Huntlyhill

Also known as:
Hare Cairn and Law of Keithock
Nearest town:
Brechin (4km SW)
OS reference:
NO622636
OS sheet:
45
Latitude:
56° 45' 44.84 N
Longitude:
2° 37' 6.15 W
Added to TMA by

Images

Image of Huntlyhill (Standing Stone / Menhir) by drewbhoy

The sun came out and the sky went a funny colour.

Image credit: drew/amj
drewbhoy
drewbhoy May 4, 2012
Image of Huntlyhill (Standing Stone / Menhir) by drewbhoy

The woods to the south have the Temple Wood cairn.

Image credit: drew/amj
drewbhoy
drewbhoy May 4, 2012

Articles

Huntlyhill

drewbhoy
drewbhoy May 4, 2012

Some directions to the place. From the A90 take the B966 to Brechin and take the first minor road heading north east. This also takes you past the Temple Wood cairn. Keep looking north and the stone will come into view. Just after the stone there is a house that has plenty of parking space next to the road.

Visited 43/5/2012.

Huntlyhill

nickbrand
nickbrand Oct 15, 2003

Ha! No bullocks today, only sheep – so over the gate and in. This is a pretty impressive lump of rock, stood on a couple of large flat stones and fenced in. The stone looks genuine enough, with streaks of quartz running through it.

My local informant tells me that the cairn was said to have marked the spot of a battle back in the 1450’s between the Ogilvies and Lindsays, but the stone would appear to have been here from long before that date.

Huntlyhill

nickbrand
nickbrand Jul 1, 2003

Hare cairn or the ‘Law of Keithock’ was a large, conical cairn of stones 20’ high and 45’ in diameter at base surmounted by the 6’ standing stone that now marks the site. The cairn was removed in the early to mid 19th century and two cists containing human remains were found about 26 yds SW of the present position of the stone. It is reported that before its destruction in the early 19th century this cairn measured 14m in diameter by 6m in height and was surmounted by a standing stone. Two cists were found about 24m SW of the present position of the standing stone, which has been re-erected on the site of the cairn.

Visited yesterday, but the field was full of young bullocks, so discretion won. Photographed it from the fence!

Folklore

Huntlyhill
Standing Stone / Menhir
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Feb 9, 2025

From the Ordnance Survey Name Books, which you can look at courtesy of the Scotlands Places website. This is from the Forfarshire book, recorded 1857-1861.

Hare Cairn. A prominent knoll forming the highest point of the ‘Hill of Stracathro’. There is a large remarkable stone on the top of it, which is said to have been the spot where the standard of either of the leaders was planted in the battle which took place here in 1452 [...]

After the murder of Douglas, by James 2nd, in 1452, the Earl of Crawford summoned his vassals throughout Angus, with the intention of joining the army of Douglas’ brother, who had risen to revenge his death – to march against the King’s forces. The King, desirous to cut off the communication between the armies of Douglas and Crawford, commanded the Earl of Huntly, whom he had appointed Lieutenant General, to march southwards, while he himself led a powerful army to the north, for the purpose of joining him. Crawford, equally anxious to check Huntly’s progress, met him about 10 miles from his (Crawford’s) own castle, at the ‘Hare Cairn’, about two miles northeast of the city of Brechin, on the 1st of May 1452, when a battle took place in which the valour displayed by Crawford’s party was so great that the battle had in all probability been decided in their favour, had not Collace, the laird of Balnamoon – who was offended at Crawford for refusing to comply with some demands made by him on the field – left his side, with three hundred followers, and joined the ranks of Huntly, which before long decided the battle in favour of the royalists.

The farm on which the battle was fought is still called ‘Huntlyhill’. If ever (as Mr Jarvise states) the names of Earl Beardie’s or Huntly’s stone were known to the stone on the ‘Hare Cairn’ they are now entirely forgotten.

Sir James Campbell, the proprietor, and his park keeper Alexander Howie, a very old man (who remembers it) informs me that there was a large artificial cairn of stones at this place, and that the present large monolith has been tumbled from the top of the beacon which it surmounted. The stones had become scattered in Sir James’ time and hence were removed.
J.B. Lt. Col.

You’ve got to be pretty pissed off (or just like fighting and not care who you’re fighting for) to switch sides so easily?

There is a cute little sketch of the stone on the first page.

Sites within 20km of Huntlyhill

Like all websites everywhere, we use cookies.