<< Our Photo Pages >> Tingwall stone - Standing Stone (Menhir) in Scotland in Shetland
Submitted by Ogneslav on Friday, 31 October 2008 Page Views: 13606
Neolithic and Bronze AgeSite Name: Tingwall stone Alternative Name: Murder StoneCountry: Scotland County: Shetland Type: Standing Stone (Menhir)
Nearest Town: Lerwick Nearest Village: Scalloway
Map Ref: HU4123742029
Latitude: 60.160655N Longitude: 1.258903W
Condition:
5 | Perfect |
4 | Almost Perfect |
3 | Reasonable but with some damage |
2 | Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site |
1 | Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks |
0 | No data. |
-1 | Completely destroyed |
5 | Superb |
4 | Good |
3 | Ordinary |
2 | Not Good |
1 | Awful |
0 | No data. |
5 | Can be driven to, probably with disabled access |
4 | Short walk on a footpath |
3 | Requiring a bit more of a walk |
2 | A long walk |
1 | In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find |
0 | No data. |
5 | co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates |
4 | co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map |
3 | co-ordinates scaled from a bad map |
2 | co-ordinates of the nearest village |
1 | co-ordinates of the nearest town |
0 | no data |
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HenrySpeer visited on 31st Jul 2013 - their rating: Cond: 4 Amb: 5 Access: 5 Visited with US cousins - we trace our ancestry back to Orkney and believe we are descended from Malise Sperra (Malis Spere) who was murdered here in 1391 see https://www.facebook.com/pages/Murder-Stone-Tingwall-Shetland/591748794209687
The second name of the monument, the Murder Stone, is plausibly connected with the death of Malise Sperra, Lord of Skaldale, who was killed in a battle with his cousin Henry Sinclair, the 1st Earl of Orkney at Tingwall in 1389 or 1391. Seven of his supporters fell with him. The standing stone erected to commemorate his death at the place where he died.
See The Orkney and Shetland; Their Past and Present State by John R. Tudor, London, 1883:
"Malise Sperra seems to have endeavoured to establish himself in Shetland, and in a quarrel which arose between the cousins at a Thing meeting in the year 1389, was slain; when the standing stone of grey granite close to the roadside between the Lochs of Tingwall and Asta was probably erected to mark the spot where he fell".
Almost the same is written in The Diary of the Reverend John Mill: Minister of the Parishes of Dunrossness, Sandwick and Cunningsburgh in Shetland, Edinburgh, 1889:
"Not far distant in the same parish is a standing stone which has for long been regarded as the scene of the death of Malis Spere, on the occasion of his incursion in Shetland, as recorded in the Iceland Annals in 1329 : but these events are involved in much obscurity".
Differently, yet recognizably the story is narrated in The New Statistical Account of Scotland, vol. XV, Edinburgh-London, 1845:
"In the lake of Strom, there are the remains of a small castle, said to have been inhabited by a son of the Earl of Orkney, who was afterwards slain, by order of his father, at the standing-stone of Tingwall".
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