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Visiting the Past: Finding and Understanding Britain's Archaeology

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<< Our Photo Pages >> Ballinaby - Stone Row / Alignment in Scotland in Isle of Islay

Submitted by Andy B on Monday, 13 June 2011  Page Views: 10229

Neolithic and Bronze AgeSite Name: Ballinaby Alternative Name: Ballinaby 1; Ballinaby 2
Country: Scotland County: Isle of Islay Type: Stone Row / Alignment
Nearest Town: Bridgend  Nearest Village: Ballinaby
Map Ref: NR2200167206  Landranger Map Number: 60
Latitude: 55.817818N  Longitude: 6.439641W
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
2 Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
4 Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
3 Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
5

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I have visited· I would like to visit

markj99 visited on 23rd Aug 2019 - their rating: Cond: 4 Amb: 5 Access: 3 Ballinaby 1 is unsignposted off a minor road N of Loch Gorm. There is a lay-by c. 200 yards W of Ballinaby farm. Walk up the farm road to a gate, head NNW towards a junction of dry stane dykes. Ballinaby 1 is c. 50 yards SW from here adjacent to the N side of the dyke. Ballinaby 2 lies c.350 yards NNE of Ballinaby 1 across rough ground. Ballinaby 1 is one of the most striking standing stones I have ever visited. The apparent fragility of this tall thin slab is belied by its survival despite being exposed to Islay's wild weather for millennia. Ballinaby 2 is less impressive in its current state though it may have been as tall as Ballinaby 1 originally.

SandyG visited on 19th Aug 2017 - their rating: Cond: 2 Amb: 4 Access: 3 Car parking is available at NR 21145 66400. From here go through the gate and follow the track to NR 21112 66727. Take the path leading to the right. Despite the substantial height of the southern stone it is not visible until you get fairly close to the row.

Richard13 visited on 1st Oct 2005 - their rating: Cond: 2 Amb: 4 Access: 4

Andy B have visited here

Average ratings for this site from all visit loggers: Condition: 2.67 Ambience: 4.33 Access: 3.33

Ballinaby
Ballinaby submitted by Andy B : Standing Stone Near Ballinaby This tall stone is clearly visible from the road to the north of Loch Gorm, but is hidden from view on the path leading in from Saligo Bay. It's worth the walk. There's a second smaller stone in the next square, just visible in the left-hand side of this shot below a rocky outcrop. Copyright Mary and Angus Hogg and licensed for reuse under the Creative Commons ... (Vote or comment on this photo)
A row of three spectacular standing stones on Islay, one standing, one removed and one broken.

At Ballinaby you will find a magnificent slab over 5 metres tall, with the face of the stone about a metre wide, and the thickness only 30cm. This stone is standing by a modern dyke. About 200 metres away to the north-east is another stone two metres tall, which is the remaining part of an originally much taller stone. It was probably deliberately broken. An eighteenth century report mentions three 'stupendous' stones standing in a row here - the third stone has now completely disappeared. Its fragmented remains are probably within the dyke.

How to find : From Bridgend take the A847 west. After 7km take the B8018 and follow it north for 5km, then turn left on the minor road along the north side of Loch Gorm. Ballinaby farm is 2km along this minor road. The stones are in the field to the north-west of the farm.

Read more about the stones and their possible alignments at Stones of Wonder.

This row is recorded as Canmore site no. 37385 (Ballinaby 1 Standing Stone) and Canmore ID 37386 (Ballinaby 2 Standing Stone).

Update September 2019: This row is also featured on the Stone Rows of Great Britain website - see their entry for Ballinaby, which includes a description, photographs of the alignment and the individual stones, landscape reveals and access information.
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Ballinaby
Ballinaby submitted by Energyman : Site in Isle of Islay Scotland, Ballinaby (Vote or comment on this photo)

Ballinaby
Ballinaby submitted by Energyman : Dawn, showing how the small rise to the west of stone 1 shortens the shadow, though as the stone is so high, it's still a decent length. (The sunset shadow is much longer). This is taken from a 27ft pole in May. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Ballinaby
Ballinaby submitted by Energyman : Stone 2 with the main stone (1) in the background (Vote or comment on this photo)

Ballinaby
Ballinaby submitted by Energyman : Andy this one is also 1000 along the longest edge. Caption Ballinaby 3 (smaller stone) just before sunset (Vote or comment on this photo)

Ballinaby
Ballinaby submitted by Energyman : Ballinaby 2 dawn, You can see the 'equinox hill' to the right of the stone where the sun would rise. It is exactly 90 degrees, and in line with the flat side of the stone. (1 comment - Vote or comment on this photo)

Ballinaby
Ballinaby submitted by Energyman : A page from my wife's sketchbook of Ballinaby 2. The notes include: Another cloudless sky. Larks, cuckoo, thrush, hooded crow, some sort of raptor - (goshawk? NO). Almost certainly a hen harrier.

Ballinaby
Ballinaby submitted by Energyman : Ballinaby 1 at sunset 10th May 2016. I had no idea this would turn out the way it did. It is an unadjusted jpeg image. (2 comments)

Ballinaby
Ballinaby submitted by Creative Commons : Standing stone near Ballinaby Some impression of the huge height of the stone can be judged by the height of the children. Copyright Russel Wills and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence. (1 comment)

Ballinaby
Ballinaby submitted by Creative Commons : The smaller of the standing stones at Ballinaby An Carnan is the low hill in the background. The astronomical significance of this stone in conjunction with the very tall stone is explained at Stones of Wonder Copyright Russel Wills and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

Ballinaby
Ballinaby submitted by SandyG : The northern stone (1.78m high) in the foreground and tall stone beyond. View from north (Scale 1m).

Ballinaby
Ballinaby submitted by SandyG : The southern stone. View from south west (Scale 1m).

Ballinaby
Ballinaby submitted by SandyG : The southern stone. View from south (Scale 1m).

Ballinaby
Ballinaby submitted by SandyG : Looking north east along the row.

Ballinaby
Ballinaby submitted by Energyman : Andy I don't know if you would like this one please feel free to delete it if you want. Caption: Ballinaby 3 (numbering as Canmore - the smaller of the 2 stones) at sunset. (1 comment)

Ballinaby
Ballinaby submitted by Energyman : I think the two stones are pointing at a converging point in the lake, shown here. If you take the flat sides of both, I consider stone 2 is indicating 90 degrees true and stone 1 317 degrees - both True - , you would find yourself in this lake - the lowest place around, and the best place to spot the equinox rise over stone 2. Turn around on the same spot and you would see the Major Lunar standst... (1 comment)

Ballinaby
Ballinaby submitted by Energyman : The same angle as my wife's sketch, but just after sunset.

Ballinaby
Ballinaby submitted by Energyman : I took this the same day (as my wife's sketch). It shows where I calculate the sun would have risen on the Equinox.

Ballinaby
Ballinaby submitted by ericgrindle : Ballinaby The tall Ballinaby Standing stone can be seen from the road (A8847) as you approach Ballinnaby Farm. We found no signs directing you to the stones which become hidden behind a small hill. You follow the track by a derelict croft past a cottage and farm on your right, and the skeleton of a former tractor, (Flickr), through a gate on the left and over a small hill. The 5 metre tall st...

Ballinaby
Ballinaby submitted by ericgrindle : Ballinaby-2 The tall Ballinaby Standing stone can be seen from the road (A8847) as you approach Ballinnaby Farm. We found no signs directing you to the stones which become hidden behind a small hill. You follow the track by a derelict croft past a cottage and farm on your right, and the skeleton of a former tractor, (Flickr), through a gate on the left and over a small hill. The 5 metre tall... (1 comment)

Ballinaby
Ballinaby submitted by Bladup : Ballinaby southern stone.

Ballinaby
Ballinaby submitted by Bladup : Ballinaby standing stones, the northern stone with the southern one in the right background.

Ballinaby
Ballinaby submitted by Bladup : Ballinaby, the thin southern stone.

Ballinaby
Ballinaby submitted by Bladup : Ballinaby standing stones, the southern stone. "What you looking at?" asked the sheep.

Ballinaby
Ballinaby submitted by Andy B : Islay's Tallest Standing Stone This impressive slender stone near Ballinaby Farm is 16 feet high. The name goes back to former times when the land here was held by an abbot. (Source: "Islay", by Norman S Newton) Copyright Mary and Angus Hogg and licensed for reuse under the Creative Commons Licence.

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"Ballinaby" | Login/Create an Account | 4 News and Comments
  
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Re: Ballinaby by patrick10 on Saturday, 21 May 2016
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Hello Energyman -
My brother and I visited Kilchoman Cross at the Old Parish Church in May 2014 and I have a photo of the visit. The Kilchoman Cross was documented by Graham as No. 39 on a map with photos that guided me to the Cross (found on web). So I am confident that the cross we saw is the Kilchoman Cross that is also found in Dr. Stuart's Sculptured Stones of Scotland (found on the web).
The cross is associated with the McVeigh/Beaton family of physicians since lands in nearly Ballinaby was originally granted by the Lord of the Isles for their services as Chief Physician but can only be documented starting in 1506 due to the loss of most of the earlier Finlaggan documents. The historian, John Bannerman, in his book on the Beatons considered the Kilchoman Cross to be a significant family monument because it designates Islayas the original Scottish home of the McVeigh/Beatons in the early 14th century no matter where the kindred later settled.
I hope that you can locate it and see if it really aligns on the median to the Ballinaby standing stones.
Regards - Patrick
[ Reply to This ]
    Re: Ballinaby by Energyman on Monday, 23 May 2016
    (User Info | Send a Message)
    Hi Patrick. I think I'm talking about a different cross- a slab cross which is on the OS map E of the church, now moved to the Port Charlotte museum, of which there are two. The original position of this is much more accurately S. of Ballinaby 1, or perhaps even more so of stone 2 (the missing one) between the two existing stones and presumably is even older than the Kilchoman cross.

    Also can you confirm the names of the families, as you seem to have 2 different spellings in your comments below.
    [ Reply to This ]

Re: Ballinaby by patrick10 on Monday, 09 June 2014
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On a recent visit to Islay I visited the site of the Kilchoman Churchyard West Highland Cross (http://www.islayinfo.com/carved_stones_parish_kilchoman.html), which is associated with the Macbeth/Beaton family, the hereditary physicians to the Clan Donald and the Scottish kings. The Cross was apparently erected in the 14th century by one of Patrick Macbeth’s sons, Thomas MacBethson, the baillie of Forfar in the mid 14th century because an early transcription of a carved inscription on the Cross refers to him and his father, Patrick.

After returning home I discovered that the Kilchoman Cross is due south of Stone B - the 16 foot Standing Stone in Ballinaby on the north side of Lake Gorm and according to Google Map is 4.0 km north. The Ballinaby Standing Stone is listed by Google map at Lat 55.817764N, Long 6.439651W; the Cross is located at Lat 55.78184N, Long 6.441335W. The difference in longitude is 0.001664 which is 6.06" west or about 60 ft apart at this latitude. If you stood at the Ballinaby Stone, the error in the angle between true south and the sight line to the Cross is 0.86 degrees. This is not bad in the medieval period when they used magnetic compasses and line of sight to place objects.

The error could be smaller if Ballinaby Stone A was used as the reference instead of Stone B since I believe it is slightly west but I could be wrong. Also, I am not sure of the accuracy of the Kilchoman Cross since this was not done using a GPS instrument but only taken from the Google map. However, it appears that the error is small.

It seems that the Ballinaby standing stone and a medieval cross are aligned along a meridian. I don't think that this was by chance since the old churchyard was known to have an older church at the site which was replaced by the Church of Scotland building in the early 19th century. The older church may have been there a very long time.

Also, it is known that the Macbeth/Beatons possessed the lands of Ballinaby, Areset, Howe and Saligo from ‘beyond all memory of man’ as stated in a 17th century royal charter by King James VI and I. It appears that the family had some connection to both the Ballinaby Standing Stones and the Kilchoman Cross which was placed deliberately and accurately along a meridian many centuries after the Stones were erected.
[ Reply to This ]
    Re: Ballinaby by Energyman on Saturday, 21 May 2016
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    Patrick, did you try to find the Kilchoman cross you talk about in the local museum? They said someone else had been there on the same quest as me. I tried and failed to find the one marked on the OS map E of the church, (the cross slab, which I thought was more exactly due S of Ballinaby) then discovered it had been moved to the museum a long time ago, but the OS maps haven't been updated to reflect that. I did find two Kilchoman crosses at the museum, but I'm not sure which is the one (I have pictures).

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