Tag: traditions

Trysting Stone, Doune, Perthshire

megalithix

Standing Stone:  OS Grid Reference – NN 7256 0182

Also Known as:

  1. Canmore ID 24761
  2. Deil’s Head
  3. Devil’s Head
  4. Fairy Stone
  5. Gold Stone

Getting Here

Trysting Stone of Doune
Trysting Stone of Doune

From the old cross in the middle of the village, walk along the A820 Balkerach Street main road (NOT down George Street) until you reach Station Wynd on your right.  Walk up here for 100 yards towards the new housing estate (don’t buy these places – they’re dreadful quality beneath the veneers) and there, on a small grassy rise on the left just before the car park, stands our stone!

Archaeology & History

This little-known monolith on the northern edge of little Doune village, was recently moved a short distance from its original position thanks to another one of those sad Barratt housing estates being built here; but at least it has received protection with the surrounding fence and notice board telling its brief history and folklore (better than being destroyed I s’ppose).

Stone marked on 1866 OS map
Stone on 1866 OS map

Standing less than five feet tall, local lore tells that it has been moved around close to this spot several times in the last couple of centuries.  Although not mentioned in Hutchinson’s (1893) essay on local megaliths, the stone was highlighted on the 1866 Ordnance Survey of Doune, where the non-antiquated lettering showed how it was thought to be Roman in origin, not prehistoric.

Folklore

Trysting Stane, looking NE
Trysting Stane, looking NE

The name of the stone comes from it being used as a place where deeds were sworn, with the stone as witness to the words proclaimed by both parties (implying a living presence, or animistic formula of great age).  This activity was continued in the local ‘trysts’ or cattle fairs held a mile away, where buyers swore the sale of cattle at this stone—again with the stone being ‘witness’ to the spoken deals.  It was also used as a counter where gold was exchanged for cattle bought and sold during the Michaelmas and Martinmas Fairs.  Sue Harvey (2006) told that this standing stone,

“was called the Devil’s Head and was used during past Doune fairs to count gold on when cattle were being bought and sold.”

In local newspaper accounts from the 1950s, local historian Moray S. Mackay (1984) told how the children of the village used to gather round the stone, holding hands, and sing,

Olie Olie, peep, peep, peep,
Here’s the man with the cloven feet,
Here’s his head, but where’s his feet?
Olie Olie, peep, peep, peep.

Notice board telling its tale...
Notice board telling its tale…
Looking at the stone on its rise
Looking at the stone on its rise

This implies the stone once possessed a myth relating to a petrified ancestral deity of animistic (pre-christian) origin, but as yet we have found no additional information allowing us a confirmation of this probability.  A correlate of this theme—i.e., of the stone being the head of a deity—is found in West Yorkshire (amongst many other places), where one of the little known Cuckoo Stones was once known to be a local giant until a hero-figure appeared and cut off his head, leaving only his body which was then turned to stone.  Mircea Eliade (1958; 1963) cites examples of animistic religious rites and events explaining this early petrification formula via creation myths, etc. (we find very clear evidences of animistic worldviews and practices still prevailing in the mountains just a few miles north and west, still enacted by local people)

Folklore also alleged that the stone was Roman in nature, but neither archaeology nor the architectural form of the stone implies this.  Roman stones were cut and dressed—unlike the traditional looking Bronze Age, rough, uncut fella standing here.

References:

  1. Eliade, Mircea, Patterns in Comparative Religion, Sheed & Ward: London 1958.
  2. Eliade, Mircea, Myth and Reality, Harper & Row: San Francisco 1963.
  3. Harvey, Sue, Doune and Deanston, Kilmadock Development Centre 2006.
  4. Hutchinson, A.F., “The Standing Stones of Stirling District,” in The Stirling Antiquary, volume 1, 1893.
  5. Mackay, Moray S., Doune – Historical Notes, Forth Naturalist: Stirling 1984.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


St. Thenew’s Well, Glasgow, Lanarkshire

megalithix

Holy Well (destroyed):  OS Grid Reference – NS 589 648

Also Known as:

  1. Canmore ID 44288
  2. St. Tenew’s Well
  3. St. Theneu’s Well

Archaeology & History

St Thenew’s on early map

Whilst I’m in Glasgow (big thanks to Aisha!) I thought I’d check out any remaining heathen sites that might still be visible.  Many have perished of course, beneath the weight of religious industrialism—this one included.  Even when the Ordnance Survey lads came here in 1858, it had already been destroyed.  All that we now know of it comes from the writings of the earlier historians like Walker (1883), Renwick (1921) and co.

Known in early records as St. Theneu (mother of the legendary St. Mungo, who also had sacred wells dedicated to him in Glasgow, Gleneagles and much further afield), trackways and burns hereby were also named after this curious character, and a chapel was also commemorated to her, which fell into ruin several centuries ago.  Its position was highlighted on a late-16th century sketch of Glasgow village—as it was then—immediately south of the chapel, just north of the River Clyde.  The best description we have of it comes from a detailed paper on the holy wells of Glasgow by a Mr Brotchie (1920), who told:

“Where the subway station of St. Enoch’s Square stands…there was at one time the well of St. Tenew, the mother of St. Kentigern or Mungo.  It is thus described by a writer in 1750, “The ruins of a small chapel stood beside the well whose waters were sheltered by a bush, on which were to be seen, especially in early summer, bits of rags of all kinds and colours, while in the well itself enterprising boys were wont to get small coins.  The rags and the coins were the offerings of people, principally women, who came to drink of the waters of St. Tenew’s Well, and left these trifles as thank offerings.”

“This ancient well of St. Tenew stood near a chapel erected over the tomb of St. Tenew, and the ground in its vicinity remained sacred in the eyes of the faithful as the last resting place of the holy woman who had watched the infant steps of the great apostle of the Cambrian Britons, St. Mungo, the patron saint of Glasgow.  The Trongate and Argyle Street, which now stretch westwards from the cross, were in old times a country road leading to St. Tenew’s chapel, kirkyard and holy well.  In a deed of 1498 mention is made of “the blessed chapel where the bones of the beloved Tenew, mother of the blessed confessor, Kentigern, rest.”  When M’Ure wrote his History of Glasgow in  1736, the remains of this old chapel and kirkyard were described as standing “in a solitary spot in the country surrounded by cornfields.”  Looking westwards from St. Tenew’s Well in 1750, a writer describes the scene as “open country, pastures and cornfields, rude-looking country homesteads, barns and other farm buildings, and enclosed kailyards,” where now stand the busy arteries of Jamaica Street, the Caledonian Railway Station, and the miles of tenements that stretch westward to Anderston, Finnieston and Partick.

“We have a comparatively recent record of the holy well of St. Tenew in the statement of the late Mr Robert Hart, who told M’George that he had been informed by an old man, a Mr Thomson, who had resided in the neighbourhood of St. Enoch’s Square, that in the beginning of the last century, say 1800, he recollected the well being cleaned out, and of seeing picked from the debris at the bottom many old coins and votive offerings.  St. Tenew’s Well was a holy well.  For centuries it was a place of pilgrimage and was much resorted to for cures, especially in pre-Reformation days.  In 1586, James VI, addressed a letter to Mr Andrew Hay, commissioner for the west of Scotland, condemning the practice of people making pilgrimages to wells and chapels, but the royal edict was powerless to stop the practice and St. Tenew’s Well was resorted to by people in trouble as long as it was in existence.  The road that led to it was known up to the 15th century as St. Tenew’s Gait or path.  Indeed, it was so named till 1540, when the name of Trongate begins to make its appearance in old city deeds.  This name, of course, owes its origin to the granting in 1490 by James IV, to the Bishop of Glasgow of the privileges of a free tron in the city—hence our Trongate of today.”

References:

  1. Bennett, Paul, Ancient and Holy Wells of Glasgow, TNA 2017.
  2. Brotchie, T.C.F., “Holy Wells in and Around Glasgow,” in Old Glasgow Club Transactions, volume 4, 1920.
  3. Eyre-Todd, George, History of Glasgow – volume 2, Jackson Wylie: Glasgow 1931
  4. MacGeorge, Andrew, Old Glasgow, Blackie & Son: Glasgow 1880.
  5. Renwick, Robert & Lindsay, John, History of Glasgow – volume 1, Maclehose Jackson: Glasgow 1921.
  6. Walker, J.R., ‘”Holy Wells” in Scotland”, in Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries, Scotland, volume17, 1883.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Craigkennockie, Burntisland, Fife

megalithix

Tumulus (destroyed):  OS Grid Reference — NT 237 861

Archaeology & History

Very little is known about a prehistoric tomb that once existed near the coast at Craigkennockie.  Its existence was briefly described in Andrew Young’s (1913) fine history of the township where he told that it had been highlighted on an old Estate Map of the area and marked as, “an artificial cairn, probably a place of sepulture.”  On old maps just below the cited place we find the place-name of ‘Lammerlaws’, which may indicate a name once given to the site, as the element -law is commonly found relating to prehistoric cairns.

Although the modern place-name researchers in central Scotland have opted that the word ‘law’ is primarily “a rounded hill”, they have curiously forgotten or omitted its other derivation.  Throughout northern England and beyond, the English Place-Name Society finds that many ‘law’ place-names derive from the old English and Saxon word, hlaw, which is originally told to be “a mound, a hill.” This has been the reference cited throughout in Taylor & Markus’ (2006-2012) otherwise fine multi-volume analysis of Fife county.  But there’s much more to it than that.  I hope that readers will forgive me reciting A.H. Smith’s (1956) full entry about this simple term, as it can (and many times does) show our history is much richer than initially thought.  Prof Smith told that law, hlaw, hlæw, has the following etymological origin:

“(1) In OE (old English) the common meaning in literary contexts is ‘an artificial mound, a burial mound, a mound in which treasure is hidden’, as in Boethius Metr. 10.43, ‘in what hlæwa do the bones of Weland cover the ground?; Beowulf 2802, ‘Bid them make a hlæaw…on Hronesnæsse’; Guthlac 4 ‘there on the island was made a great hlæw, which through the lust for treasure had been dug up and broken into’; or Gnomic Verses 26, ‘a dragon shall be on hlæw’, an allusion (as in Beowulf 2773) to the Germanic tradition that mounds containing valuable grave-goods were guarded by dragons.  The word glosses Latin, agger, ‘something heaped up, a mound, a rampart’ (Wright’s Anglo-Saxon & Old English Vocabularies 355.4).  This meaning ‘tumulus, artificial mound, burial mound’ is well attested in place-names.  According to Grundy, it always denotes a tumulus in the OE charters and doubtless those place-names in which it is combined with personal names are the burial places of the men so named; at Taplow at least a remarkable burial treasure was discovered and Cuckhamsley, Berkshire, is named from Cwichelm, the West Saxon king who died in 593.  The majority of such places-names belong to the heathen period when this method of disposing of the dead was practised.  Particular compounds also suggest that it could be an artificial mound which formed the centre of a place of assembly; Oswaldslow Hundred (Place-names of Worcestershire, 87), for example, was created in 964 and it was to meet at a place to be henceforth called Oswaldeslaw in honour of Bishop Oswald (Cartularium Saxonica 1135).

“(2) The meaning ‘hill, a conical hill resembling a tumulus’ is also found in OE, as in Leechdoms Vol.3, 52, ‘they rode over the hlæw’, and local topography establishes this meaning as a common one in place-names and dialects in certain parts of the country; it survives as law in Durham and Northumberland and as low in northwest Midlands…

“(3) The two forms hlaw and hlæw are on record, the latter being better evidenced in literary use, especially in West Saxon texts, and the former in place-names; hlæw normally becomes low, north country law, whilst the i-mutated hlæw (found in place-names only in the south and south Midlands) later becomes lew, as in Lew, Oxfordshire, Lewes, Sussex and is more frequent in middle-english spellings; it is often later replaced by –low as in Dragley, Lancs, Cuckhamsley, Berkshire…”

Smith continues with many topographical evidences regarding a ‘burial-mound’ derivation for the place-name ‘law’, finally adding notes on relative linguistic similarities, like the “Gothic hlaiw, ‘grave’; old High German hleo, ‘grave mound, hill’; old Saxon hleo, ‘grave mound’…”  It seems pretty convincing, and so we need to take this into account in our walks over the hills if we are exploring ancient history.

As if to emphasize this derivation—’law’ as prehistoric tombs—we find it is cited in the massive Scottish National Dictionary (6,1:16) where—alongside the ’rounded hill’ aspect—Mr Grant (1962) tells it to be,

“An artificial mound or hillock, specif.: (1) a tumlus or barrow, grave-mound….”

thereafter giving a number of Scottish examples.  The same meaning is echoed again in the modern version of Concise Scots Dictionary (2005), along with the rounded-hill.  Jamieson’s (1885) Scottish Dictionary cites similarly, ‘law’ as both hill, aswell as “a tomb, grave or mound.”

This association of ‘law’ with ancient burial mounds in Scotland should not be that surprising.  Despite it having an Anglo-Saxon origin, we must remember that the Saxon kingdom is known to have stretched all the way up to the Firth of Forth (Edinburgh) and across to Glasgow. So if the linguistic roots have any credibility at all, it doesn’t take much stretch of the imagination to have this simple word travel further north amongst the people.  Perhaps this is why, more recently, Margaret Gelling (2000) has said that the association of hlaw with burial mounds up here lessens in Scotland.  Nonetheless, let us not presuppose one meaningful definition of the word above another, as it can, consciously or otherwise, be seen as more symptomatic of the all too common English attitude of papering over another country’s rich and ancient heritage by depleting its language—again…

(Law has another element attached which has all but fallen out of historical analysis.  Prof Smith touched briefly upon it, mentioning ‘law’ as being a meeting place—otherwise known ‘moots’.   Moots occurred everywhere in early times: in England, in Europe and in Scotland too.  They were originally where local tribal gatherings took place, for the purpose of what we might call council or political decisions, amongst other things.  Some of these moots occurred on burial mounds of great age, aswell as  stone circles—and evidence indicates that some of them originated way back in prehistoric times.  Although written accounts of many such moot spots have fallen from historical texts, the term law or low (and their variants) is again found in Scottish etymological and topographical lore.  Mr Grant again cites it to mean:

“Law cairns, or court cairns…the judicial sites of baronial court of justice…”

Thereafter giving numerous citations of its use in both the common tongue and sites where it is known.  As far north as the Shetland Isles, where such law-courts aer known from the Scandinavian ting of thing, the 18th century Statistical Account of Tingwall states there being “the Law Stone” at the cite of the parish court.)

Folklore

Also in Mr Young’s (1913) work, he told how this old tomb was a place that seemed cursed or should not be disturbed, saying,

“About 50 years ago, any illness in the neighbourhood of Craigholm was ascribed to the influence of this burial place…”

adding that an adjacent spring of water, of high esteem, was close by.

References:

  1. Grant, William (ed.), Scottish National Dictionary – volume 6, SNDA: Edinburgh 1962.
  2. Jamieson, John, Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language, W.P. Nimmo: Edinburgh 1885.
  3. Robinson, Mairi (ed.), Concise Scots Dictionary, Aberdeen University Press 2005.
  4. Smith, A.H., English Place-Name Elements – volume 1, Cambridge University Press 1956
  5. Young, Andrew, History of Burntisland, Fifeshire Advertiser: Kirkcaldy 1913.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Deil’s Cradle, Dollar, Clackmannanshire

megalithix

Legendary Rock:  OS Grid Reference – NS 9686 9906

Also Known as:

  1. Devil’s Cradle

  2. Devil’s Rock

Folklore

The Deil’s Cradle stone

A few hundred yards below the legendary old Wizard’s Stone, we find there’s a real cluster of witch-lore in the small area to the north of Dollar which, to be honest, is deserving of wider analysis from competent researchers and historians.  Not only is there the legendary Lochy Launds of the Black Goddess hereby, but we also find this curious rock, described by one ‘J.C.’  in an early edition of the Scottish Journal (1848), which told:

“On the confines of the parish of Dollar, not far from Hillfoot, the seat of John McArthur Moir, Esq., lies a glen, called Burngrens, watered by a small stream and planted with numerous large trees.  A great number of these, however, have fallen, during the last few years, beneath the unsparing axe; but strong, healthy saplings are rising rapidly to supply their place.

“In this glen there is a large stone, of peculiar formation, in every way like a cradle. It is currently believed by the superstitious in the vicinity, that the stone, every Hallowe’en night, is raised from its place, and suspended in the air by some unseen agency, while “Old Sandy,” snugly seated upon it, is swung backwards and forwards by his adherents, the witches, until daylight warns them to decamp.

The following rather curious affair is told in connection with the “Cradle:”

“One Hallowe’en night a young man, who had partaken somewhat freely of the intoxicating cup, boasted before a few of his companions that he would, unaccompanied, visit the stone. Providing himself with a bottle, to keep his courage up, he accordingly set out.  The distance not being great, he soon reached his destination.  After a lusty pull at the bottle, he sat down upon the “Cradle,” boldly determined to dispute the right of possession, should his Satanic majesty appear to claim his seat. Every rustle of a leaf, as the wind moaned through the glen, seemed to our hero as announcing the approach of the enemy, and occasioned another application to fortifying “bauld John Barleycorn.” Overpowered at last by repeated potations, our hero, dreaming of “Auld Nick,” and his cohort of “rigwuddie hags,” fell sound asleep upon the stone.

“His companions, who had followed him, now came forward. With much shouting and noise, they laid hold of him, one by the head and another by the feet, and carrying him, half-awake, to the burn, dipped him repeatedly, accompanying each immersion with terrific yells. The poor fellow, thinking a whole legion of devils were about him, was almost frightened to death, and roared for mercy so piteously that his tormentors thought proper to desist. No sooner had our hero gained his feet than he rushed up the glen, and ran home, resolving never to drink more, or attempt such a feat again. For many a long day he was ignorant who his tormentors really were.

“We stood upon the stone about a week ago. Ivy and moss are slowly mantling over it, a proof that it is some considerable time since the Devil has been rocked on it.”

Historian Angus Watson (1995) told the place to be “south of Wizard’s Stone…near Kelty Burn,” and also that,

“it is said to be where witches rock Satan to sleep on Halloween.”

Above here, the tree-topped rounded hill to the north was one of the meeting places of the witches of Fife, Perthshire and Clackmannan.  Something of sincere pre-christian ritual importance was undoubtedly enacted in this region, as we also find sites of the Maiden a short distance due north.  Does anyone know more about this fascinating sounding place?

References:

  1. ‘J.C.,’ “The Deil’s Cradle”, in The Scottish Journal, February 5, T.G. Stevenson: Edinburgh 1848.
  2. Simpkins, John Ewart, County Folklore – volume VII: Examples of Printed Folk-Lore Concerning Fife, with some Notes on Clackmannan and Kinross-Shires, Folk-Lore Society: London 1914.
  3. Watson, Angus, The Ochils: Placenames, History, Tradition, PKDC: Perth 1995.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Rocking Stones, Kirriemuir, Angus

megalithix

Legendary Rocks (destroyed):  OS Grid Reference – NO 3813 5496

Archaeology & History

Like many rocking stones across the British Isles that were written about by early 18th and 19th century authors, the ones at Kirriemuir have fallen prey to the vandalism of those people (christians, Industrialists and other self-righteous fools) that has so blighted our heritage, and ancestral history, with an intolerance of indigenous beliefs and remarkable geological formations.  But, I suppose, at least we have a record of them, which at least in some way gives us the ability to add further our knowledge of the traditional practices of our peasant ancestors and their perception of the landscape.

Rocking stones shown on 1865 6-inch OS-map
Rocking stones shown on 1865 6-inch OS-map
Rocking stones shown on 1865 25-inch OS-map
Rocking stones shown on 1865 25-inch OS-map

The exact location of the legendary rocks were highlighted on early Ordnance Survey maps, thankfully; and there were in fact two rocking stones here, very close to each other by the sound of it.  Mentioned only in passing by E.S. Valentine (1912), the place was best described in A.J. Warden’s (1884) massive history work on the region. He told that:

“On the top of the Hillhead, Kirriemuir, there were two fine specimens of these interesting memorials, upon which the dwellers in the district looked with wonder and awe.  These time honoured monuments of a long past age were, in 1843, blasted with gunpowder, and the shattered pieces used in building dykes and forming drains, to the deep regret of antiquarians, and of the inhabitants of the district. …These stone memorials of a remote age are thus described by the Rev., T. Easton, D.D., in the new Statistical Account of the parish — ‘The one of them is a block of whinstone, nearly oval, and is three feet three inches in height, and four feet ten inches in breadth. The other, of Lintrathen porphyry, is two feet in height, eight feet in length, and five feet in breadth.’ He gives no description of the bases upon which the magic pivots moved, or other details of them.”

About a half-mile east you would have looked across at the large standing stone on Kirriemuir Hill, which legend asserts was once a stone circle (it too, destroyed).   If anyone has any further information about these old stones, please let us know…

References:

  1. Valentine, E.S., Forfarshire, Cambridge University Press 1912.
  2. Warden, Alex J., Angus or Forfarshire: The Land and People – Descriptive and Historical – volumes 1 & 4, Charles Alexander: Dundee 1880-1884.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Caddam, Kirriemuir, Angus

megalithix

Stone Circle (remains of):  OS Grid Reference – NO 3848 5625

Also Known as:

  1. Caldhame
  2. Canmore ID 32196
1865 OS-map showing the stone
1865 map showing the site

Getting Here

From Kirriemuir centre, take the B956 out of town until you hit the B955. Head north along this road until the houses are behind you. You’ll pass a woodland on your left straight away and as the road starts to bend right, take the first small road on your left. Go along here for about 150 yards and stop. Look into the fields across the road and there it is!

Archaeology & History

Caddam stone, looking north
Caddam stone, looking N

The small standing stone we see here today, within in a small fenced enclosure by the wall-side, was highlighted on the 1865 OS-map in exactly this position.  However, its earlier history seems much more intriguing – and at least one account tells us how this solitary stone was once part of something much bigger—implying that it was of some considerable important to our ancestors.  In A.J. Warden’s (1884) magnum opus on the history of this region he told that,

“A circle of stones was discovered in trenching a field at Caldhame, a little to the north of (Kirriemuir) town. It was over sixty feet in diameter, and in the centre was a large standing stone. The circle was removed, but the centre stone was left.”

The Caddam stone, looking SW
Caddam stone, looking SW

Another local writer later reported that there were remains of six stones in the field immediately below the remaining upright, but these have since disappeared. The descriptions seem to imply that the stone was a part of a burial complex of some sort.  Sadly, all we see today is this one remaining upright: some 5 feet tall, but looking shorter as it leans to its side, seemingly ready to fall.  Do any local people know anything more about this place?

References:

  1. Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland, The Archaeological Sites & Monuments of Central Angus, Angus District, Tayside Region, HMSO: Edinburgh 1983.
  2. Warden, Alex J., Angus or Forfarshire: The Land and People – Descriptive and Historical – volume 4, Charles Alexander: Dundee 1884.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Kirriemuir Hill, Kirriemuir, Angus

megalithix

Standing Stone:  OS Grid Reference – NO 3917 5463

Kirriemuir Hill standing stone
Kirriemuir Hill standing stone

Also Known as:

  1. Canmore ID 32295
  2. Hill of Kirriemuir
  3. Stannin’ Stane

Getting Here

Various ways to get here, but make your way to the large cemetery up on the top of the hill.  Once here, there is a playground and some trees. Go through the playground along the footpath for about 100 yards and you’ll eventually come to this great stone standing in front of you.

Archaeology & History

The Kirriemuir Stone, with a curious elemental at its base!
The Kirriemuir Stone, with a curious elemental at its base!

This place felt to have some real intrigue and hidden history laying close by when I came here for the first time the other week with Paul and Lindsey.  Notably standing on the top of the hill northwest above Kirriemuir town, with an excellent view all round (just about!), speaking with hills and rolling countryside and the feel of other monuments of the same age…but seemingly all alone at the moment…

The Kirriemuir Hill standing stone is reputedly the last survivor of a megalithic ring, or stone circle, according to old tongues and local folklore—though Aubrey Burl didn’t include it in his magnum opus.  And apart from the smaller piece of stone near its base and the curious long stone in an adjacent field wall not far away, this large 9-foot tall standing stone seems the last of its clan up here.

The stone was mentioned briefly in A.J. Warden’s (1884) massive history work on the region, where—near some legendary rocking stones that have long since been destroyed—he simply told that,

“The remains of a standing stone about 9 feet in height, by about 4 J feet in breadth, still rears its head above the Market Muir, and forms a very conspicuous object there.”

It hasn’t fared too well in archaeological surveys either, but thankfully local historians have written about it. Herbert Coutts (1970) told it to be,

“An impressive standing stone about 9ft (2.7m) in height and 6½ft (1.9m) broad at the base.  A recumbent stone is reported to have once lain nearby but has long since been removed.”

This recumbent stone may be the one sitting in one of the adjacent walls.

Folklore

Notice board telling tales
Notice board telling tales

A notice board set back from this great stone gives a good outline of its known history, archaeological speculations and the folklore of the place. As well as it being said that Kirriemuir’s hill stone was once part of a stone circle, local markets were once held close by.  Ascribed as being the burial site of three robbers, local historian David Allan (1864) was the first to write the legend which told that,

“three robbers, who had robbed a man in the Hill market, sat down to divide their ill-gotten gain beside the ‘staning stane’ and as they were so employed, the stone, in some miraculous manner, split in two, burying the robbers beneath it.”

The local history board tells “that no one has ever dared since to uplift the robbers’ loot, as the same fate might befall anyone who tries”!

…to be continued…

References:

  1. Allan, David, Historical Sketches, Original and Select of Kirriemuir and District, Robert Park: Dundee 1864.
  2. Coutts, Herbert, Ancient Monuments of Tayside, Dundee Museum 1970.
  3. Warden, Alex J., Angus or Forfarshire: The Land and People – Descriptive and Historical – volume 4, Charles Alexander: Dundee 1884.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Puidrac, Balquhidder, Perthshire

megalithix

Standing Stone:  OS Grid References – NN 54058 20794

Also Known as:

  1. Canmore ID 24141

Getting Here

Puidrac Stone, looking SE

From Balquhidder village, take the road east towards Auchtubh as if you’re gonna visit the Priest’s Stone, just past the house of Tom na Cruich on the right-hand side of the road. When you get to the house, if you ask the owners there how best to get to the stone, they are very friendly and very helpful in pointing you in the right direction.

Archaeology & History

This solitary standing stone first seems to be mentioned in J.W. Gow’s (1887) essay on the prehistoric antiquities of this part of Rob Roy’s country.  Found below the house and hillock where the old gallows used to be, he told:

“On the level ground below (Tom na Croich) …there is a prominent monolith, standing about 4½ feet above ground, quite flat, on the top. It is shaped like a wedge, with the edge to the east, and is famous in Balquhidder as the place where trials of strength took place.”

Note the stones in the next field
Note the stones in next field
Puidrac Stone, looking north
Puidrac Stone, looking N

Below the standing stone is a small rock, whose predecessor played an important part in some local traditions relating to this site. (see ‘Folklore’ below)  Also, due west of here in the next field, you will be able to see a couple of seemingly upright stones in the tall reeds 200 yards away, which early records say were part of a stone circle—now much in ruin—known as Clachan Aoraidh or the Worshipping Stones.  There is the possibility that this single stone was an outlier to the circle.  It’s astronomy might be worth checking….

Folklore

When we visited the stone last week, the owners of the house above asked if we’d managed “to lift the stone”—and I wondered what they meant at first, until they told us the folklore about the site.  They narrated the tale almost exactly as it had been described first of all in J.W. Gow’s (1887) essay, which said the following:

A new ‘lifting stone’ in front of Puidrac

“It is shaped like a wedge, with the edge to the east, and is famous in Balquhidder as the place where trials of strength took place.  A large round water-worn boulder, named after the district, ‘Puderag’, and weighing between two and three hundredweight, was the testing stone, which had to be lifted and placed on the top of the standing stone. There used to be a step about 18 inches from the top, on the east side of the stone, on which the lifting stone rested in its progress to the top. This step or ledge was broken off about thirty years ago, as told to me by the person who actually did it, and the breadth of the stone was thereby reduced about 8 inches. This particular mode of developing and testing the strength of the young men of the district has now fallen into disuse, and the lifting-stone game is a thing of the past.  A former minister of the parish pronounced it a dangerous pastime.  Many persons were permanently injured by their efforts to raise the stone, and it is said that he caused it to be thrown into the river, but others said it was built into the manse dyke, where it still remains.  There were similar stones at Monachyle, at Strathyre, and at Callander, and no doubt in every district round about, but the man who could lift ‘Puderag’ was a strong man and a champion.”

The present stone that is positioned on the ground below the standing stone was put here in much more recent times.

References:

  1. Gow, James M., “Notes in Balquhidder: Saint Angus, Curing Wells, Cup-Marked Stones, etc”, in Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries Scotland, volume 21, 1887.

Acknowledgements:  To Kenny and Laura for their help and guidance here. Huge thanks!

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Basan an Sagairt, Balquhidder, Perthshire

megalithix

Cup-Marked Stone:  OS Grid Reference – NN 5419 2089

Also Known as:

  1. Canmore ID 24140
  2. Priest’s Basin

Getting Here

The carved bowl of Basan an Sagairt
The carved bowl of Basan an Sagairt

From Balquhidder village, take the road east towards Auchtubh as if you’re heading to the Clach nan Sul or Wester Auchleskine cup-marked stones. Before reaching either of these sites, a few hundred yards on the road as you pass Tom na Cruich on the right-side of the road, you need to look in the next field past this house.  About 40 yards past here in the field, and less than 10 yards from the wall, you can see the large rock from the roadside.  If not, you’re damn close! Ask the owners of the adjacent house, who are very friendly and helpful.

Archaeology & History

This curious, large, man-made cup-marking or bowl was first described in J.M. Gow’s (1887) essay on Balquhidder antiquities. He wrote:

“Regaining the high road, and still going east, about 40 yards from the cottage of Mr Macdiarmid, there lies just inside the road dyke a large five-sided stone, about 8 feet long by 5 feet broad at the broadest part, and about 2 feet above ground.  It is called “Basan an Sagairt” (the Priest’s Basin).  When the present road and dyke were made, its name must have saved it.  The hollow or basin is 18 inches in diameter and 6 inches deep, and is unmistakably artificial. The stone is the mica slate of the district, hard and granitic.”

Looking down on the basin
Looking down on the basin

The large bowl here was also deemed to be artificial by members of Ordnance Survey and Royal Commission archaeologists who have inspected the site.  It is thought to have been a healing stone of some sort, or at least possessed some religious function, but we have no records stating this with any certainty.  In examples similar to this, the water which collects in the carved bowl is deemed to have curative properties.  It may have been a christian attempt to take locals away from magickal healing stone practices enacted at the Clach nan Sul, or Stone of the Eyes, just a couple of hundred yards along the road east of here.  Or it may have being a stone used by indigenous medicine men for other medicinal purposes.

Carved stone in one of the fields across the road
Carved stone in one of the fields across the road

On the other side of the road from here, in the field immediately past Wester Auchleskine farm, as you go through the gate just ahead of you is a rounded earthfast stone with a similar man-made circular impression like the Priest’s Basin carved upon it. (NN 5451 2089) However, this carving doesn’t appear to have been finished.  Whether it has any mythic relationship to the Priest’s stone or the cupmarked rocks at Wester Auchleskine in the same field, is not known.

References:

  1. Gow, James M., “Notes in Balquhidder: Saint Angus, Curing Wells, Cup-Marked Stones, etc”, in Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries Scotland, volume 21, 1887.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Clach nan Sul, Balquhidder, Perthshire

megalithix

Cup-Marked Stone (destroyed):  OS Grid Reference – NN 5456 2084

Also Known as:

  1. Canmore ID 24150
  2. Stone of the Eyes

Archaeology & History

Looking down Balquhidder Glen from the Clach nan Sul's old home
Looking down Balquhidder Glen from Clach nan Sul’s old home

Apparently destroyed, although some remains of the stone were said to be seen in the walling by the roadside; but when visiting this spot a few days ago the summer vegetation had completely covered any potential finds here.  The stone fell foul of the usual self-righteous industrialists when the track alongside which it had sat for countless centuries was turned into a road and the stone was “blasted”.  It was found some 20 yards below the large cup-marked stone known as Wester Auchleskine, seen amidst the clump of rocks in the field above.

The stone was described in MacKinlay’s (1893) fine survey on Scottish holy wells due to the healing properties of the waters that collected into the rock basin here.  The earliest record of the site that I’ve found comes from the hallowed papers of the Scottish Society of Antiquaries, where—in J.M. Gow’s (1887) rambles just east of Balquidder—he told us the following:

“Going still further east to the first turning of the road beyond the farmhouse of Wester Auchleskine, and on the left-hand side, there used to be a large boulder with a natural cavity in its side, famous as a curing well for sore eyes.  This stone was called “Clach nan sul” (the Stone of the Eyes).  In 1878 the road trustees caused it to be blasted, as it was supposed to be a danger in the dark to passing vehicles.  Its fragments were broken up, and used as road metal.”

Whether or not the site known as the Priest’s Basin, or Basan an Sagairt—a couple of hundred yards west by the roadside—was of a similar nature, or an attempt by christians to draw people away from the old healing Clach nan Sul and use this other one instead, we do not know.  There are numerous accounts of other stones in this mountainous region of Scotland where rocks-with-hollows filled with water were attributed with healing properties, like the Whooping Cough Stone at Struan, the Measles Stone at Fearnan, and many others.

Folklore

The folklore described by Mr Gow was reiterated in MacKinlay’s (1893) survey. He also told how,

“The hollow in the Clach-nan-Sul at Balquhidder…contained small coins placed there by those who sought a cure for their sore eyes. Mr J. Macintosh Gow was told by some one in the district that ‘people, when going to church, having forgotten their small change, used in passing to put their hands in the well and find a coin.’  Mr Gow’s informant mentioned that he had done so himself.”

References:

  1. Gow, James M., “Notes in Balquhidder: Saint Angus, Curing Wells, Cup-Marked Stones, etc”, in Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries Scotland, volume 21, 1887.
  2. MacKinlay, James M., Folklore of Scottish Lochs and Springs, William Hodge: Glasgow 1893.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian