Tag: Slockavullin

Netherlargie, Kilmartin, Argyll

megalithix

Standing Stone:  OS Grid Reference – NR 8279 9773

Also Known as:

  1. Kilmartin ‘S6’ (Thom)

Getting Here

Netherlargie Stone

Along the A816 road, just less than a mile south of Kilmartin, take the right-turn on the B8025 Tayvallich road.  Barely 50 yards along here, park up on the left-side of the road.  Cross the road and walk along the well-marked footpath to the mighty megalithic Kilmartin ‘X’.  The path continues to Temple Wood but you’ll see, in the field to your right, this single standing stone. (you’ll see the mighty Netherlargie South cairn in the field beyond)

Archaeology & History

Stone on the 1874 OS-map

First illustrated on the 1874 Ordnance Survey map, this solitary stone (though it may once have had companions) stands some 200 yards south-east of the Temple Wood circle and 355 feet north-west of the northernmost stone in the Kilmartin ‘X’ megalithic complex.  When Alexander Thom surveyed this area, despite finding astronomical alignments at the many standing stones nearby, nothing seemed apparent with this solitary stone.  Its function remains hidden for the time being, although everyone assumes it had some relationship with the giant tombs close by.  It makes sense.

Looking W to Temple Wood
Looking to the southwest

Despite being referenced in a number of prehistoric surveys, archaeological circles say very little about it.  When the Royal Commission (1988) visited here they told how it was leaning to the south-east.  It fell over a few years later but was thankfully resurrected.  When the archaeologists fondled around the base of where it had stood, apart from a few packing stones at one side of the monolith, nothing was found.

References:

  1. Butter, Rachel, Kilmartin – Scotland’s Richest Prehistoric Landscape, HT: Kilmartin 1999.
  2. Campbell, Marion & Sandeman, M.L.S., “Mid-Argyll: A Field Survey of the Historic and Prehistoric Monuments”, in Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries, Scotland, volume 95, 1964.
  3. Pearson, Jane, Kilmartin – The Stones of History, Famedram: Alexandria 1975.
  4. Ritchie, Graham, The Archaeology of Argyll, Edinburgh University Press 1997.
  5. Royal Commission on the Ancient & Historical Monuments of Scotland, Argyll – Volume 6: Mid-Argyll and Cowal, HMSO: Edinburgh 1988.
  6. Ruggles, Clive, “The Stone Alignments of Argyll and Mull,” in Records in Stone (ed. C.L.N. Ruggles), Cambridge University Press 1988.
  7. Thom, Alexander, Megalithic Lunar Observatories, Oxford University Press 1971.

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. 

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian

Bàrr a’ Chuirn, Kilmartin, Argyll

megalithix

Cairn:  OS Grid References – NR 8122 9782

Also Known as:

  1. Canmore ID 39465
  2. Lady’s Seat Cairn

Getting Here

Many ways to get here, but you’ve gotta amble off-path through the woods to eventually find it — but it’s not difficult. From Kilmartin village head to Slockavullin and walk up the winding track which takes you towards the Ballygowan cup-and-ring stones, but follow it into the woods instead. The OS-map’s gonna be your best guide here. I first visited this spot from the south and ambled about, aimlessly at times for several hours, after I’d first been to the great ruined mansion of Poltalloch. Well worth checking out if you enjoy finding allsorts!

Archaeology & History

The old tomb is actually a few hundred yards beneath the small rocky summit of Barr a’ Chuirn, with the overgrowth of the woods imposing itself upon it. The Scottish Royal Commission report (1988) told that there was a large seat built here in the 19th century called the Lady’s Seat, and actually set up on the cairn itself so giving groovy views all round to those who came here. The Seat was made from large slabs of stone, which may originally have come from the old tomb.  An excavation here in the mid-19th century,

“found the remains of two cists and some burnt bones, with a ‘skeleton of later date, between the two cists, but probably put there by the men who destroyed the cairn.’ In 1929 Craw re-examined the site and found that the central cist had chambered and grooved slabs. This cist is aligned ENE and WSW, and the E end-slab is now missing; the cist measured about 1m by 0.5m and about 0.3m in depth internally. The northern side-slab is grooved at the west end.”

References:

  1. Royal Commission on the Ancient & Historical Monuments of Scotland, Argyll: volume 6 – Mid-Argyll and Cowal, HMSO: Edinburgh 1988.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian