From Port Ellen take the A846 road east to Laphroaig, and on the far side of the village, past the small forested part on your left, walk up the slightly sloping hill alongside the small River Kilbride. Over a couple of walls on your way up, look up the small hill to your right (north) and you’ll see these large standing stones.
Archaeology & History
A triple-stone row no less! Although only two of these stones are upright, a third central prostrate stone is included in archaeological surveys as an original upright. And it seems likely. Although passed over in Alexander Thom’s astroarchaeological analyses, Clive Ruggles (1984) looked at this stone row and found the alignment here to possess no solar or lunar function. But if it aligns north the mythic relationship obviously relates to death, as North “is the place of greatest symbolic darkness” where neither sun nor moon ever rise nor set. There may have been an early association with Alpha Draconis, or Thuban in the constellation of the Dragon: the Pole Star in early neolithic times around which the heavens were seen to revolve by our ancestors and hold the pillar of the sky in place. But we may never know. Perhaps by the time these monoliths were erected, the mythos relating to A.Draconis may have faded…
The stones are found amidst a scatter of other neolithic and Bronze Age remains. In the Royal Commission (1984) report on the stones they described the respective monoliths as follows:
“The north stone, measuring 1.28m by 0.35m at the base and 2.70m in height, rises with a gradual taper, the top curving gently to its highest point at the top of the south side. The centre stone, now prone, has fallen onto its E face and lies embedded in the ground with its upper surface (originally the west face) flush with turf; it is 3m long and up to 0.9m broad. The south stone measures 0.80m by 0.40m at the foot and 2.85m in height. It leans towards the west and the top slopes down sharply from the south to a shoulder 2.1m above ground level on the north side.”
…to be continued…
References:
Burl, Aubrey, From Carnac to Callanish, Yale University Press 1993.
Royal Commission on the Ancient & Historical Monuments of Scotland, Argyll – volume 5: Islay, Jura, Colonsay and Oronsay, HMSO: Edinburgh 1984.
Ruggles, C.L.N., Megalithic Astronomy: A New Archaeological and Statistical Study of 300 Western Scottish Sites, BAR: Oxford 1984.
From the village of Midgley, high above the A646 Halifax-to-Todmorden road, travel west along the moorland road until you reach the sharp-ish bend in the road, with steep wooded waterfall to your left and the track up to the disused quarry of Foster Clough. Go up the Foster Clough track for 100 yards and, when you reach the gate in front of you, go over it but follow the line of the straight walling uphill by the stream-side (instead of following the path up the quarries) all the way to the top. Here you’ll see the boundary stone of Churn Milk Joan.
Archaeology & History
The present large standing stone you see before you isn’t prehistoric. However, the small broken piece on the ground by its side may have been its prehistoric predecessor; and there is certainly something of an archaic nature here — albeit a contentious one — as we find old cup-markings cut into its eastern face.
Two ‘cup-marks’ on eastern face
The upright is roughly squared and faces the cardinal points. It was described in Mr Heginbottom’s (1977) unpublished survey on Calderdale rock art, where he described there being a few cup-markings inscribed on its east- and south-facing edges, some of which may be prehistoric — though they would obviously have had to have been carved upon the upright stone when it still lay earth-fast. However, we must posit the the notion (unless some of you have better ideas) that the tradition of etching cup-marks onto rocks was still occurring in this part of Yorkshire until the late Middle Ages, as this stone was, as we know from boundary records, only placed upright to mark the meeting of the three boundaries of Wadsworth, Hebden Royd and Sowerby.
Churn Milk Joan’s other name, Saville’s Low, originates from the great Saville family who owned great tracts of land across the region in the fourteenth century, possibly when the Churn Milk Joan we see today was created. The word “lowe” may derive from the old word meaning, “moot or gathering place,” which this great stone probably served as due to its siting at the junction of the three townships.*
Folklore
In modern times the stone has become a focus for a number of local pagans and New Agers who visit and ‘use’ the site in their respective ways at certain times of the day, albeit estranged (ego-bound) from the original mythic nature of the site.
The name of the stone comes from an old legend about a milk-maid named Joan who, whilst carrying milk across the moors between Luddenden and Pecket Well, got caught in a blizzard and froze to death. When her body was found many days later, the stone we see here today was erected to commemorate the spot where she died. Although such a scenario is quite likely on these hills, as Andy Roberts (1992) said,
“Considering the sheer amount of sites with similar legends this explanation is unlikely to be true and we should looker deeper for the meaning behind Churn Milk Joan, to be found in its positioning in the landscape and ourindividual feelings about it.” [see profiles for the Two Lads and the Lad o’ Crow Hill sites)
The monolith’s other title, Churnmilk Peg, is the name given to an old hag who is said to be the guardian of nut thickets. How this female sprite came to find her abode upon these high hills is somewhat of an enigma, but it was first stated as such in an article by Andy Roberts (1989) in “Northern Earth Mysteries” magazine. E.M. Wright (1913) noted this supernatural creature in her work on folk dialect, describing it as a West Yorkshire elemental who, along with another one known as Melsh Dick:
“are wood-demons supposed to protect soft, unripe nuts from being gathered by naughty children, the former being wont to beguile her leisure by smoking a pipe.”
Another legend of the stone tells how it is said to spin round three times on New Year’s Eve when it hears the sound of the midnight bells at St. Michael’s church (St. Michael was a dragon-slayer) at Mytholmroyd in the valley below. Another piece of folklore tells that coins used to be left in a small hollow at the very top of the stone which, according to Haslem (1981), was “a gift to the spirit world, to bring luck” – a common folk motif. It may equally originate from the custom of it as a plague stone. This tradition of leaving coins atop of the stone is still perpetuated by some local folk.
Mr Haslem also made some interesting remarks about the nature of Churn Milk Joan standing as a boundary stone, representing something which stands not just as a physical boundary, but as a boundary point between this and the Other- or spirit world. In folklore, streams and rivers commonly carry this theme. But here on Midgley Moor, as a standing stone at the junction of three boundaries, we may be looking at the place as an omphalos: a centre point from which the manifold worlds unfold. (see Almscliffe Crags, the Ashlar Chair and the Hitching Stone)
The other motif here, of milk and snow [both white], have been speculated to represent power of the sun at midwinter, and geomantically we find the position of the stone in the landscape exemplifying this: it stands midway in the moorland scenery facing south, the direction of solar power, yet is bounded as an equinox marker from east and west. The winter tales it has nestled around it are merely complementary occult augurs of its more wholesome elements at this point in the hills.
There is however, another much more potent element that has not been conveyed about the site and its folklore—and one which has more authenticity and primary animistic quality. Regardless of ‘Joan’ or ‘Peg’ being the elemental preserved in the landscape title, the ‘churning’ in its name and the ‘spinning’ of the stone in myth at the end of one year and the start of the next at New Year, are folk memories of traditional creation myths that speak of the cyclical seasons endlessly perpetuated year after year after year, in what Mircea Eliade (1954) called the ‘myth of the eternal return.’ As season follows season in the folk myths of our ancestors, everything related to the natural world: a world inhabited (as it still is) by feelings and intuitions learned from an endless daily encounter, outdoors, with the streams, hills, gales, snow and fires. Their entire cosmology, as with aboriginal people the world over, saw the cycles of the year as integral parts of their daily lives. Here, at Churn Milk Joan with its central landscape position along an ancient boundary, the churning and turning of the year was commemorated and mythologized year after year after year; with maybe even the Milky Way being part of the ‘milk’ in its title, from which, in the shamanistic worlds that were integral to earlier society, the gods themselves emerged and came down to Earth.
References:
Bennett, Paul, The Old Stones of Elmet, Capall Bann: Milverton 2001.
Eliade, Mircea, The Myth of the Eternal Return, Bollingen 1954.
Haslem, Michael, “Churn Milk Joan: A Boundary Stone on Midgley Moor,” in Wood and Water, 1:8, 1980.
Heginbottom, J.A., “The Prehistoric Rock Art of Upper Calderdale and the Surrounding Area,” Yorkshire Archaeology Society 1977.
Ogden, J.H., “A Moorland Township: Wadsworth in Ancient Times,” Proceedings of the Halifax Antiquarian Society, 1904.
Robert, Andy, “Our Last Meeting,” in NEM 37, 1989.
Robert, Andy, Ghosts and Legends of Yorkshire, Jarrold: Sheffield 1992.
Wright, Elizabeth Mary, Rustic Speech and Folk-Lore, Oxford University Press 1913.
* The great stone at the cente of the Great Skirtful of Stones, Burley Moor, which previously stood at the centre of the Grubstones Circle, was just such a moot stone. Upon it is carved the words “This is Rumble’s Lawe”.
Follow the same directions to get to the Dumpit Hill A stone circle; but instead when you get to the point where you need to walk off-track and into the heather to get to the circle, keep walking up the dirt-track for about another 200 yards, watching diligently thereby for a reasonable sized, fallen, “standing-stone”-like character just yards into the heather on your right (on your left, there’s a U-shaped dip where the wall is). This is the northern edge of the walled enclosure. From this fallen ‘standing stone’ follow the overgrown walling along carefully into the heather along and down the slight slope. You’re now either on the very edge, or perhaps going into the middle of the enclosure. Look around!
Archaeology & History
East section of walling
There’s no previous written history of this site, discovered for the first time last week on our sojourn to the Dumpit Hill stone circles, by Michala Potts. She didn’t seem too excited by it at the time, but an amble back to what she’d found got me going! (easily done) With the help of the heather being burned away, open and exposed was a distinct line of prehistoric walling — perhaps Bronze Age, perhaps later. It’s hard to tell.
Structurally similar to the enclosure walling at Horse Close and Rough Haw, either side of Skipton, a few miles to the south, here we have about 100 yards of walling seeming to enclose the eastern side of the small hilltop, but running into the heather on its southern edge and the moorland track on its northern side, where it disappears again, leaving no trace of what one would assume would be a consistent western section.
From the grid reference for the site, the line of walling runs northwards for about 20 yards before taking a very slight shift in direction for another 20 yards. Here the walling goes to the left (west) for another 20 yards, before edging slightly northwest and back into the heather. A section of the walling is visible at each end, though we lose any accurate trace of it after a short distance in the long heather. However, at the northwestern point in the enclosure walling, a very distinct long stone about 4 feet high leans at an angle in the ling. It seems apparent that this stone at one point in the not-too-distant past stood upright, making it the tallest stone here.
Northern section of wallingFallen monolith?
What may be other features can be seen inside this enclosure section: a possible hut circle and other portions of walling were noted. However, we didn’t spend much time exploring the site in detail, so there is a high probability of other prehistoric remains in and around this enclosure awaiting discovery. The site’s proximity to the stone circles of Dumpit Hill A and Dumpit Hill B should be noted; along with what the North Yorkshire’s Historic Environment Officer, Robert White, said were “three, possibly four small circular enclosures (about 9m in diameter)” a short distance away. A further survey of the site is necessary to enable us a better picture of what we’re looking at here.
The huge Pendreich Muir monolith, with Dumyat in the background
Nearly 600 yards west of the old Sheriffmuir Road (between Bridge of Allan to Greenloaning), you’re best approaching it up the zigzaggy lane from above Stirling Uni until it levels out beyond the main wooded area where the hills open up on either side of you. There’s a little touristy parking spot further along the road, just below a small wooded bit. Go past this and look out for the small peaked hill nearly a half-mile NW on your left. Take whichever footpath you fancy (if you see one) and get to the top of that hill!
Archaeology & History
This is a wonderful spot, located at the highest point on this small moorland region on the western edge of the Ochil Hills. I haven’t found too much written about this once proud, but now fallen monolith — which seems unusual considering its size, cos it’s huge! It would have stood out and been visible for miles around. Quite when it was felled, I cannot find. The only info I’ve got here (Royal Commission 1963) tells:
“Lying recumbent on a grassy patch among the heather, it is a four-sided pillar measuring 13ft in length, a maximum of 4ft 6in across the wider side, and a maximum of 1ft 6in across the narrower side.”
In enquiring about the nature of this stone a few years ago, a local chap who called himself ‘Wharryburn’ wrote to say, “I believe the laid-out stone is a fallen standing stone. My grandfather was gamekeeper at Airthrey Estate and responsible for the shooting on the moor there he passed it to my father etc… It’s the local volcanic stone, not an ice-dropped erratic. There are also a few biggish stones at points around that I tried to make some sense out of a few years ago, but no luck.”
The great hill of Dumyat rises to its east; a short distance north is a megalithic stone row with its upright Wallace Stone; whilst the overgrown prehistoric cairns of Pendreich 1, 2 and 3 live on the small hillocks a few hundred yards to the south.
References:
Royal Commission on the Ancient & Historical Monuments of Scotland, Stirlingshire – volume 1, HMSO: Edinburgh 1963.
This lovely-looking 5-foot tall standing stone, marking an old boundary line in the Muasdale parish, is a curious one with elongated cups, some of which have the appearance of natural beach-side erosion caused by molluscs — unlikely though it may be. It first appears to have been described in an early PSAS article by Duncan Colville (1930), who told us:
“The writer was informed by the Rev. D.J. MacDonald, the minister of the parish, of the existence of this cup-marked stone forming a gatepost in the boundary wall between the arable and hill ground on the farm of Gaigean. The gate referred to is situated on the top of a steep bank on the south side of a small stream, a short distance uphill to the east of the farm steading of Gaigean. The front of a stone is now set an angle of about 45° to the ground facing almost southwest (105° magnetic across the face). Underneath the stone is another boulder similar in size, with several smaller stones wedged between the two, thus preventing further inspection.”
The North Beachmore stone
Some years later when the Scottish Royal Commission (1971) lads described the site in their Kintyre survey (monument no.97), they gave a more detailed description of the cup-and-rings, saying:
“The markings consist largely of plain cups, but one cup is accompanied by a partial single ring which measures 0.11m across. At the foot of the lower half of the stone four cups linked by broad gutters form a curious branched pattern, and a similar combination of three cups and gutters occurs in the upper half, while in two other instances a pair of cups are joined by a short straight channel to form a dumb-bell figure. The remainder of the markings comprise twelve oblong or kidney-shaped hollows measuring up to 0.15m in length by 0.064m in breadth, and thirty-one plain cups ranging from 0.038m to 0.076m in diameter, the largest being 0.019m deep.”
References:
Colville, Duncan, “Notes on the Standing Stones of Kintyre” in Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries, Scotland, volume 64, 1929-30.
Royal Commission on the Ancient & Historical Monuments of Scotland, Argyll – volume 1: Kintyre, HMSO: Edinburgh 1971.
From Menstrie, walk up the path behind the post office and head up onto the hills, following the track that runs up alongside the Menstrie Burn. After about 500 yards, crossing a stream, the path has a sort of hairpin kink and, shortly past this a smaller path leads off up into the grasslands on your left. The standing stone can be seen up this path about 100 yards up.
Archaeology & History
The Lipney Stone
We came across this small standing stone, less than four feet high, after running and jumping down the steep eastern slope of Dumyat at some speed — or rather, Naomi came across the little thing and then told me about it after I’d run round and further down the slope towards the upper stretches of the Menstrie Burn (I was knackered!).
It’s a curious little thing inasmuch as it stands here alone, with no other companions close by; although there were a number of other stones scattering the grasslands hereabouts and other stones may await discovery. Little seems to have been said of the site. The Canmore record tells:
“It measures 1.1m in height, 0.7m in breadth and 0.4m in thickness, and is aligned with its long axis NE-SW. It rises with straight sides and leans to the SE.”
There are extensive remains of earthworks scattering the slopes hereby, though much of this seems medieval in nature. Any further information about this old stone would be much appreciated!
Go west along the A44 from Salford village ’til just before the crossroad with the A436. 100 yards before here there’s a small left turn, downhill, past Hollis Hill Farm and Park Farm. Before reaching Cornwell at the bottom, walk into the fields to your left and find the township boundary (on 1:25,000 OS maps), which is marked with old hedges. It’s in here!
Archaeology & History
Walk along the line of old hedges, checking either side if it’s overgrown, until you find this well-worn three-foot tall standing stone (exact coordinate SP 2770 2785) standing in the hedgerow. It’s a cute little thing which may have marked the old boundary line, but it has a distinctly prehistoric feel and look to it, in a region where many old prehistoric remains still linger…
References:
Bennett, Paul & Wilson, Tom, The Old Stones of Rollright and District, Cockley: London 1999.
If you’re not into the walk, get the bus running NE between Dunblane and Greenloaning — the A9 — getting off at the Little Chef on the dual carriageway and cross the road, walking up the track to Upper Whiteston Farm (the owners here are very helpful). As you walk up the track you’ll notice the large upright in the edge of the field a coupla hundred yards to your right. That’s the one!
Archaeology & History
This is a mightily impressive site if you’re into yer megaliths! When it was visited and measured by Mr Hutchinson (1893) in the 19th century he found it to be 9ft 4 in tall; and although it seems quite isolated at first sight, we find that there is another large stone companion laid down not far to the north of here which may have had some relationship with it . But that aside… There are also as many as eight cup-markings on the stone’s eastern face: one large one and seven smaller ones, in no particular order as usual! It was these cup-marks that gave me the impression there was once a burial associated with the stone, but the archaeology records seem silent on such a matter; though folklore tradition tells another story…
Folklore
Mr Hutchinson (1893) told that the legend attached to this stone appears to be “of quite recent date.” He said how,
“In the district the stone is known as the MacGregor Stone, and the tradition accounting for the name is to the effect that here a countryman was sacrificed by the followers of Rob Roy, when forming for the engagement on Sheriffmuir, in order to satisfy the ancient Highland superstition that first-blood was an infallible omen of success… The tradition is precise enough to state that a man of the name Dawson was seized in the adjoining hamlet of Whiteheadston (for such is the orignal name) as a whig, and therefore a foeman and proper victim. Dawson, however, suspecting the intentions of the captors, vehemently professed himself a supporter of King James and was left off. But another inhabitant of the hamlet not so acute or not so hypocritical, was immolated at the stone.”
Hutchinson however, doubts the accuracy of the tale and suggests that the local name of the MacGregor’s Stone derives from the fact that the monolith stands upon land once owned by the MacGregors of Balhaldies, countenancing that the stone “is of much earlier date than the MacGregors of Balhaldie or any other sept of the Children of the Mist.” I think he’s got a point!
References:
Hutchinson, A.F., “The Standing Stones of Stirling District,” in The Stirling Antiquary, volume 1, 1893.
An intriguing entry inasmuch as we don’t know the full history and nature of the site. Whether this site was the “druidical circle” mentioned in the 1791 Old Statistical Account of Scotland ” upon the heights of Sheriffmuir,”(vol.3, p.210), we cannot be sure. The site was certainly described by Mr Hutchinson (1893) more than a century ago as a “stone circle”, but earlier still in a short piece in the Stirling Journal of May 5, 1830. It read:
“About eight miles from Stirling by the Sheriffmuir Road, near a place called Harperstone, there is a remarkable circle of stones, supposed to have been a druidical place of worship of old. The site of this circle is rather uncommon in this country — being on the back summit of a high hill, one of the Ochils called the Black Hill, and exposed to every wind that blows. It is about two english miles south of the present roadway.”
The writer’s notes then told of some curious finds by this circle, giving the impression that it may have had another function: perhaps a cairn of sorts; perhaps an ancient building — we may never know. Nevertheless, his information is intriguing.
“Tradition records two remarkable circumstances connected with this druidical circle, which may perhaps be worthy of being preserved. About the middle of last century (c.1750) there were dug up at the foot of the larger stones three vessels of clay of antique shapes, containing coins of very ancient date, which were long preserved by Monteath of Park, but are now, we regret to say, lost. So late as 1770, these coins were, it is said, to be seen at Park House, all of gold. About the year 1715, some stones on which had been engraved inscriptions were dug up at the same place; and at a previous period specimens of ancient Pictish armour were dug up from the bowels of this hill, which had been carefully deposited of yore some feet below the surface in crypts of curious description.”
When Mr Hutchinson came to explore this region in search of the stone circle, his nose took him to a site a few hundred yards north of nearby Harperstone Farm, where he found a large stone:
“It is 9 feet long by 6 feet across on the top, is 3 feet thick and measures 26 feet round. This appears to have been a centre stone, and a surrounding circle is traceable more or less distinctly — moreso to the west and north, less so to the east and south. The radius of the circle is about 15 yard, and a similar distance separates each of the larger stones yet traceable in the circle. The ground beside the great central stone appears to have been excavated…”
Black Hill, Sheriffmuir, looking eastArc of 3 stones in large ellipse
But it would seem that Hutchinson’s site and the one described in the Stirling Journal of 1830 are two distinctly separate items if their relative topographical descriptions are to be accepted. No doubt — like many a-local who’s found these same written accounts — when we visited and wandered back and forth over the Black Hill site in Autumn 2010, we were as puzzled as others before us in finding nothing on the named Black Hill. Nothing that could remotely be viewed as the circle described was anywhere in evidence. The only thing that we found of any potential was on the flat below the southern ridge of the hill, heading towards the small copse of trees, where is a possible ring of seven stones, albeit a low one, in an ellipse formation. The ground was much overgrown and a spring of water emerged from the edge of where might have been an eighth stone. The photo shown here was the best we could get of the site. It’s unlikely to be the place which Messrs Hutchinson and company wrote about.
A more detailed examination of the landscape around this ‘Harperstone Circle’ is needed.
References:
Hutchinson, A.F., “The Standing Stones of Stirling District,” in The Stirling Antiquary, volume 1, 1893.
Following excavation work on this denuded megalithic ring in 1974 and 1975 under the joint auspices of the Islay Historical Works Group (IHWG) and the Hunterian Museum of the University of Glasgow, under the direction of archaeologist Dr Euan MacKie (1976), with the intent of actually restoring the site to what they thought was its former glory by resurrecting the fallen monoliths in this ring of stones, some intriguing facts came to light. Dr MacKie wrote:
“This site stands on a low, shallow knoll about a mile from the sea and with an extensive peat bog to the west. Before excavation the stone ring consisted of a rough oval of two standing stones and ten fallen ones, the latter being partly or nearly completely buried under the turf. The dimensions of the ring were about 45 by 40 yards. The excavations were based on a 6m grid and the ain was to explore as much as possible the perimeter of the ring and part of the interior. In this way it was hoped to identify the sockets from which the prone monoliths were assumed to have fallen and thus to discover the exact positions at which they were to be re-erected…
“It soon became clear that the prone monoliths had not in fact fallen out of their sockets. All of them lay on the old ground surface under the peat which had evidently begun to grow — in the 8th century BC according to one C-14 date — after the site had reached its present condition. Some stones had no socket next to them and a number of sockets were found without adjacent stones. Several stones lay next to sockets in such a position as to make it clear that they had never been set up. The site had evidently been abandoned in the middle of construction and those sockets already dug were allowed to fill slowly with rubble and silt. One socket was discovered which had been deliberately filled up, confirming that some change of plan had occurred before the final abandonment. Cultoon is the only stone circle apart from two phases of Stonehenge to have revealed evidence of never having been completed. (my italics, Megalithix)
“The finds were few and consisted of mesolithic flint microliths and some larger, presumably neolithic flints. The former were all on and in the buried topsoil — the circle builders’ ground surface — while the latter were on the land surface and in the lower part of the peat; these last included scrapers and are hollow-based points of Bronze Age type. Of particular interest was the discovery of caches of flint flakes in the peat next to the two standing stones. They appear to be deliberate offerings and suggest that the site retained its sanctity for some centuries after its abandonment.”
…to be continued…
References:
MacKie, Euan, “Cultoon, Islay,” in Glasgow Archaeological Society Bulletin, No.2, 1976.
