Had a look here today, and spoke to the farmer. He's an enthusiastic member of the local Dunning Parish Historical Society, and has farmed the land here for many years. He doesn't know of any stones or circles in the vicinity, and knows all his land well - he has taken part in field walks held on his land, helping turn up flints and suchlike.
But no stones!
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Had a long blether with the farmer here at the stone today, after asking his permission to photograph it. Lovely bright day, you could see hilltops 40 miles away to the north. A little history of the town states that the field it stands in is known as the Thane's Field, but the farmer (who is the 8th generation of this family to farm here) says it's always been known on the farm as simply the 'Big Stane Field'. More prosaic, but eminently practical.
It's a decent size, easily 6 feet tall and a yard broad. And what a view!
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I had spotted this wee stone in the fiels just east of Dunrobin Castle on the drive north, but didn't stop at that time. Managed to park in the field entrance on the way back down the road and went to investigate (can't find anything at all about this stone in Canmore). It has the right feel to it, though (i.e. not a rubbing stone), but is sadly neglected. The stone itself is mainly propped up now by pieces which have been knocked off, as can be seen in the photographs. Some of those pieces are very newly knocked off too, and the care taken by the farmer can be seen in the way the crops grow right up against the stone. I have to confess to not having walked very carefully on the way back from this stone, I was so annoyed.
I suspect that this is part of the Duke of Sutherland's estate, being so close to Dunrobin. Fairly typical of the care for the people and landscape that these scum have shown down the years. The landscape above Golspie is dominated by a monstrous statue of the cretin responsible for the Clearances. One of these fine days we may be able to treat this excresence to a proper and fitting end, just the way that they treated the land and people. It's even visible in one of the photographs, it can be seen from so far away!
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These stones lie just north of the track to Achnagarron farm, on a small prominence with a lot of other stones lying around. I couldn't discern any real pattern in the other stones, but had the feeling all the time I looked around that these were part of a larger complex. Maybe not, maybe it's just me!
Two fairly solid stones, about 1.5m tall, and orientated roughly NE-SW.
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This is so disrupted as to be barely worth bothering with, I only included it out of completeness. Set just back off the road, and now enclosed by deer-proof fencing, it has been recently planted round with trees so should enjoy a little more protection, though as I said there's not much left.
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I tried to get into this one, but I'm a big lad, and was well happed up (bitterly cold day) and just couldn't squeeze down the steps whether trying to go forward or backwards, so had to content myself with a couple of photographs of the steps disappearing downwards. From what Martin says, this one sounds like a job for small skinny people clad in wet-suits!
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Yet another chambered cairn where most of the stones have disappeared over the years and the central chamber stones are most of what remains. This is quite a big one, though, and almost resembles a small stone circle. It's set back around 100m in from the road on a small prominence, and is easily spotted and visited.
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Another ruined chambered cairn right beside the road, which makes for relatively easy access. Again, much of the cairn itself has disappeared, but the main stones of the central chamber remain.
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Lying beside the road on the north side of Loch Assynt, the remains of the cairn are on a small hill just beside the ruins of Ardvreck Castle. It's a beautiful place to stop, however, as the views are great. Just a bit further along the road we stopped below some crags to spend 20 minutes watching a golden eagle float silently above us.
A couple of the photographs of the cairn are a bit streaky, I'm not sure why this happened. The central chamber is still partially intact.
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Very disrupted and ruinous, this chambered cairn lies at the roadside on the shores of Loch Borralan. There isn't much to see, in all honesty.
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Stuck in fairly boggy ground, this broch, so I didn't manage to get very close to it.
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As Lianachan correctly points out, this is in fact the remains of the broch and not a cairn! I couldn't get across the river to this one, so had to content myself with a couple of photographs. In dry weather it may be possible to ford the Loth, but not after the rain there had been some days I was up there! Don't make the same mistake I did and assume the sheep-fold just north of this as the broch....
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A nice wee pair of stones sited just above the bridge where Glen Sletdale meets Glen Loth - a fairly classic confluence siting. Neither are very tall, about 1m in height, and running approximately E-W. They stand beside a fairly abrupt drop down into Sletdale, and care should be taken up here! It's quite a long fall down into the burn...
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Hamish is right about the distance this one is away from the road, the climb back up, through heather and bog, is pretty sapping. Having said that, it's well worth the effort - this stone is a good 11 feet tall. Strange surface, pitted with dozens of tiny little holes (visible in one of the close-up photographs) and one possible cup mark, which I also photographed. A bright, cold May day when I had a look at this one, with a brisk northerly wind which discouraged lingering to enjoy the view back down the glen.
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There are many burial cairns scattered about The Ord. The remains of the cairn tombs are the most obvious neolthic remains, but there are other burial cairns, a burnt mound and innumerable hut circles. I have attached a photograph of one of the burial cairns.
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Visited here today. You can park at Belmont Centre and walk up the castle drive (ask permission, it's a site used a lot by schools so there are often a lot of children about). The stone's on the left a couple of hundred metres up the path, just inside a field which had several horses in it today. Not much to look at, about a metre high with a slight tilt to the west.
I spoke to a couple of people in the area about it, but despite having searched the Statistical Accounts and a couple of other references I can't ascertain why it is thus named - it sounds almost Danish, and certainly other stones are named after battles with the Danes. This one, however, seems to have no such tale attached to it.
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As Tiompan knows, this one is in a fairly dodgy situation. I spoke to the farmer about it, and he has agreed to ensure that no further risk will occur to the stone from its current situation.
Sorry if this sounds a bit mysterious, but the stone could be regarded as 'portable' and we don't want it to disappear.
Unless, of course, the risk continues and we're forced to take it into "protective custody"!
The site has been reported to the local museum, but nothing much seems to have been done.
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Revisited today, glorious sunny afternoon, so I have deleted a lot of the old misty photos and added some which show the overall layout of the site a bit better. However, the heather's starting to grow again so it's disappearing fast....
George has been doing some digging : he talked to a gent from the local history group, who came across the site 4 years ago. They contacted Liz Thoms from the local museum, but as far as they know she never visited the site. As far as is known however, no local 'built' this and it's looking as if it is another true rediscovery.
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Visited this site yesterday, a very cold, bright day. From the archives of Canmore:
"A large standing stone about 8' high in the angle of the garden wall close to the W side of the farm steading, which gave name to the farm. It is considered a stone of memorial of some event". (By 1923 (OS 25" map) the stone had apparently been moved from its position W of the farm which also became known as the Home Farm).
Name Book 1859.
This standing stone, 2.2m high, 1.0m broad and 0.9m thick, bears a number of small cup-marks - especially noticeable on the lower portion of the north side. Some of the 'cups' may be due to weathering.
It's big, in quite a prominent position, and some of the cup-marks are almost certainly weathering - but some aren't. I wonder if the stone was orientated differently when first erected, as cup-marks aren't commonly on the north face of a stone. Maybe it's just an exception.
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This wee stone stands near Court Hill cairn, is oriented NE-SW, and measures 1.3m high x 1.4m long x 0.5m thick. There are no markings on it, but it has quite a fantastic pattern to the stone - I have tried to capture this in one of the photographs.
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I work offshore in the North Sea as a rig medic. 55+ years old. Nationalist to the core. Have been interested in ancient sites as long as I can remember, due to my Dad's interest in history. Traced my ancestry back to the 1650's. Run a website about the little Fife town I was born and brought up in, Burntisland. Run a website on Stone Circles in Angus and Perthshire. Learning Gaelic, but not very fluent so far. Spend a lot of time walking in the hills. Member of the Scottish Megaraks. Sanity often questioned....
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