Tordarroch Clava Cairn View all content for Tordarroch

Grrrr....! It's happened again. After somehow failing four years ago to locate the turning off the B-whatever it is this time I take a chance despite the 'road ahead closed' sign and as soon as I spot the small whitewashed church to my left I know I'm in the right place so I park there rather than risk driving on and finding my way barred at a tight turning-spot in this narrow lane. I soon see the monument away to my right but between it and me is a field containing what looks like a very large Highland bull. Fortunately by walking on a bit I find a gate into another field free of cattle and by following the right-hand edge (yes, I had read Gladman's very helpful fieldnotes) I attain my objective. It's horrendously overgrown (cf Torbreck/Lundin Farm/Gunnerkeld/Lamlash of my previous experience) as well as too-tightly fenced-in but I try hard to rein in any disappointment. I don't necessarily want every site I visit to be meticulously tended but it's just hard to reconcile what I'm looking at with the expectations garnered from most of the pictures posted here. Ah well, I'm pleased to have seen it but I leave with the wish that the landowner could spare a bit of effort better to maintain this precious relic.

Posted by ironstone 20th September 2021ce

Comments (3)
Yeah, I second the last emotion....but, a bit like Stonehenge, you DO have to see this, don't you?	Posted by GLADMAN 23rd September 2021ce
Oh yes, even in the rather ragged state I encountered it it's still a must-see but I went across to the magnificent Clava Cairns immediately afterwards and tried to envisage how good Tordarroch would look with just a bit of tidying-up in its presentation.	Posted by ironstone 23rd September 2021ce
It's a fine line, a problem I really don't know how to resolve - short of the state buying up all land featuring ancient monuments.... which has innumerable inherent problems. And where do you draw the line at what is considered 'in scope'? It's the fact that cows can trample such a magnificent site as Tordarroch with impunity, while any action at Stonehenge unleashes a horde of upper/middle-class luvvie protester 'rebels', that really distresses me. Fame counts for everything, it seems.	Posted by GLADMAN 25th September 2021ce
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