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Niddrie Standing Stone

Standing Stone / Menhir

News

Niddrie Standing Stone Rediscovered!


I made a field visit to this site yesterday in the hope that this stone had not been destroyed in the process of the modern houses been built here- and found it- 26 years after the OS reported it gone! Contacted the RCAHMS as their database states that no trace of this stone can now be found;

Yesterday I took the opportunity to try and find Niddrie House Standing
Stone (NMRS Number: NT27SE 199). I noted from the CANMORE database that the
last entry for this stone states;
'No trace in an area of modern housing development'- OS report August 1975.
However, as fate would have it, I missed the bus stop and when turning into
the terminus, noticed the stone next to the pavement. It appears that the
map co-ords on the database are wrong- NT298715- I think it should be NT2987
7125 (using 1:25000 scale, not GPS unfortunately). I also had another set of
co-ords for this stone from Adam McLeans book 'The Standing Stones of the
Lothians'- however these were also slightly west.
The stone now stands at the corner of Greendykes Road and Niddrie House
Avenue, just a couple of metres from the main road and behind a utilities
buildings (electricity?) and just outside a small burial ground. The
dimensions on CANMORE are approx correct and I noticed the cupmarkings on
the right at the base of the stone- certainly at least one of them looks
natural, but there were around 5 others which looked classically megalithic.
I hope the above information is of some use.

The RCAHMS replied;
Thank you very much for taking the time to contact us about the Niddrie standing stone. We are delighted to hear that it is still visible and we will update the information in the database early in the New Year.
Posted by Martin
21st December 2001ce

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