Tag: Scotland

Duncroisk (2), Glen Lochay, Killin, Perthshire

megalithix

Cup-and-Ring Stone:  OS Grid Reference – NN 53134 35850

Also Known as:

  1. Canmore ID 24169
  2. Duncroisk 3 (Canmore)

Getting Here

Cup-and-rings by the River Lochay
Cup-and-rings by the River Lochay

Troublesome to get to unless you’re reasonably fit.  Probably the easiest route is to get to the Duncroisk 3 cup-and-ring stone. Keep walking along the riverside, climb over the first tall wooden fence and onwards till you reach the rocky crag reaching into the river Lochay. By whichever means possible, get yourself up and round this crag, but keep by the riverside till you get to the easier walkable rocky outcrop protruding into the river on the other side of the drop.  Hereby, on one of the stones, look and you’ll find these faint cup-and-ring symbols.

Archaeology & History

Although this carving was first described in Edward Cormack’s (1952) essay on the prehistoric carvings of the district, they have subsequently proved difficult to locate by the Royal Commission lads and other archaeologists.  I’ve been here a few times looking for it and never managed to find it — until last week.  When Mr Cormack first told of the design, he said:

“On a smooth rock surface just above the mouth of the small burn running into the Lochay, immediately west of the cup-marked ridge, are two cup-and-ring markings a yard apart. The rings are curiously rough edged, and do not give the same impression of weathering as those on the ridge; possibly they have been silted over shortly after being cut, and exposed again relatively recently.”

Flambeau the Cat uses the carving as his bed!
Flambeau the Cat uses the carving as his bed!

A few decades later, Ron Morris (1981) came across the carving, 10 yards “southeast of an elbow of River Lochay”, as he put it. Described as “hard to find”, he went on to give a basic outline of the design as he saw them, telling there to be “2 cups-and-one-ring, both probably complete, up to 16cm (6in) diameters, with radial grooves from cup to ring—up to 1cm deep.” Or more simply, two cup-and-rings, each with a line running from the centre to the surrounding ring.

After trying to find this carving on several occasions, without success (somehow!), it was brought to my attention under the brilliant guidance of a local cat called Flambeau only last week (no lies!).  In a venture down to the riverside, the great cat (in tandem with Pip the dog, who also ventures out with me to find ancient sites in this region) got to the riverside on the rock in question and began rolling about in the dust on the stone, mewing and purring away merrily!  It was really brilliant to watch. Sincerely heart-warming (soz…but I can’t help it!).

Primary cup-and-ring at Duncroisk-2
Primary cup-and-ring at Duncroisk (2)

I stepped over and complimented him as he looked superb (hence the photo, above) and he just kept purring. Then, curiously, he stood up and began scratching at the dried earth on the rock, mewing away whilst doing this.  Twas very odd indeed.  But there,  exactly where Flambeau has been scratching and rolling about, it seemed a faint cup-mark was apparent.  And such it was!  So I got on my knees and began cleaning away the dirt from the rock — and there, right where he’d been purring and playing, was the lost cup-and-ring carving!

Its location would suggest that the carving had some relationship with water: be that the spirit of the place, or a good site where fish can be had, or a place where someone had drowned, etc.  We’ll probably never know… But it’s a beautiful spot, with the impressive Stag Cottage carvings in the adjoining field, and the newly discovered Corrycharmaig East carvings on the other side of the river — plus many others in the area.

Folklore

The River Lochay where this carving is found is named after a dedication to the Black Goddess, according to Prof. W.J. Watson. (1926)  The stream by the side of the carving which runs into the River Lochay has been the place where faerie music has been heard by local people in times past.

References:

  1. Cormack, E.A., “Cross-Markings and Cup-Markings at Duncroisk, Glen Lochay,” in Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries, Scotland, volume 84, 1952.
  2. Morris, Ronald W.B., The Prehistoric Rock Art of Southern Scotland, BAR: Oxford 1981.
  3. Royal Commission on the Ancient & Historical Monuments of Scotland, Archaeological Sites and Monuments of Stirling District, Central Region, Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 1979.
  4. Watson, W.J., The History of the Celtic Place-names of Scotland, Edinburgh 1926.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


St. Fillan’s Chair, Dundurn, Comrie, Perthshire

megalithix

Legendary Rock:  OS Grid Reference – NN 7081 2325

Also Known as:

  1. Canmore ID 24876
  2. Dundurn
  3. Fillan’s Chair
  4. St. Fillan’s Bed

Getting Here

Dundurn, near St. Fillans
Dundurn, near St. Fillans

Not hard to find. Between the small towns of Comrie and St. Fillans along the A85 road, keep your eyes peeled for the small but rocky crags that rise in front of the background of dramatic mountains not far from the roadside to the south. It looks truly majestic even on a dull day. Just as you reach the eastern edge of St. Fillans village, take the small road over the river-bridge and go to the golf club. Walk past the golf club itself, keeping along the track that leads you to Dundurn hill.  It’s easy enough. Then climb to the very top of the hill where you’ll find this curious, large, flat bed-like rock right in front of you!

Archaeology & History

The rocky bed or 'chair' of St Fillan
St Fillan’s rocky bed or ‘chair’

The archaeological data for St. Fillan’s Chair relates more to the folklore practices of the people upon Dundurn hill than anything else and ostensibly little can be said by such students. The place is more satisfying for geologists than archaeologists, who would adore the rocky fluctuations and geophysical propensities with greater verve than any archaeologist could muster! For this rocky bed-shaped feature is a fascinating structure whose only potential interest to archaeologists are what may be a couple of reduced cup-marks on the top of the stone (and even then, such potential rock art is more the province of religious historians and anthropologists than archaeologists).

Small quartz offerings left on St Fillan's Chair at Beltane
Small quartz offerings left on St Fillan’s Chair at Beltane
The view of the Chair from below
View of the Chair from below

But this ‘bed’ or ‘chair’, as it was locally known, was – and it seems, still is – important in the social history of the area, as its folklore clearly tells.  The ‘chair’ plays an important part in the holistic role of Dundurn as a hill, a fort, a healing centre, an inauguration site, and very probably an omphalos: a sacred centre whereupon the ordination of shamans, kings and the cosmos as a whole was brought to bear here… (these features will be explored in greater depth when I write a singular profile of Dundurn as a ‘fort’).

Folklore

Looking west over St Fillan's Chair
Looking west over St Fillan’s Chair

The character of St. Fillan was described by James Cockburn (1954) as “an Irish Pict” and the “son of a King – his father being Angus mac Nadfraich who died in battle in 490 AD.”  Quite an important dood in his day! The relationship this early christian figure had with this Chair was in its supposedly curative properties.  Yeah…you read it right: curative properties!  As with countless rocks all over the world, some of Nature’s outcrop boulders were imbued with a spirit of their own and, when conditions and/or the cycle of the spirit ‘awoke’, healing attributes could be gained from the place. And such was the case at St. Fillan’s Chair, especially on Beltane morning (May 1).  And some element of this traditional pilgrimage is still done; for when the author Marion Woolley and I visited the site on Mayday 2013, it was obvious that some people had been up earlier that Beltane morning and left some offerings of quartz stones on the top end of the bed.

The earliest written reference of this medicinal virtue was told in the Old Statistical Account of Perthshire (1791):

The rock on the summit of the hill, formed, of itself, a chair for the saint, which still remains. Those who complain of rheumatism in the back, must ascend the hill, sit in this chair, then lie down on their back, and be pulled by the legs to the bottom of the hill. This operation is still performed, and reckoned very efficacious.

More than a hundred years later, the sites was still being used and was described in similar vein in MacKinlay’s (1893) excellent study:

“On the top of green Dunfillan, in the parish of Comrie, is a rocky seat known in the district as Fillan’s Chair. Here, according to tradition, the saint sat and gave his blessing to the country around. Towards the end of last century, and doubtless even later, this chair was associated with a superstitious remedy for rheumatism in the back. The person to be cured sat in the chair, and then, lying on his back, was dragged down the hill by the legs. The influence of the saint lingering about the spot was believed to ensure recovery.”

The origins of this dramatic rite were probably pre-christian in nature and we should have little doubt that St. Fillan replaced the figure of a shaman or local medicine woman of some sort. The ritual “dragging down the hill” may be some faint remnant of initiation rites…

References:

  1. Cockburn, James H., The Celtic Church in Dunblane, Friends of Dunblane Cathedral 1954.
  2. Eliade, Mircea, Rites and Symbols of Initiation, Spring: Woodstock 1995.
  3. Finlayson, Andrew, The Stones of Strathearn, One Tree Island: Comrie 2010.
  4. Hunter, John, Chronicles of Strathearn, David Philips: Crieff 1896.
  5. MacKinlay, James M., Folklore of Scottish Lochs and Springs, William Hodge: Glasgow 1893.
  6. Shearer, John, Antiquities of Strathearn, David Philips: Crieff, 1883.
  7. Skene, William F., Celtic Scotland (3 volumes), Edmonston & Douglas: Edinburgh 1876-1880.
  8. Toulson, Shirley, Celtic Journeys in Scotland and the North of England, Fount: London 1995.

Links:

  1. Nataraja’s Foot: The Curious Incident of Dundurn

© Pual Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


St. Mary’s Well, Callander, Perthshire

megalithix

Holy Well:  OS Grid Reference – NN 6507 0556

Also Known as:

  1. Canmore ID 24322

Getting Here

St Marys Well on 1862 OS-map
St Marys Well on 1862 OS-map

You’ll need wellies or no shoes for this excursion! From the lovely town of Callander, take the A84 road southeast out towards Doune and Stirling for a mile or so. Keep your eyes peeled for Straid by the roadside on your left and the turning right down to Ballochallan quarries. About 200 yards down, notice the industrial works on your left. Walk about 50 paces past this, then turn right into the trees.  Less than 100 yards in, you’ll hit a shallow bend in the River Teith. Walk across and into the trees opposite…and if you amble just yards above the edge of the river, along the tree-line, you’ll find St. Mary’s Well…

Archaeology & History

Fresh waters of the quartz-lined spring
Fresh waters of the quartz-lined spring

Highlighted on the 1862 Ordnance Survey map of Callander and cited in the Object Name Book of the same year, oddly there is no mention of this mythic site in the Scottish surveys on holy wells (MacKinlay 1894; Morris 1981) — which seems rather unusual considering the importance this legendary entity (St. Mary) possessed in the christian pantheon.

There is also some doubt about the precise position of this holy well.  According to the Royal Commission account, the well “is stone lined; it measures 0.9m in diameter, and is choked with fallen leaves.”  However, this appears to be the remains of a latrine (or “a bog,” as my northern tongue so eloquently exclaimed soon after finding it), now used more by frogs to lay their spawn in which their tadpoles thankfully emerge (as we found when visiting it last week).  The holy well itself is about 10 yards further along the edge of the river and has a most curious architectural feature to it.

Stone-lined "well" 10 yards west of the real one
Stone-lined “well” 10 yards west of the real one

When we found the place, much of it was very overgrown indeed and it took a while to recover its status.  But in doing so, we found that on all sides where the stone-lining marked the emergence of the waters, rocks large and small consisting almost entirely of quartz constituted the opening as it came out of the ground.  This was a very deliberate construction feature no less!  Also, the fine sandy silt which clogged up the waters were also found to have small pieces of quartz laying beneath it, seemingly as offerings that had been made here many years ago.  But on the whole there seemed little evidence that the well had been used ritually for many years.  So, once we’d cleaned up the debris and made the site more notable, I drank its waters and found them very fine and refreshing indeed!

In the trees behind the well you will find the overgrown remains of the old chapel, also dedicated to St. Mary.  The tranquility and spirit of this place would have been truly superb. Even today, it is an ideal retreat for meditation and spiritual practice.  It just seems such a curious mystery that nothing seems to be known of the place…

Folklore

The 1862 “Object Name Book” told that the waters here were renowned for having great healing properties.  St. Mary’s feast day was August 15 and great were the country fairs and rituals surrounding this period across Scotland and beyond — many of which may have supplanted the more arcane festival of Lammas.  However, local records are silent about any such events performed at Callander’s St. Mary’s Well.  Do any old locals know more about it…?

References:

  1. MacKinlay, James M., Folklore of Scottish Lochs and Springs, William Hodge: Glasgow 1893.
  2. Morris, Ruth & Frank, Scottish Healing Wells, Alethea: Sandy 1982.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Borland Glen, Glendevon, Perthshire

megalithix

Stone Circle:  OS Grid Reference – NN 99766 07093

Also Known as:

  1. Canmore ID 223154

Getting Here

View from the arc of stones above the circle
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
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:

  1. Burl, Aubrey, Four Posters: Bronze Age Stone Circles of Western Europe, BAR 195: Oxford 1988.
  2. 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.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Tombreck 01, Kenmore, Perthshire

megalithix

Cup-Marked Stone:  OS Grid Reference – NN 64798 38284

Also Known as:

  1. Canmore ID 289069

Getting Here

Cup-marked stone, with Ben Lawers to the rear
Cup-marked stone, with Ben Lawers to the rear

Along the A827 Loch Tay road between Morenish and Lawers, take the track uphill where Carie farmhouse and Tombreck are either side of the road. Walk up this track 2-300 yards till you go through the gate just past the sheep-folds on your left.  Ahead of you is a small grassy hillock on your right – go to the top of it, where you’ll find one of them has a row of cup-markings on its northern edge.

Archaeology & History

This is a reasonably large boulder near the top of the hillock above the trackside.  Several rocks have what may be single cup-markings on them, but this roughly oblong-shaped block has four or five of them running along the more northern edge of the stone, in a rough line sloping gently down the surface of the rock.  No carved rings or other lines were immediately notable here.  It’s nothing special to look at and will probably be of interest only to the hardcore petroglyph enthusiasts amongst you. However, there are many more ornate cup-and-rings found further along the ridges close by (which we’ll add as the weeks and months go by); as well as the remains of a prehistoric enclosure about 200 yards southeast.  The small standing stone of Carie is roughly the same distance to the south.

Cup-marks visible along the edge
Cup-marks visible along the edge
...and from above
…and from above

(Note: although I’ve listed this as the ‘Tombreck 01’ carving, this is likely to be revised in the near future as there is a large gathering of carvings all around this area. The region is still being surveyed and the designations of the petroglyphs will be revised as and when they are recorded more fully, or if/when a detailed published account catalogues them satisfactorily.)

References:

  1. Currie, George, “Kenmore: Tombreck (2-4), Cup-and-ring Marked Rocks,” in Discovery & Excavation in Scotland, New Series volume 10, 2009.
  2. Currie, George, “Kenmore: Tombreck (5-7), Cup-Marked Rocks,” in Discovery & Excavation in Scotland, New Series volume 10, 2009.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Carie, Kenmore, Perthshire

megalithix

Standing Stone:  OS Grid Reference – NN 64772 38018

Also Known as:

  1. Canmore ID 289028
Small monolith, looking E

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

Carie Stone, looking south
Carie Stone, looking south

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.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Bengengie North, Alva, Clackmannanshire

megalithix

Enclosure:  OS Grid Reference – NN 86680 00601  

Getting Here

Aerial view of Bengenie enclosure
Aerial view of Bengenie enclosure

This really take a lot of effort to find. From Alva, go up through the graveyard past St. Serf’s Well, turning left and across cross the lane. A gate into the field takes you past Rhodders Farm then up the zigzagging track up the steep hill called The Nebit and into the Ochils. Where the track stops zigzagging, keep your eyes peeled for a left turn (west) about 1000ft up. Go along this, parallel above Alva Glen, for about 2 miles till you reach the sheep fanks. Naathen – go straight uphill towards Bengengie peak, steering to the right (north) side, avoiding the cliffs and onto the level moorland. Once there, you’ll see a rounded hillock a coupla hundred yards ahead. That’s the spot!

Archaeology & History

Southeastern corner of the ditch & bank
Southeastern corner of the ditch & bank

This is a bittova long hike to see a very overgrown site – but if you really enjoy the hills, it’s a good little side-track to visit.  I came across it recently on a long bimble over the Ochils, on my way back home after travelling to three of the Ochil peaks.  Walking carefully across the swampy heights of the Menstrie Moss, a rounded hillock north of Bengengie seemed to have the pimple of a cairn on its top—so I veered over to have a look.

The cairn was small and overgrown, with just a half-dozen rocks visible above ground, and a collection of others in the same pile beneath the heathland grasses.  It was obviously a man-made assemblage, but I couldn’t say for sure whether this was the grave of a person or someone’s favourite sheep a few centuries back!

Small cairn inside the enclosure
Small cairn inside the enclosure

It was when I walked around the cairn to try and get some photos of it, that another very distinct feature—not immediately visible—stood out and gave this single cairn a series of additional ingredients that really brought this site to life!  For just a few yards east of the cairn I noticed an obvious ditch and outer embankment, running roughly north-south, which may have relevance to the pile of stones.  And so I walked along the edge of the embankment, for about 10 yards, only to find that it turned to the right and continued onwards, east-west, for some distance.  This then turned at a similar angle again about 30-35 yards along, and then again, and again, until I returned to where I had stood initially a few minutes earlier!

There was no doubt about it: this was a man-made, roughly rectangular-shaped enclosure, whose bank and ditch averaged 1-2 yards across.  The maximum height of the outer embankment is less than 3 feet.  Its eastern and western lengths measured roughly 17-18 yards long, and the longer lengths north and south were between 30 and 35 yards at the most.  The cairn feature that I’d initially noticed is found at the near-eastern edge of the enclosure. Apart from that, my initial ramble here indicated few other internal features that were visible, except several small stones.

Southern line of bank & ditch, running left to right
Southern line of bank & ditch, running left to right
Eastern section of ditch & bank, looking north
Eastern section of ditch & bank, looking north

The great majority of the site is very overgrown and, as you can see, the photos of the ditch and bank constituting the enclosure are sadly not that easy to make out.  You can see it mostly by the colour changes of the vegetation, running in lines either across or up through the middle of the photos.  I need to get up there again and try get some better images sometime soon—and also to see if there are other features hiding away on the heights of these old hills, long since said to have been the abode of one of the great Pictish tribes (there is also a considerable mass of old faerie-lore in these hills, indicating considerable ancient activity of people whose cosmos was inhabited by spirits and forms long since forgotten in the consensus trance of most moderns).

As for the age of the enclosure: it’s difficult to say on first impression and I’m not keen on making a guess on this one.  It’s certainly old, as the overgrown vegetation clearly shows, both on the photos and when you see it first-hand.  It’s already been suggested by one graduate as possibly neolithic, but I’m a little sceptical about that, as its linearity isn’t consistent with neolithic features we know about in the mid-Pennines. However, this geographical arena is new landscape for me and so the possibility remains open until better, more competent investigation gives us a clearer time period.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Garchel Burn, Glendevon, Perthshire

megalithix

Hut Circles:  OS Grid Reference – NN 9696 0182

Also Known as:

  1. Canmore ID 25942

Getting Here

Line of walling to hut circle on ridge
Line of walling to hut circle on ridge

Along the A823 road from the Pool of Muckhart up to Glendevon, watch out for the small left turning opposite the car-parking spot by the Castlehill Reservoir a couple of miles up the road.  Walk up this small road a mile or so to the Glenquey reservoir, taking the footpath on your right and making sure you walk along the north-side of the waters.  You’ll eventually reach a small set of beautiful mossy green waterfalls (with the rounded fairy hill of Maiden Castle ahead of you).  This is the Garchel Burn. Take steep the path up the side until it levels out a bit, heading for the small clump of stones on the near skyline a couple of hundred yards ahead. That’s it!

Archaeology & History

This is a curious little cluster of seemingly multi-period remains sitting on the edges above the gorgeous waters of the Garchel Burn.  The Royal Commission Canmore report ascribes the scattered rocky cluster below the deer-fencing as the main hut circle – and the line of walling running slightly down the slope does have that traditional Iron Age look about it.  But it’s yet to be excavated.  The larger ring of stones constituting the main ‘circle’ is very much bogged-down, literally, amidst tussock and marshland, with an arc of stones running away from the circle and it’s obviously been made use of it by people in more recent times.

Small 'hut circle' to centre
Small ‘hut circle’ to centre

Below the larger rock cluster is a lovely oval structure, built upon a slight rise overlooking the burn, with all the rocks in the structure overgrown with age and grasses.  Tis a beautiful spot to sit and hear the silence of the waters around you.  Aerial images show the outlines of other roughly circular remains in the same area, but none are yet excavated – and some are distinctly much later in period, medieval by the look of things and very probably used by farmers in more recent centuries.  In all probability, there are more things to be found up here, hiding within the forests…

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Wizard’s Stone, Dollar, Clackmannanshire

megalithix

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:

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

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Leaston House, Humbie, East Lothian

megalithix

Cup-and-Ring Stone (lost):  OS Grid Reference – NT 483 634

Also Known as:

  1. Canmore ID 54771

Archaeology & History

The lost Leaston carving
The lost Leaston carving

The concentric ring carving shown here was found on the north side of the large gardens at Leaston House early in the 20th century.  It was first reported by the Royal Commission (1924) boys, who told us that the small free standing stone measured 2½ feet long and was 1¾ feet wide, consisting of 5 concentric rings about 15 inches across.  No central cup-marking existed in the middle of this carving — like the Grey Stone at Harewood and a small number of other multiple-ringed petroglyphs. No other notes were made about any other associated monuments.  The carving was included in Ron Morris’ (1981) survey, with no real additional material.   Although the Canmore report told that the carving could be found “in a rockery bordering the lawn north of Leaston House,” its present whereabouts remains a mystery.

Only known photo of the stone
Only known photo of the stone

This is one of a number of cup-and-ring stones that have been ‘lost’, either through destruction or through some dood simply taking it for their own private collection (a practice even the modern rock art student, Paul Brown, has openly admitted in one of his books).  Not good.  This lost Leaston Hall carving was probably “acquired” by some local and probably rests either in their garden or hall somewhere.  If anyone knows where it hides, please tell us — as this is an important carving.

References:

  1. 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.
  2. Morris, Ronald W.B., “The Cup-and-Ring and Similar Early Sculptures of Scotland; Part 2 – The Rest of Scotland except Kintyre,” in Transactions of the Ancient Monuments Society, volume 16, 1969.
  3. Morris, Ronald W.B., The Prehistoric Rock Art of Southern Scotland, BAR: Oxford 1981.
  4. Royal Commission on the Ancient & Historical Monuments of Scotland, Inventory of Monuments and Constructions in East Lothian, HMSO: Edinburgh 1924.

Acknowledgements:

With thanks to Janet Donaldson-Elder for the place-name correction!

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian