L. Mackay: Pitlochry 1923.
Acknowledgements: Huge thanks for use of the Ordnance Survey map in this site profile, reproduced with the kind permission of the National Library of Scotland.
Along the A81 road between the Port of Menteith and Aberfoyle, ¾-mile (1.2km) west of the Port of Menteith you’ll see a small single-track road on the right—by a group of cottages—that takes you uphill. Go uphill for just over a half-mile and park-up on the rough grass on your left, ensuring there’s enough room for a tractor to get past (if some halfwit Englishman comes out and says “you can’t park there!”, remind him that this is Scotland!*). Just where you’ve parked-up there’s a dirt-track on your left; walk up it, go through the gate, and nearly 300 yards after this there’s a gate into the fields on your left. Go through here, and follow the straight line of fencing for 700 yards, passing one of the Netherglenny cairns, till you hit a wall. Go through the gate and, 60-70 yards south-west on a raised ridge of land is a long line of bedrock stone. You’ve arrived!
Archaeology & History
Cups & rings & solar sign?
In the early 1990s, rock art explorer Kaledon Naddair gave a talk at Kilmartin on the prehistoric rock art of Scotland. Amongst other carvings, he reported on a number of new finds that he and others had made at the Ballochraggan complex near Aberfoyle and, as I recall, it included this fascinating and almost unique design (Naddair and his team did hundreds of detailed drawings of many carvings, most of which are very hard to find nowadays). Some years later, in 2009, rock art student George Currie came across the same stone shortly before forestry plantation grew to obscure it entirely. It was described for the first time in Brouwer & van Veen’s (2009) fine survey of the Ballochraggan petroglyphs. My first visit here was in 2021 in the company of Prof Paul Hornby, when the forest was still standing and we had to cut our way through the trees to see a section of stone. A few years on, now that the forest has been cut down, all of the carving has come to light again—and it’s a bittova beauty!
Down the stone NE-SWBowls & troughs of water
Described erroneously by the Scottish Rock Art Project as being at Netherglenny, this impressive design is just north of Ballochraggan house and is a faded but impressive carving, possessing a rare ‘motif’ or symbol not usually found on Scottish petroglyphs. The line of rock on which the carving’s found runs in a northeast-to-southwest line, perhaps relating to the rising and setting of the solstice sun. Perhaps… Most of the carving is a scatter of cup-and-rings covering more than half the length of the rock surface, mainly on its more western section. But also, notably, there’s a series of geological bowls and troughs along the rock, primarily from the middle of the stone to the easternmost end where, perhaps significantly, there are few carved elements apart from a couple of cup-marks close to two of the deep bowls. The bowls and troughs are mainly along the central and northern edge of the stone. On my visit here recently, near the end of a lengthy heatwave, these natural ‘bowls’ were still filled with a lot of water! I was grateful—and used the water to highlight some parts of the carving.
First group of cup&rings
…And so…
First group of cup&rings
We approach the stone from its north-eastern end. Walking to the troughs and bowls of water, collecting some of it as we pass, it’s important to recognize that this water would have had some mythic relationship with the carving we are about to see. The water in these bowls may have been used to mix organic paints, or possessed some healing virtues relative to the spirit of the rock; it would certainly have had some relevance to the design, so it’s important to mention them even though they’re Nature’s handiwork. But as we get near the end of these watery cleavages, more of the cup-marks begin to appear.
The first suggestion of a cup-and-ring appears where a single cup has the beginnings of a ring, or an arc, on its eastern side; and there’s a single cup attached to the end of this arc. Just past this is another cup-mark which, when looked at from certain angles, seemed to have had a very faint ring round it—but I’m really not sure. A couple of other single cups are just past these two, roughly in line with them. They’re clearly visible in the photos. Continuing southwestwards we come across a small cluster of cup-and-rings—two of them touching each other gently, all but kissing each other! From these conjoined cup-and-rings, a step to the north brings us to another single cup-and-ring.
Cups & rings & thingsMore cups & rings & things
More intriguingly is what’s found a foot or so further west from the cup-and-rings that kiss! We come across a very faint double cup-and-ring that never seem to have been completed—instead, intruded upon by two or three cup-marks on its northern edge and, more curiously still, what looks to be straight lines intruding the outer ring at various angles, almost in the form of the letter ‘W’—or ‘M’ depending where you’re stood. It can be seen quite clearly in the photos here, both left and right. I couldn’t make my mind up about this particular ‘W’ ingredient, inasmuch as: which parts of it are natural, and which parts are man-made. As I walked round and round this element, crouching down, standing up and gazing at it from as many angles as I could, it never seemed to show itself fully one way or the other. There’s undoubtedly some man-made element about it, but its ambiguity should perhaps be left to the computer-tech rock art kids and give them something to do when they next get some grant money to line their pockets. 😉
Large isolated cup-markPhoto from 2021
Detached from this portion of the petroglyph, a yard south of the main line of rock, is a small, earthfast oval-shaped stone. On it is a large deep cup-marking, bigger than all the other cup-marks on the main stretch of carvings. But back onto the main length of the carving and continuing west, we next step over a notable (but not large) natural scar running roughly north-south across the stone. Stepping onto the other side of this scar, the petroglyphic symbolism gets more expansive and complex.
Spoked-wheels & moreThe first spoked-wheel
On the other side of the crack is another one of Nature’s carvings: a large, deep tear-shaped bowl. About twelve inches above this (north), albeit very faint and almost impossible to see in some lights, is a wide carved circle, at the centre of which is a small cup-mark and, emerging from this central cup and reaching to the outer edges of the ring are a series of at least nine straight carved lines, somewhat like spokes on a wheel (but in no precise geometrical order), giving the impression of what some folk like to call a ‘solar’ symbol. It may indeed have symbolized the sun—but we simply don’t know.
Next down the rock is a small scatter of single cup-marks and then we reach another spoked-wheel or solar symbol, about the same size as the first one and again made up of at least nine ‘spokes’ radiating from a central cup-mark. A couple of single cup-marks are outside or above the ring. Between the two solar wheels is another natural elongated hollow, albeit shallow compared to the others on this length of rock.
Multiple cup-and-ringFaint multiple rings
From here, a few steps further west brings us to two very faint multiple-rings. These intrigue me just as much as the spoked-wheels! Initial views of them seem to show them as double-rings around a central cup, but as I watered them and got views of them from different angles, it was obvious that there was more to them (as usual!), with one of the cups seemingly surrounded by four rings—although the outer ring is seemingly incomplete. I’m not 100% sure about it though and it would be good to get more views around sunrise and sunset when the light paints the stone with richer textures, bringing the spirit of the rock into greater life. The other multiple-ringed motif—three rings in all—is faint, but clearer in giving up its secrets: the outer ring of this looking somewhat deformed as it droops down in a more ovoid form.
As we walk now to the very end of this long stretch of rock, no more carved imagery greets the eye. If there was ever anymore to be seen, the elements and Time itself have faded them from view (the nearby Mask Stone exemplifying the difficulty we have in seeing eroded carvings). If, however we walk off the western end of this rock, down into the uneven mass of roots, branches and decaying trees and keep going westwards, a short distance away is another outcrop, albeit much smaller. It has a single cup-mark on its surface. And, quite obviously, other carvings will still be found beneath the mass of dead trees and vegetation across this piece of land. It was obviously a very important place indeed…
The entire carving is a pictorial narrative whose story has been lost. Its complexity fits into the scheme of other carvings in this locale, possessing a rich tapestry of complex symbols along one stony face. It reminded me somewhat of the equally impressive Blarnaboard (3) carving which, curiously enough, this Solar Stone points directly at four miles away to the southwest, and which also possesses a series of multiple complex symbols cut along a long thin stretch of bedrock stone.
Anyhow, to those of you who just need the simplistic shorthand of the archaeologists: this carving comprises of at least fifteen single cup-marks, five cup-and-rings, a cup-and-double-ring, two cup-and-triple-rings (one of which may actually be cup-and-four rings), and two spoked-wheels or solar symbols. It’s good—even by Ballochraggan standards!
Parish, Nick, “Perthshire: Nether Glenny Field Visit,” in Discovery & Excavation Scotland, 2023.
* Numerous people have reported encountering this dickhead, and a number of local folk as far as Aberfoyle also report him as a miserable angry little man. Please don’t be intimidated by his antics (he’s obviously an unhappy old control freak) as he has no legal basis in Scottish law for you to do what he commands. Just walk on by and leave him to stamp his little feet and rant.
Acknowledgements: Huge thanks for use of the Ordnance Survey map in this site profile, reproduced with the kind permission of the National Library of Scotland.
From the red phone-box at the road junction in Strathtay village, walk aling the road, east (slightly downhill) for less than 50 yards then turn left and walk up the track. After 70-80 yards, keep your eyes peeled for the footpath that runs up the slope into the tgrees (don’t head to the house in front of you). After a half-mile you reach the gorgeous old Tullypowrie farmhouse on your left; keep walking uphill for another 300 yards until your reach a large tree on your left, above which, sat on some very low walling, you’ll see a small upright stone.
Archaeology & History
Faint cross on western face
This little-known early christian carved stone, sitting on the vague remains of an old Roman Catholic church, located on what local folks used to call “the route to the stones” (meaning to the Clachan an Diridh, much to the minister’s considerable disdain), has had less said of it than the more ancient stone circle a little further up the footpath. But then, not much is known of either the carving or the church itself, whose remains can barely be seen amongst the grasses. But the upright ‘cross’ at least proclaims itself to the eye.
On our recent visit here, the crosses (on both side of the stone) were somewhat faint, as my photos show. But it wasn’t always this way. During a visit to nearby Aberfeldy in September 1900, the antiquarian Dave Landsborough (1901) found himself ambling about “among the ruins of a small hamlet” that was the olde settlement of Tullypowrie and came upon this little-known monument. He subsequently wrote an excellent description of the stone, which cannot be equalled. “The cross,” he told,
Landsborough’s sketch
“is of the rudest character, consisting of a schistose slab 30 inches in length, 11⅜ inches in width at the top, about half an inch wider at the bottom, and about 4½ inches in thickness. It is roughly squared at the top and sides, but at the bottom the base is unsquared, one side being longer than the other. On both faces of the slab a cross is formed by a shallow incised sinking, a little more than an inch in breadth, with circular sinkings slightly deeper than the rest of the outline at each corner of the shaft and summit of the cross, and at the intersections of the arms with the shaft and summit. The cross on the east face of the stone has its top almost level with the top of the slab, but the shaft does not reach nearly to the bottom. The top part of the cross above the arms is 4½ inches high by 4½ inches in width. The arms reach across the whole width of the slab, and the shaft is little more than the length of the part above the arms, the base being somewhat rounded. Below the termination of the shaft are two slight circular sinkings almost in line with the perpendicular outlines of the sides, but at unequal distances from their terminations, the one being 1½ inches and the other 2½ inches below the similar sinkings which mark the corners of the shaft. The cross on the west face of the slab is in every way similar, except that the shaft is longer, reaching to a length of 10½ inches below the arms, and the circular sinkings at the top are nearly effaced. It has, however, the curious feature of a slight cut-off at about the same length as the shaft of the other cross, but the circular sinkings occur at the top and bottom, and at the intersections as in the case of the other cross.
“The slab is not fastened in a socket, but is kept nearly erect leaning against a large stone, while smaller stones keep it firm at the back. I have since been told by the Rev. Mr McLean of Grandtully that the place where it stands is the site of an old and very little chapel, the south wall of which may still be recognised by its remaining foundations.”
Tullypowrie cross looking S
Dixon’s old photo
On the other side of the burn from here was the great Whooping Cough Well, with the heathen Clach na Buidseach against the wall of Tullypowrie Farm just below (subsequently moved to the field west of the cross). These sites (and others nearby) and the animistic traditions associated with them, probably had something to do with the positioning of the church here, and the cross would be the attempt to give a Christian veneer to usurp the more archaic natural practices. We don’t know that for sure, but it’s more than likely. The old Logierait schoolmaster James Kennedy (1927) makes constant references to the animistic lore of the region, which was legion until quite recently.
No additional lore, sadly, is known of this old cross, which is deemed to be medieval in origin. Both Mitchell (1923) and Dixon (1925) make mention of the monument in their respective guidebooks, but add no further information.
References:
Dixon, John H., Pitlochry, Past and Present, L. Mackay: Pitlochry 1925.
Kennedy, James, Folklore and Reminiscences of Strathtay and Grandtully, Munro Press: Perth 1927.
Landsborough, David, “Rubbings of both Faces of an Erect Incised Cross-slab, at Tullypowrie, near Grandtully, Perthshire,” in Proceedings Society of Antiquaries, Scotland, volume 35, 1901.
Mitchell, Hugh, Pitlochry District: Its Topography, Archaeology and History, L. Mackay: Pitlochry 1923.
Park up at the red phone-box in Strathtay village (by the road junction) and walk east along the road (slightly downhill) for less than 50 yards, then turn left and walk up the track. 70-80 yards up, keep your eyes peeled for the distinct footpath on your right (don’t head up to the house) that runs into the trees and keep walking uphill for literally ½-mile where you’ll reach the gorgeous overgrown scented orchard of Tullypowrie farmhouse on the left. Keep walking along the path past the farm and, if you fancy, cross the burn (stream) anywhere hereby. The well is on the other side of the burn, somewhere…..
Archaeology & History
We ventured up here recently to look at several sites, but when we came to find this long lost well we were hindered severely by the mass of vegetation that was teeming with ticks—so thought it most sensible to come back here again at the end of winter when we’d have a clean slate of landscape to look at. (the ticks have got fucking awful in this neck o’ the woods in recent years!) It has almost fallen out of history, with no one writing about the place for more than a hundred years, yet it was a place of considerable importance in the folk traditions of Strathtay.
In some previously unpublished notes written by the historian Charles Robertson sometime at the beginning of the 20th century, he told of a lady from Pitlochry called Mrs Anderson who informed him of an important water source known locally as Sput na-fruith-chasd which,
“comes spouting out of a high rock on the east side of the Tullypowrie Burn opposite Tullypowrie farm, and was resorted to of old for the cure of whooping cough. The sufferer who came here and drank of the water always got better too.”
It was described by the Logierait schoolmaster James Kennedy (1927) as one of “the three most important (wells) in the Tay Valley”—and there are a lot of wells in the Tay Valley!
There’s a slight discrepancy regarding the exact location of the well: whilst Mr Robertson’s notes told that it was found “opposite Tullypowrie farm”, in Hugh Mitchell’s (1923) survey of local antiquities he told that,
“On the oppsite side of the burn from the mill there is a drip well, the water from which was for long regarded as a certain cure for whooping cough”—
which would place the well a hundred yards or so further upstream. (the very low-lying walls of the mill can just be discerned a short distance above the farmhouse) I’m sure that a good search of the area after Winter has laid the vegetation to rest will tell us one way or the other precisely where this curative well is hiding.
Across the burn from the well is the barely visible ruins of an old church: Roman Catholic according to tradition, with a singular short carved cross standing on the low remains of its eastern wall. Close to this, but now in the field a few hundred yards west, was the curious bullaun stone known as Clach na Buidseach, or Witchcraft Stone. This bullaun would seem to have been used in rites related to the Whooping Cough Well, but the precise nature of these rites has been lost.
References:
Dixon, John H., Pitlochry, Past and Present, L. Mackay: Pitlochry 1925.
Kennedy, James, Folklore and Reminiscences of Strathtay and Grandtully, Munro Press: Perth 1927.
Mitchell, Hugh, Pitlochry District: Its Topography, Archaeology and History, L. Mackay: Pitlochry 1923.
To find this carving, follow the same directions as if you’re visiting the carving I’ve simply labelled Netherglenny. From here, walk up the slope (north) barely twenty yards and you’ll see the folds of another elongated piece of rock, similar in form to the one you’ve just been to.
I found this stone when rushing near the end of a red hot day and needed to get back under some shelter, so I didn’t get chance to highlight it as I usually do. Hence, the info and the photos of the carving aren’t impressive. But then, the design on the stone isn’t impressive either. I could discern just two distinct cup-marks: one above the deep elongated slit (vulva-esque) and the other below it. The cup-mark above it comes out clearly in the photos; but the other one is just about hidden in the shadows. There may be a third possible cupmark close to the less visible one. I’ll get some better photos when I’m next up there (he sez, hopefully…)
Shallow cup, top-middle
This carving lies very close indeed to an official site entry known simply as a ‘Nether Glenny’ carving (grid-ref NN 56130 01969), which became lost when forestation took effect here more than 30 years ago. However, the description given to that stone, of “at least six cups on the upper surface of the boulder” isn’t consistent with the marks on this rock. There are several other marks on this stone that may give the impression of them being cup-marks, but they’re entirely natural. Hopefully we can recover the lost ‘official’ stone on our next visit.
(The entry title of this site needs amending, as the entire Menteith rock art complex (more than a hundred carvings in little over a square mile) needs re-assessing and assembled under a singular umbrella. The scattering of place-names, sometimes erroneously, relating to the many so-called ‘Nether Glenny’ carvings [dozens of them], is confusing unless you know the area intimately—and most people don’t! So forgive the title I’ve given this minimalist cup-marked stone. It will be adjusted when we’ve been back and correctly mapped the others in this locale. If anyone wants to help out in this project, please get in touch.)
We took the route up from the hidden Braeval car-park, on the left-side of the road, ⅔-mile (1km) east of the Aberfoyle roundabout (on the edge of town). From here, walk up the dirt-track and bear left 350 yards up where the track splits. Walk up here for 1½ miles, through and beyond the ruined forest until, on the far side of the remaining trees (they may have been cut when you’re reading this) the path eventually brings you out into pasture. At this point, veer immediate right and follow the fence/wall on your right for literally ⅓-mile (0.54 km). This is boggy and uneven all the way as there’s no path here. You’ve gone up and over a ridge and, as you’re coming down the slope, hop back over the wall where there’s a gap and walk about 30-40 yards into the debris. You’re damn close!
Archaeology & History
Rough sketch of design
This is one of several previously unrecorded carvings I came across recently on the northwestern edge of the massive Ballochraggan rock art complex, on the slopes above the Lake of Menteith. I found it during one of the red-hot days we’ve just had —and, sadly, it had me running for home much quicker than usual! The heat beat me on this day (I’ve never been a lover of the sun), so hopefully you’ll forgive me if I missed a bit! 🙂 I was heading for the nearby Solar Stone carving near the bottom of the slope, when this partially-covered rock caught my eye—and I’m glad it did! For scattered along its long slender topmost surface, a number of the usual curious prehistoric symbols had been etched…
Western end of stone
Petroglyph when wet!
The first thing I noticed were a scatter of cup-marks at the western end of the stone: four of them in a close-knit cluster (this section reminded me of an old favourite on Shipley Glen), with several others seemingly running in a curved line down the slightly sloping stone with, possibly, one or two others also streaming away below this same cluster. But the main feature, as the photos and sketches illustrate, is the cup with a large double-ring near the middle of the stone, above a long natural crack that almost cuts the stone in half.
On either side of the double-ring are quite separate single cup-and-rings with (roughly) equal layers of erosion—although the central cups were probably re-carved, so to speak, many times over the centuries, as their erosion level is considerably less than that of the rings. This is a feature found at countless carvings across Britain and suggests regular “re-use” or rather re-animating the design on a regular basis. A faint half-ring can be seen round one of the smaller cups near the bottom of the carving. And a peculiar feature near the middle of the design is a simple ‘ring’ that was started but never finished (perhaps?), with no cup-mark in the centre. This is a feature found on quite a few Perthshire carvings, with some of the shallow ‘rings’ being nearly 12-inches across in some instances. Most odd!
Main double cup&ring
Looking down at the design
Several of the single cup-marks on here appear to have started life as natural pock-marks in the stone, which would have made carving the design a little easier than just starting from scratch! And, about 10 yards below this carving, a small sloping rock has a distinct eroded ‘bowl’ on it, about six inches across and several inches deep and is perhaps relevant to this carving in a pragmatic sense (mulching colours, herbs, etc). These ‘bowls’—be they natural or enhanced—are much-overlooked features and their existence needs to be taken into consideration when they’re found within a mass of cup-and-ring stones, such as found here, on the outskirts of olde Aberfoyle. Check it out when you’re next up here…. and the cup-marked stone 20 yards further up the slope too. And lots of others!
Acknowledgements: Big thanks to Prof Hornby for getting us up here on a scorching day!
From Pitlochry town centre, walk down the A924 high street as if you’re going to the Blair Atholl Distillery, but just before it take the right-turn and go over the river, and just keeping walking along this road for a third-of-a-mile (0.5km) until your reach a small small on your left that swerves up the hill (there’s a little signpost here saying Cluny Path to Strathtay). Go up and across the main road, then just keeping walking up the dirt-track, which becomes a footpath, and heads further uphill into and through the woodland. Make a bittova daydream from the walk up here, making sure to keep to the path closest to the burn (stream) on your left. Eventually when it levels out, you’re very close. Just keep on the same track and, where it meets up with another, bear left and about 100 yards along, on a small rise in the trees on your right, you’ll see these old stones peeking out. Keep your wits about you!
Archaeology & History
Clachan an Diridh looking E
Sat high up on open moorlands with views all round… is what this site used to look like. Sadly, the forestry commission have almost completely enclosed this prehistoric site, making any view of the surrounding landscape all but impossible. I’m not the first and won’t be the last person to be pissed-off by such thoughtlessness. Alexander Thom made mention of it too. After making an initial assessment of the astronomical alignments at these stones in 1967, “when we returned to measure the horizon we found that trees had been planted round the stones and so we failed.” (Thom 1990) Not good.
On my first visit here, as I entered this “stone circle” my first impression was that it wasn’t a circle at all, but the remnants of a megalithic stone row! Thom thought the same. It’s the slender thin stature of the stones that do it to you: they almost cut the air and point the enquiring nose dead straight along the same angle that all the stones have been deliberately aligned to. I assume they’ve had a similar effect on other people over the years.
The Clachan an Diridh, or the Stones on the Ascent, were first mentioned in Dan Wilson’s (1851) major survey and who was so impressed by the view from here and its setting in the landscape that he compared its visage to Stonehenge. Were it not for the short-sightedness of the Forestry Commission destroying the view, most would no doubt agree with Wilson’s sentiments. From these olde stones, he told:
“One of the great level Highland moors stretches away beneath the eye, like a dark waveless lake, contrasting with the distant heights, among which Ben Lawers rears its pyramidal summit to an elevation of upwards of 4000 feet above the level of the sea. Amid this wild Highland landscape the huge standing stones, grey with the moss of ages, produce a singularly grand and imposing effect; and from the idea of lofty height which the distant mountains suggest, they convey a stronger impression of gigantic proportions than is produced even by the first sight of the giant monoliths of Salisbury Plain.”
Thom’s initial moonset alignment
Thom’s 1980 ground-plan with marker stone
The giant figure of Ben Lawers, if we could see it today, would rise to the southwest 20 miles (32km) from here; and the great pyramidal fairy mountain of Schiehallion would be equinox west, 13 miles (21km) away. Yet curiously when Alexander Thom surveyed the outlying hills, he didn’t think either of these mountains had any worth, astronomically speaking that is. Yet Lawers in particular would be the largest point on the southwestern horizon, rising in the distance, way beyond the wide rolling U-shaped glen of Strathtay to where the landscape changes into more rugged dynamic uplands. And the importance of Lawers as a place in prehistory is shown by the mass of petroglyphs across its slopes—particularly the side you could see from Clachan an Diridh.
Instead, Thom (1967) looked much further to the southwest—south-southwest in fact—where he initially thought that there was an alignment to the major southern moonset ten miles away above the rugged hill of Meall Dubh, framed on either side by the mountain peaks of Meall nam Fuaran and Beinn na Gainimh. Aubrey Burl (1988) told how Thom later discounted this alignment and instead turned his attention a full 180° where a large stone on the hillside to the north-northeast caught his theodolytic eye. This marked an alignment towards the peak of Ben Vrackie:
“There is little doubt,” he wrote, “that this is a lunar site showing perhaps…at the major standstill. Could one side of the southern 6ft high stone possibly have indicated the setting point of the Moon at minor standstill?” (Thom 1990)
Clachan an Diridh in 1851
Clachan an Diridh, c.1920
Thom looked at these stones and the landscape with the mind of an astronomer, whereas I’m more in preference of the aborigine who sees the feel of the landscape to discern relationships and meanings. Sometimes, of course, the sky and the landscape come together and that universal mythic union of heaven and Earth finds importance at a site. I have little doubt that such a mythos was once known here, on the moorland plateau, under the clear stars with the darkness reaching to speak with Lawers and other bones of landscape in the solid darkness of mountain silhouettes and fading horizons. Many a sleep at this site would have touched minds with Wonder…
Anyway, all that aside…
Large fallen stone
Site on the 1899 OS-map
These megaliths have been classified as one of Aubrey Burl’s “four posters”, i.e., a rough square of four megalithic uprights, in spite of there only being three standing stones here. Even when Dan Wilson (1851) wrote about the place there were just three of them. However, down the slope from the stones, just off the recent trackside, there’s a decent contender for the fourth stone lying on its side in the undergrowth, half-covered in moss. It’s certainly fallen or rolled down the slope and its size and shape suggest that it may once have stood upright. Have a thoughtful fondle of it while you’re here.
The ‘circle’ was highlighted on the 1899 OS-map and, a few years later, was visited and surveyed by the great Fred Coles (1908) and like Dan Wilson before him, told the view from here to be “very grand.” He continued:
Coles 1906 plan
Coles’ views, from S & E
“In local parlance this group is known as the Four Stones. This must be a fairly old name handed down through some generations; because, for at least fifty-seven years past, only three Standing Stones have remained in situ. These three Stones are arranged as shown in the plan…in a group forming in its now imperfect condition a triangle which, measured from the centres of the Stones, has its SE side 11 feet 6 inches long; its SW side 12 feet 3 inches ; and its north side 16 feet 3 inches. Fragments of the demolished fourth Stone lie about the ground; but there is no clear indication of its original position. The South Stone, A, is 3 feet 7 inches in breadth, 5 feet 10 inches in height, and from 12 to 4 inches in thickness. The West Stone, B, 6 feet in height, measures 5 feet at the back, and 4 feet 10 inches at the front, and is 18 inches in thickness. The East Stone, C, at its outer angle is 3 feet 3 inches above ground, and leans inward. All the blocks are of quartziferous gritty sandstone, the East Stone being particularly rough and fissured. A large fragment lying near it seems to be a portion of it. The Stones are set upon a fairly true Circle with a diameter of 15 feet 4 inches. One feature quickly arrests notice: this is, that the broader faces of these Stones are not set even approximately upon and in line with the circumference, but nearly parallel with each other—an arrangement quite unlike the setting of Stones in the many other Circles hitherto surveyed.”
When Burl (1988) added this site to his Four Posters survey he merely echoed Coles’ early description, adding that, in his view, the standing stones that we see today were probably, originally, “set out on the circumference of a circle 20ft (6.1m) in diameter.”
I think it’s likely that there would have been more prehistoric sites in the vicinity, but a notable oddity is the almost complete absence of other recorded sites anywhere nearby. Of course, if there was anything, those thoughtful Forestry Commission heads would have destroyed it. We are left, simply, with the old but reliable notes of Messrs Dixon (1923) and Mitchell (1925) who told that, in their days, other remains did exist nearby in the form of ancient cairns and hut circles—‘Pictish’ according to tradition. If we’re lucky, some damaged parts of them might still be found at the edges, a short distance to the north west…
Folklore
In Hugh MacMillan’s (1901) gorgeous literary sojourn along Strathtay, he strayed somewhat from his otherwise historical notices by telling that here,
“on the highest part of the moorland…is a group of ‘clachan iobairt’, or stones of worship, where the Druids of old performed their mysterious rites, going round the circle of standing stones from east to west with the sun, or the ‘car deasal’, the lucky side, when they wished to invoke a blessing upon their friends, and going round the circle in the opposite direction, from west to east, the ‘car tuathsel’, or unlucky side, when they wished to pronounce a curse upon their foes.”
Whether this was what Hugh Mitchell (1923) meant when he referred to the traditions surrounding Clachan an Dirirdh we don’t know, but he echoed MacMillan’s account (though made no reference of his words), also adding that it was a site that “was visited on the first of May” or Beltane by some local people….
References:
Burl, Aubrey, Four Posters: Bronze Age Stone Circles of Western Europe, BAR 195: Oxford 1988.
Burl, Aubrey, A Guide to the Stone Circles of Britain, Ireland and Brittany, New Haven & London 1995.
Burl, Aubrey, The Stone Circles of Britain, Ireland and Brittany, Yale University Press 2000.
Dixon, John H., Pitlochry, Past and Present, L. Mackay: Pitlochry 1925.
Kennedy, James, Folklore and Reminiscences of Strathtay and Grandtully, Munro Press: Perth 1927.
Liddell, Colin, Pitlochry – Heritage of a Highland District, PKDL: Perth 1993.
MacMillan, Hugh, The Highland Tay: From its Source to Dunkeld, H. Virtue: London 1901.
Mitchell, Hugh, Pitlochry District: Its Topography, Archaeology and History, L. Mackay: Pitlochry 1923.
Omand, Donald (ed.), The Perthshire Book, Birlinn: Edinburgh 1999.
Stevenson, J., “Prehistory,” in Omand’s The Perthshire Book, Edinburgh 1999.
Thom, Alexander, Megalithic Sites in Britain, Oxford University Press 1967.
Thom, Alexander, Megalithic Lunar Observatories, Oxford University Press 1971.
Thom, A., Thom, A.S. & Burl, H.A.W., Megalithic Rings, BAR: Oxford 1980.
Thom, A., Thom, A.S. & Burl, Aubrey, Stone Rows and Standing Stones – volume 2, BAR: Oxford 1990.
Wilson, Daniel, The Archaeology and Prehistoric Annals of Scotland, Sutherland & Knox: Edinburgh 1851.
Acknowledgements: Huge thanks for use of the Ordnance Survey map in this site profile, reproduced with the kind permission of the National Library of Scotland.
Holy Well (destroyed): OS Grid Reference – NN 9677 5199
Also Known as:
Fuaran Chad
St. Cedd’s Well
Archaeology & History
All trace of this once renowned holy well seems to have gone. It was located, according to the local historian James Kennedy (1927) “on the terrace behind the Church”; although Charles Stewart (1880) earlier told that it was found on the hillside above the church. On our recent visit here, the level piece of land just above the River Tay, “on the terrace behind the Church” as Kennedy told, had no notable spring of water upon it—but we didn’t check the slope above the road to see if there was anything there. By all accounts it’s long since gone.
There’s also slight confusion regarding the dedication of this well. Kennedy, once more, ascribed it to have been St Cedd’s Well, the brother of St Chad, and not Chad himself who was venerated here. But this wasn’t the view of MacKinlay (1893) or Knight (1933) in their major studies. But let’s leave that element to the hagiologists for the time being!
Tradition told that the spirit of the waters was deeply offended when the annual market in Logierait—dedicated to St Chad/Ched on his saint’s day of August 22—was stopped. As a result the waters removed themselves and fell back to Earth. This curious motif is found at a number of wells in other parts of the country.
References:
Kennedy, James, Folklore and Reminiscences of Strathtay and Grandtully, Munro Press: Perth 1927.
Knight, G.A.F., Archaeological Light on the Early Christianizing of Scotland – volume 2, James Clarke: London 1933.
MacKinlay, James M., Folklore of Scottish Lochs and Springs, William Hodge: Glasgow 1893.
MacKinlay, James M., Influence of the Pre-Reformation Church on Scottish Place-Names, William Blackwood: Edinburgh 1904.
Mitchell, Hugh, Pitlochry District: Its Topography, Archaeology and History, L. Mackay: Pitlochry 1923.
Just as you’re coming into Balnaguard village on the B898 road from the eastern side (as if you’ve come via the A9 from near Pitlochry), just where the road crosses a small burn (stream), take the first farm-track on your right and walk down to the end where it meets the field. Here, walk to your left left and you’ll see a gate that takes you into the field. You should have already noticed the standing stone before you even open the gate! It’s about 100 yards in front of you. You can’t really miss it.
Archaeology & History
Clach na Croiche
Standing alone in this field a short distance south of the River Tay is this fine old standing stone, nearly seven feet high, from whose locale we gaze west to the opening of the Perthshire mountains—but in times gone by it wasn’t alone. Less than 10 yards east of the Clach na Croiche stood another seven-foot tall standing stone and, some six yards further east (and along the same axis) there may have stood another one, some 7½ feet high. This alignment ran east-west in line with the rising and setting of the sun at the equinoxes. (whether that was deliberate or not is another matter altogether) and was first noticed by the great antiquarian Fred Coles (1904) in one of his many megalithic ventures. He wondered “whether they (were) fallen Standing Stones, or the covers of cists” and when they were looked at by Margaret Stewart in 1971 she found that one of them laid beside “a shallow socket outlined with packing stones”—meaning that it had stood upright. The other stone didn’t seem as certain, although Stewart did report finding “a single cupmark…on the eastern side of the upper surface.” We’ve yet to see a photo of this carving.
The Clach na Croiche also has its own cup-markings, just above the bottom of the stone on its southern-face. Margaret Stewart described them as being “strung out irregularly across the face.” Sounds about right! Sadly, somehow, I didn’t get any photos of these when I last visited, but will grab some the next time I’m there.
Looking to the west
Looking to the northeast
In the fields either side of the stones, ancient tombs have been found. Around 1887, the Duke of Atholl dug under some of the stones in the field and found a “cup” or urn which Coles reported “was found in a cist in the haugh near Tom-na-Croiche.” Then, in 1969, the farmer John MacBeth was ploughing the field and unearthed another cist some 15 yards north-west of the present upright. The base of the cist was cobbled and whilst whilst the tomb itself was filled-in, the farmer moved the covering stone to the fence at the west-side of the field (NN 9455 5205). Also, on the eastern side of the field in 1971, Stewart reported finding what she thought were the remains of cremated bones that seemed to have been part of another prehistoric structure.
Fred Cole’s 1904 sketch
Looking to the southeast
Nearly 250 yards to the west of the stone, in the adjacent field, a huge prehistoric cairn—known as the Sketewan Cairn—was uncovered and fully excavated in the late 1980s. It originally stood some four feet high and was nearly seventy feet across. Within the cairn complex, a small standing stone accompanied some cremations. Unfortunately this entire archaeological site has since been completely covered over. You wouldn’t even know it was there if you stood right next to it! But if you want to see Balnaguard’s remaining tombs, head for the Fairy Mound right in the heart of the village…
Dixon, John H., Pitlochry, Past and Present, L. Mackay: Pitlochry 1925.
Kennedy, James, Folklore and Reminiscences of Strathtay and Grandtully, Munro Press: Perth 1927.
Omand, Donald (ed.), The Perthshire Book, Birlinn: Edinburgh 1999.
Stevenson, J., “Prehistory,” in Omand’s The Perthshire Book, Edinburgh 1999.
Stewart, Margaret E.C., “Perthshire: Balnaguard”, in Discovery & Excavation in Scotland, 1971.
Swarbrick, Olaf, A Gazetteer of Prehistoric Standing Stones in Great Britain, BAR: Oxford 2012.
Yellowlees, Sonia, Cupmarked Stones in Strathtay, Scotland Magazine: Edinburgh 2004.
Acknowledgements: Huge thanks for use of the Ordnance Survey map in this site profile, reproduced with the kind permission of the National Library of Scotland.
Various ways to get here, but it’s probably easiest if you’re coming via Aberfeldy. From here, go over the river bridge to Castle Menzies and Weem, but turn right once you’ve crossed the bridge and follow the road parallel to the river for just over 3 miles (4.9km) where you’ll reach a tiny road on your left, going uphill. You can park the car 150 yards up, on your right – then walk uphill (don’t drive any further). Walk up the road for just over half-a-mile (0.95km) and take the right turn; go along here for 300 yards where the pond appears and keep walking along the same road for another 250 yards till you reach a cottage by a small crossroads. From here, walk up (left) for another 300 yards where, near the top of the field, a large boulder sits close to the fence. You’ve arrived!.
Archaeology & History
Drumchanachan carving
On the way back down from a bimble to the beautiful and haunted Loch Derculich, Naomi and I stumbled upon this large stone just off the track below Lurgan farmhouse and found there to be a number of cup-marks on its sloping upper surface. Naomi was really truly excited! 🙂
On its northwestern surface there’s is a distinct scattering of cup-marks: one in particular near the middle of the stone that’s been deepened in more recent times, as if it was ready to be blown-up and destroyed but, once realised it was a stone of the fairy folk, the operation was terminated and the stone left here to live! Thankfully…
Close-up of cups
Deep lines of cups
It’s a pretty basic design, consisting of at least eleven cup-marks, mainly running in a line upwards along its westernmost side, following the edge of a natural ridged contour. Of the two topmost cups, one of them may have a carved line running to it with a faint semi-circle then emerging from the line around the edge of the cup. But it’s faint—if it’s real—and the daylight was fading when we came here so this and any other design elements that may exist weren’t too easy to see. Hopefully I’ll get back up here pretty soon and see if there’s anything else hiding beneath the aged shadows.
It’s a wonderful arena above Edradynate, with countless other ancient sites peppered across the landscape hereby…
