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Knock of Alves

This stone circle can be found at the western side of the Knock Of Alves, home also to a hillfort. It looks like several boulders have been taken advantage of and used to form the site. Today only the sharp topped stone and a fallen neighbour could be seen of the stones that Canmore mention. These other stones are still there as is the boulder they say is an outlier but ferns and other vegetation cover the area. Another visit in Autumn looks likely.

With that it was back to car with one added dimension. Alves is covered in trees and I hadn’t noticed the thunder storms experienced in the Black Isle had moved moved down the coast to Moray. So a severe drenching during the walk north, even a bus shelter proved no help – the roof had been vandalised. Typical!!!

Visited 19/07/2010.

Folklore

Knock of Alves
Stone Circle

The knock on the eastern boundary of the parish [of Alves] is crowned by a tower, from which an extensive view of the surrounding country and of Ross and Sutherland across the Moray Firth can be commanded. By tradition the knock is connected with the story of Macbeth and the witches. Possibly there may be some foundation for this, as the knock is on the road between Bothgownan and the Blasted Heath, the one by a curious coincidence being about three miles east of Elgin, and the other a similar distance from Nairn.

From ‘The Place Names of Elginshire’ by Donald Matheson (1905). (Foundation??)

Sites within 20km of Knock of Alves