From Sabden village, walk up the Clitheroe Road towards the hairpin Nick o’ Pendle, but take the turning left 100 yards before the Nick. Walk along the dirt-track for less than 100 yards, watching for the small upright on the right-hand side of the track. You can’t really miss it!
Archaeology & History
The Coffin Stone
To be found on the far southern flanks of Pendle Hill, the Lancashire writer and historian, John Dixon,* brought us to this little-known stone a few days back — and gave us the history of the place. (Dixon 1993) He pointed out how it’s situated right alongside the legendary cross-Pennine prehistoric route that was labelled ‘Rombald’s Way’ by Eric Cowling. (1946): an important trackway which ran from coast to coast, allowing for the passage and transmission of flints, salt and early metals carried for barter and other uses. What may be another standing stone is on the nearby skyline a couple of hundred yards east; and on the slopes either side of here are the prehistoric tombs of Jeppe Knave Grave and the Devil’s Apronful (amongst others). A fine little standing stone!
Folklore
The name derives from it being a place where, in bygone days, when coffins were carried along the ancient routeway hereby, it was rested by this stone. As John Dixon (1993) told:
“It was used to mark a resting point for coffins en route from Pendle Forest to Whalley, allowing the mourners to refresh and pray by the curative Marion well, in a time before the ‘Newchurch’ of St. Mary was established at Goldshaw Booth in 1544.”
…and from another angle
The Marion Well he mentions is more popularly known as Our Lady’s Well and can be found a hundred yards up the hillside above our Coffin Stone. If you walk up the slope you’ll see the site emerging where a small boggy pool appears on the hillside, and the course of the small stream marked by the reeds growing down the grassy slopes. Although it became very much a Roman Catholic practice to venerate the Virgin Mary by this old well, the ritual was of course a much older heathen one.
John has also reminded me to mention “the fossil markings on the side of the stone – some plant from a former age” which you can see curving up from the bottom of the upright.
References:
Cowling, Eric T., Rombald’s Way: A Prehistory of Mid-Wharfedale, William Walker: Otley 1946.
Dixon, John, Journeys through Brigantia – volume 9: The Ribble Valley, Aussteiger Publications: Barnoldswick 1993.
* John is the author of many fine historical travel guides, including the Journeys through Brigantia series. See the titles in the Lancashire Bibliography and Yorkshire Bibliography for a more complete listing of all his books to date. If you wanna buy any of his works, or make enquiries regarding them, email John at: lancashirebooks@fsmail.net – or write to him direct, at: John Dixon, Aussteiger Publications, 21 Lowergate, Clitheroe, Lancashire BB7 1AD.
From Skipton centre get to the Horse Close estate on the southern side of the town and look up to the fields on the sloping hill above it with the small woods above ’em. Head up towards the trees, but before you get there go into the fields on your right, and in one of them you’ll see what looks like a pile of rocks near the middle. Head for it!
Alternatively, follow the directions to reach the Horse Close Hill enclosure, then walk down into the field on its western edge. You can’t really miss it!
Archaeology & History
This carving first saw the light of pen-and-paper in the early 1960s, soon after the Yorkshire antiquarian Eric T. Cowling (he of Rombald’s Way fame) was led to the site by his wandering nose and the aid of local people. He sent a letter to the editor of the Bradford archaeology group at the time (a certain Mr Sidney Jackson), which told:
“South-west of the wood which gives its name to the Great Wood Laithe at the western end of Rombalds Moor and overlooking Skipton from the east, is a cup-marked boulder: NGR – SD 99625055. In the middle of the field alongside the wood is an outcrop of rock which has been almost levelled with the adjacent field surface by the dumping of boulders from the surrounding ploughlands.
“The top of the outcrop rises to a dome-shaped projection which bears simple cup-markings. These average two in diameter and total 17 in number. The whole surface of the stone is weathered, and suitable light may reveal more details.”
And, faded though it is, in better lighting conditions it seems there may be more than twenty cup-marks on the rock. Certainly this is what the surveys of Hedges (1986) and Boughey & Vickerman (2003) concluded. There are other carvings close by and, on the hillside immediately above you, the denuded remains of a very impressive prehistoric settlement site known as Horse Close Hill. Well worth having a look at!
References:
Boughey, Keith & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, WYAS: Leeds 2003.
Cowling, E.T., “Cup-and Ring Boulders,” in Cartwright Hall Archaeology Group Bulletin, 9:5, May 1964.
Hedges, John (ed.), The Carved Rocks on Rombald’s Moor, WYMCC: Wakefield 1986.
Follow the same directions as to reach the cup-marked Sheriffmuir Carving, which is just a coupla hundred yards away to the southwest. On a clear day you can see this standing stone from the pub by the roadside, a few hundred yards away!
This is alleged to be just one standing stone in a straight line of five once-upright monoliths. Starting at the southwestern end of this row we have the 7ft-long cup-marked Sheriffmuir Carved stone — which certainly looks as if it stood upright in the not-too-distant past — and as we move up the line we pass another that’s been split in half. Another earthfast-looking rock is the next contender, before we reach our famous Wallace Stone, standing upright and proud on this moorland ridge. It’s about 6ft tall and 3ft across at its widest and certainly acts as a marker for the line of stones that allegedly stood upright here. And if we walk just a bit further up we have another big stone laid on the ground which is alleged to be a part of the same alignment.
If it is an authentic megalithic row, it’s not included in either the Thoms’ (1990) two-volume work on the subject, nor Aubrey Burl’s (1996) compendium a few years later. And though the alignment looks good, I’ve found ones just like this in the Pennines where we have just one upright left and then a line of other seemingly prostrate stones running dead straight either side of the singular upright (and have kept mi gob shut about ’em for sensible reasons), so I’m not too sure what to think.
But, alignment aside, the Wallace Stone itself is a damn good standing stone and well worth checking out. It’s highly probable that other prehistoric remains still lurk, undiscovered, amidst these heaths…like the lost stone circle to be found nearby…
Folklore
A slight variation on a theme about this spot: in both accounts the stone was named after the legendary Scottish independence fighter, Sir William Wallace. The folklore tells that he and his fighting clans gathered here in 1297 preceeding the Battle of Stirling Bridge; whilst the variation tells that the stone here was actually erected around that time to commemorate the event. This tale was first narrated by a local story-teller called Blind Harry and was found by local historian A.F. Hutchinson (1893) to be a case of mistaken identity!
References:
Burl, Aubrey, From Carnac to Callanish: The Prehistoric Stone Rows and Avenues of Britain, Ireland and Brittany, Yale University Press 1993.
Heggie, Douglas C., Megalithic science: ancient mathematics and astronomy in north-west Europe, Thames & Hudson: London 1981.
Hutchinson, A.F., “The Standing Stones and other Rude Monuments of Stirling District,” in Transactions of the Stirling Natural History and Antiquarian Society, 1893.
Royal Commission on the Ancient & Historical Monuments of Scotland, Archaeological Sites and Monuments of Stirling District, Central Region, Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 1979.
Thom, A., Thom, A.S. & Burl, Aubrey, Stone Rows and Standing Stones – 2 volumes, B.A.R.: Oxford 1990.
From Dunblane, head up the Glen Road for nearly a mile, turning left up the Sheriffmuir Road and all the wya on till you reach the pub near the T-junction another couple of miles on. OK – get thru the gate and onto the moor, roughly in a straight line with the pub behind you for about 400 yards. You’re damn close! (if you find the nice standing stone known as the Wallace Stone, walk 250 yards southwest from here).
Archaeology & History
Almost nothing has been written of this cup-marked stone, found at the southern end of what’s alleged to be an authentic megalithic stone row alignment, running northeast to southwest — although this alignment isn’t included in either Aubrey Burl’s (1993) or Alexander Thom’s (1990) textbooks dealing with such matters.
Cup-marks highlighted in ice!Cup-marked rock with the Wallace Stone in the distance
When we came here last winter in temperatures of around -6°C (one helluva good day!), curiously only this and the other stones along this “stone row” were actually uncovered on the moorland. Quite bizarre to be honest! Many of the other rocks scattering this small moorland edge were covered in several feet of snow. We were lucky I s’ppose…though I’ve gotta get back up here again shortly and see the site in summertime (midges up mi crotch, cleggs-a-biting – oh such joy!) cos I can’t believe this is the only cup-marked stone hereby.
The rock itself is more than seven-feet long and has at least twenty archetypal cups carved into its slightly-slanting face — although when we visited the stone, several of these were difficult to see and, as the images show, even more difficult to photograph (of the 20 I took of this stone alone, only one was of any value in highlight the cups) . The stone gave the impression that it may have stood upright in the not-too-distant past — which would of course give the notion of this as part of megalithic avenue a considerably more potent status.
Some dood alleged that this potential stone row, with this cup-marked stone at its southwestern end, marked an astronomical alignment — but for the life of me I can’t remember who it was! (it’s my age creeping up on me at last!)
References:
Burl, Aubrey, From Carnac to Callanish: The Prehistoric Stone Rows and Avenues of Britain, Ireland and Brittany, Yale University Press 1993.
Heggie, Douglas C., Megalithic science: ancient mathematics and astronomy in north-west Europe, Thames & Hudson: London 1981.
Thom, A., Thom, A.S. & Burl, Aubrey, Stone Rows and Standing Stones – 2 volumes, B.A.R.: Oxford 1990.
Pretty easy really. From Shipton-under-Wychwood take the A361 road north (to Chipping Norton) for just over 2 miles. You’ll pass the TV mast on your right and then a small country lane sign-posted to Ascott-under-Wychwood. Go past this and then stop at the next right-turn a half-mile further up the road. The barrow is about 100 yards before this turning, in the hedgerow, on the left-hand side of the road!
Archaeology & History
This once great and proud neolithic monument is today but a shadow of its former self. Described by various antiquarians and archaeologists over the years, O.G.S. Crawford (1925) included it in his fine survey, telling:
“The barrow is between 160 and 170 feet long and stands in two fields on the west side of the Chipping Norton and Burford main road… In the northern field, at the NE end of the barrow, stands a single upright stone, 6 feet high, 5 feet broad and 1 foot 6 inches thick. This stone is stated to be buried three feet deep in the ground and its height is given by Conder as 10 feet 6 inches. When visited October 18, 1922, a large piece of the top had been broken off, but replaced in position.”
This damage was reported around the same time and described in the early “Notes” of The Antiquaries Journal by a Mr A.D. Passmore (1925), who wrote:
“About 30ft from the north-east end of this long barrow stands a large monolith now nearly 6ft above ground…and roughly 6ft wide and just under 2ft thick, of local stone. At the top is an ancient and natural fissure extending right across the stone and penetrating some way downwards obliquely. Early in 1923, either by foul play or natural decay, another crack appeared spreading towards the first about a right-angle, the result being that a large piece at the top of the monolith became detached. Such an opportunity of mischief was speedily taken advantage of and the piece of stone, weighing over 4 cwt, was pushed off and fell to the ground. In August 1924 the owner of the land, his man, and the writer spread a bed of cement and hoisted up the large broken mass and relaid it in its bed.”
But even in their day, the tomb had already been opened up and checked out, by a Lord Moreton and a Mr Edward Conder, in 1894 no less! Conder’s account (1895) of the inside of this ancient tomb told:
“There were found (1) a chamber at right angles to the long axis of the barrow; on the south-eastern side of the barrow were two uprights, 4 feet 2 inches by 2 feet 1o inches, and 1 foot 9 inches by 2 feet 8 inches. At the north-western end of the chamber were two uprights set with their long faces (edges?) abutting. On the surface-line at the level of the base of the barrow were traces of paving and fragments of bone, pottery and charcoal. (2) Chamber, a little south of the south-east corner of No.1, slightly above the ground level. It was formed of three uprights, on the north, east and west sides respectively, and a paving slab with a perforation 4 inches in diameter. At the north-eastern end of the barrow was a ridge of large ‘rug’ stones up to 8 feet long, 5 feet wide, and 2½ feet thick, terminating in a standing stone…10 feet 6 inches high…buried 3 feet below ground level. At the southwest end was a standing stone, 4½ feet by 3 feet by 11 inches thick, in a horizontal position lying east and west, 2 feet below the surface. At various points were found skulls and human and animal bones and hearths, with no indications of date, and (as secondary interments) two Saxon graves.”
Today, poor old Lyneham Barrow is much overgrown and could do with a bittova face-lift to bring it back to life. But I wouldn’t hold y’ breath…..
Folklore
At the crossroads just above this old tomb, the ghost of a white lady is said to roam. And at the old quarry on the other side of the road a decidedly shamanistic tale speaks of an old lady who lived in a cave and guarded great treasure! Her spirit is sometimes seen wandering about in and around the fields hereby.
References:
Bennett, Paul & Wilson, Tom, The Old Stones of Rollright and District, Cockley: London 1999.
Brooks, J.A., Ghosts and Witches of the Cotswolds, Jarrold: Norwich 1992.
Conder, Edward, “An Account of the Exploration of Lyneham Barrow, Oxon,” in Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries, volume 15, 1895.
Crawford, O.G.S., Long Barrows of the Cotswolds, John Bellows: Oxford 1925.
Dyer, James, Discovering Regional Archaeology: The Cotswolds and the Upper Thames, Shire: Tring 1970.
L.V. Grinsell’s Ancient Burial Mounds of England, Methuen: London 1936.
James, Dave, “A Brief Foray into Oxfordshire,” in Gloucestershire Earth Mysteries 14, 1992.
Passmore, A.D., “Lyneham Barrow, Oxfordshire,” in Antiquaries Journal, 5:2, April 1925.
Turner, Mark, Folklore and mysteries of the Cotswolds, Hale: London 1993.
Get here before the heather grows back! From the Askwith Moor parking spot, walk up the road (north) and turn left on the moorland track, past the triangulation pillar, then the ranger’s hut on the edge of the hill, and head WNW along and down the gradual slope. You’ll get to a row of grouse butts after a few hundred yards and, if you’re lucky to find it, an old OS trig-marked arrow carved on one of the low-lying stones. This stone is about 10 yards away from the cairn!
Archaeology & History
There are no previous references to this site. It was discovered by the hardworking Keighley volunteer, Michala Potts of Bracken Bank, on May 20, 2010, and was the most visible of at least three prehistoric cairns on the sloping edge of this hill. The main one illustrated here is about 3 yards in diameter and only a foot or two high. Typical of the many Bronze Age cairns scattering the moors north and south of here, several others are in close attendance. It seems as if some of the stone from this cairn has been robbed to build some of the grouse-butts that stretch across the moors hereby.
Single cairn on Askwith MoorSame cairn, looking uphill
About 50 yards away from the main cairn shown in the photos are a couple of others of the same size and nature. And if we walk over the other side of the nearby rounded hill immediately south, a couple of other cairns are in evidence. However, we didn’t spend too much time here getting any images, as other sites on the moor were beckoning and we were running out of good daylight!
The name of this area seems a little odd: “High Low” — and our old place-name masters say little about it in the Yorkshire directories. The name is shown in the earliest large-scale OS-maps, but the contradiction of a high low ridge probably derives from the word originally being lowe, or “hlaw”: which as A.H. Smith (1956) said,
“In (old english) the common meaning in literary contexts is ‘an artificial mound, a burial mound,'”
Cairn to centre, with 1 more on near horizon
which is exactly what we have found here — or several of them scattered about. This tumulus derivation is echoed by modern place-name authorities like Margaret Gelling (1988), etc. Gelling told how the word hlaw, or low, and its variants, “was used of burial mounds over a wide area, from the south coast to the West Riding.” Much as we’ve found on this hill at Askwith Moor! We’ve yet more exploring to do in and around this area in the coming weeks. God knows what else we’ll find!
References:
Cowling, Eric T., Rombald’s Way: A Prehistory of Mid-Wharfedale, William Walker: Otley 1946.
Gelling, Margaret, Signposts to the Past, Phillimore: Chichester 1988.
Smith, A.H., English Place-Name Elements – volume 1, Cambridge University Press 1956.
From the large parking spot by the roadside along Askwith Moor Road, walk up (north) 250 yards until you reach the gate with the path leading onto Askwith Moor. Follow this along, past the triangulation pillar until you reach the Warden’s Hut near the top of the ridge and overlooking the moors ahead. Naathen — look due south onto the moor and walk straight down the slope till the land levels out. If you’re lucky and the heather aint fully grown, you’ll see a cluster of stones about 500 yards away. That’s where you’re heading. If you end up reaching the Woman Stone carving, you’ve walked 100 yards past where you should be!
Archaeology & History
Discovered on the afternoon of May 13, 2010, amidst another exploratory ramble in the company of Dave Hazell. We were out looking for the Woman Stone carving and a few others on Askwith Moor, and hoping we might be lucky and come across another carving or two in our meanderings. We did find a previously unrecorded cup-marked stone (I’ll add that a bit later) — and a decent one at that! — but a new cairn-field was one helluva surprise. And in very good nick!
Cairn A, looking northwestCairn A, looking east
There are several cairns sitting just above the brow of the hill, looking into the western moors. Most of these are typical-looking single cairns, akin to those found on the moors above Ilkley, Bingley and Earby, being about 3 yards across and a couple of feet high amidst the peat and heather covering. But two of them here are notably different in structure and size (and please forgive my lengthy description of them here).
We found these tombs after noticing a large section of deep heather had been burnt back, and a large mass of rocks were made visible as a result. Past ventures onto these moors when seeking for cup-and-ring carvings hadn’t highlighted this cluster, so we thought it might be a good idea to check them out! As I approached them from the south from the Woman Stone carving (where we’d sat for a drink and some food, admiring the moors and being shouted at by a large gathering of geese who did not want us here), it became obvious, the closer I got, that something decidedly man-made was in evidence here.
Cairn A, looking south
Walking roughly northwards out of the heather and onto the burnt ground, a cairn-like feature (hereafter known as “Cairn A”) was right in front of me; though this seemed to have a ring of small stones — some earthfast, others placed there by people — surrounding the stone heap. And, as I walked around the edge of this large-ish cairn (about 9 yards in diameter and 2-3 feet tall), it was obvious that a couple of these outlying stones were stuck there by humans in bygone millenia. The most notable feature was the outlying northernmost upright: a small standing stone, coloured white and distinctly brighter than the common millstone grit rock from which this monument is primarily comprised. As I walked round it — adrenaline running and effing expletives emerging the more I saw — it became obvious that this outlying northern stone had long lines of thick quartz (or some crystalline vein) running across it, making it shine very brightly in the sunlight. Other brighter stones were around the edge of the cairn. It seemed obvious that this shining stone was of some importance to the folks who stuck it here. And this was confirmed when I ambled into another prehistoric tomb about 50 yards north, at “Cairn B.”
Cairn B, looking northCairn B, looking east
Cairn B was 11 yards in diameter, north-south, and 10 yards east-west. At its tallest height of only 2-3 feet, it was larger than cairn A. This reasonably well-preserved tomb had a very distinct outlying “wall” running around the edges of the stone heap, along the edge of the hillside and around onto the flat moorland. Here we found there were many more stones piled up in the centre of the tomb, but again, on its northern edge, was the tallest of the surrounding upright stones, white in colour (with perhaps a very worn cup-marking on top – but this is debatable…), erected here for some obviously important reason which remains, as yet, unknown to us. Although looking through the centre of the cairn and onto the white upright stone, aligning northwest on the distant skyline behind it, just peeping through a dip, seems to be the great rocky outcrop of Simon’s Seat and its companion the Lord’s Seat: very important ritual sites in pre-christian days in this part of the world. Near the centre of this cairn was another distinctly coloured rock, as you can see in the photo, almost yellow! Intriguing…
The smaller “Cairn C”
Within a hundred yards or so scattered on the same moorland plain we found other tombs: Cairns C, D, E, F, G and H — but cairns A and B were distinctly the most impressive. An outlying single cairn, C, typical of those found on Ilkley Moor, Bingley Moor, Bleara Moor, etc, was just five yards southwest of Cairn A, with a possible single cup-marked stone laying on the ground by its side.
Just to make sure that what we’d come across up here hadn’t already been catalogued, I contacted Gail Falkingham, Historic Environment team leader and North Yorkshire archaeological consultant, asking if they knew owt about these tombs. Gail helpfully passed on information relating to a couple of “clearance cairns” (as they’re called) — monument numbers MNY22161 and MNY 22162 — which are scattered at the bottom of the slope below here. We’d come across these on the same day and recognised them as 16th-19th century remains. The cairnfield on top of the slope is of a completely different character and from a much earlier historical period.
We know that human beings have been on these moors since mesolithic times from the excess of flints, blades and scrapers found here. Very near to these newly-discovered tombs, Mr Cowling (1946) told that:
“On the western slope of the highest part of Askwith Moor is a very interesting flaking site. For some time flints have been found in this area, but denudation revealed the working place about August, 1935. There were found some twenty finished tools of widely different varieties of flint. A large scraper of red flint is beautifully worked and has a fine glaze, as has a steep-edged side-blow scraper of brown flint. A small round scraper of dull grey flint has the appearance of newly-worked flint, and has been protected by being embedded in the peat…One blade of grey flint has been worked along both edges to for an oblong tool… The flint-worker on this site appears to have combed the neighbourhood to supplement the small supply of good flint.”
All around here we found extensive remains of other prehistoric remains: hut circles, walling, cup-and-ring stones, more cairns, even a probable prehistoric trackway. More recently on another Northern Antiquarian outing, we discovered another previously unrecognised cairnfield on Blubberhouse Moor, two miles northwest of here.
References:
Cowling, Eric T., Rombald’s Way: A Prehistory of Mid-Wharfedale, William Walker: Otley 1946.
Jack, Jim, “Ancient Burial Ground and Bronze Age Finds on Moor,” in Wharfedale Observer, Thursday, May 27, 2010.
Standing Stone (destroyed?): OS Grid Reference – SE 2501 4119
Also Known as:
Long Stoop
Archaeology & History
Sadly gone, this looked to be one helluvan impressive standing stone. Described just once by the christian fruitbat Henry Simpson (1879), who told us:
“In a hedge-row, or rather stone row…is a remarkable, ancient monolith, it is thirteen feet in height; from its slender character, it does not appear to have formed one of a trilithon, but rather to have constituted a memorial of some sort, or as a beacon of some usefulness. I can discover no barrow or earthwork near the spot. There are remnants of a quarry close by, with a mound of earth arising therefrom, but no indications to give a clue to the meaning or use of this single pillar. It is composed, moreover, of millstone grit, which is not to be found in the immediate neighbourhood, so it must have been brought from a distance and placed in its present position.
“Some suppose this to be a Roman stoup or pillar, designed for a landmark; but it bears no mark of Roman worksmanship. It is crude in the extreme.”
Simpson’s 1879 drawing
There is no available folklore known to the Long Stoop, although a long straight path terminated where the monolith stood. This path was one of many in an intricate geometric lay-out of perfect circular and dead straight tracks in the woodland immediately south of here [now built over], with four-, eight- and twelve-fold lines intersecting each other over a very large area. It may be that this large, seemingly lost standing stone, could have been a part of the ornate grounds that were laid out here in bygone centuries, perhaps erected by the architects behind the project.
It would be damn good if locals in and around Adel could relocate this monolith — which is as likely propping up some old walling somewhere nearby — so we can make a healthy assessment as to its authenticity. Are there any Leeds pagans who might be able to rediscover this lost standing stone?
References:
Bennett, Paul, The Old Stones of Elmet, Capall Bann: Milverton 2001.
Simpson, Henry Trail, Archaeologia Adelensis; or a History of the Parish of Adel, W.H. Allen: London 1879.
Worth the short trek if you like your cup&rings! On the Aire Valley Keighley-to-Skipton road (A629), as you approach the southern outskirts of Skipton, take the turning at the roundabout as if you’re going into the town up the A6131. Go over the next roundabout a coupla hundred yards on, then 200 yards further on note the right-turn up over the canal (big hotel just here, where you could park up). Walk over the canal up the tiny country lane. Ignore the first left turn and walk up, bearing next left uphill and onto the footpath. Walk up the hillocky quarried bit until you reach the stile in the wall. Once on the other side, look in the walling 20 yards uphill. You can’t miss it!
Archaeology & History
First described by Messrs Hartley and Radley in the Yorkshire Archaeological Register of 1968, this small “standing stone”, less than three-feet tall, has a distinct cup-and-double- ring carved onto its upright north-facing edge. The outline of the carving is visible even in bad light, though you might wanna rest and gaze for a minute or two for yourself and the lighting to adjust if it’s a grey day. There’s another cup-marking below the bottom right of the double-ring, with another ‘possible’ just above ground-level.
References:
Boughey, Keith & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, WYAS: Leeds 2003.
Hedges, John (ed.), The Carved Rocks on Rombald’s Moor, WYMCC: Wakefield 1986.
There is very little known of this once proud standing stone, said by one writer to have been about 12 feet long: six-feet of it in the ground and the other six-feet above ground. A decent monolith by anyone’s standard! But some dickheads forty years or more ago thought it a good idea to destroy the site, or as it was diplomatically put, “was removed in advance of road widening.” Vandalism no less – though it’s demise was recorded by the Department of the Environment “on behalf of the Inspectorate of Ancient Monuments.” (DES, 1973)
A local journalist called Andrew McCallum described the site in his unpublished manuscript on the history of the parish of Mansewood, telling it to be near Cowglen:
“near Boydstone Road, midway between Kennishead and Barrhead Road. 6 feet above the ground, and at least as many below. Age and purpose are unknown.”
Some thirty years later, Miss Adamson (1973) told us that,
“The straight-sided block had its base set on yellow sandstone. Immediately above the bedrock small stones and earth had been packed against the W and N faces of the standing stone. On top of the packing were two boulders set at right angles to wedge the sides of the stone. No burials or cremations were found.”
Though on this latter remark we have to consider the possibility that the standing stone may once have accompanied a burial, as the nearby place-name ‘Carnwadric’ indicates a cairn, or burial site. A field-name survey of the immediate region may prove valuable.
References:
Adamson, H., “Glasgow: Boydstone Road – Standing Stone,” in Discovery & Excavation in Scotland, 1973.
