<< Our Photo Pages >> Little Balsmith - Standing Stone (Menhir) in Scotland in Dumfries and Galloway
Submitted by cosmic on Saturday, 23 October 2004 Page Views: 6931
Neolithic and Bronze AgeSite Name: Little Balsmith Alternative Name: Stairfield stoneCountry: Scotland County: Dumfries and Galloway Type: Standing Stone (Menhir)
Nearest Village: Whithorn
Map Ref: NX4670539812 Landranger Map Number: 83
Latitude: 54.729851N Longitude: 4.382124W
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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Anne T visited on 18th Jun 2019 - their rating: Cond: 3 Amb: 4 Access: 5 Little Balsmith/Stairfield Standing Stone: I was very reluctant to tear myself away from Whithorn Museum and Priory, but with it closing at 5pm, we didn’t really have a choice. I popped back into the visitor centre to buy some postcards, then we headed off down the street to buy an Italian Ice Cream, complete with chocolate flake – delicious!
This standing stone is not far out of Whithorn; take the road which heads east past the school, the B7063, and continue for 2.7km.
We had a very strange encounter driving towards the stone, as we came across a car parked across a farm entrance, with one man sprawled across the bonnet with his hands behind his head, the other was leaning up against the passenger side of the car. There was something really odd about this car – it was missing its rear driver side wheel! We waved at each other as we drove past – they didn’t flag us down and ask for help.
On the way back, another car had joined them and the men were talking animatedly. Wonder what had happened for them to lose the wheel.
The standing stone is in a flat plane here, with Wigtown Bay to the east. The road running past the stone continues to the Isle of Whithorn. Again, this stone is ‘a big boy’. Luckily the crop in the field had just been harvested, so I went in to get some photographs from all sides of the stone.
SolarMegalith visited on 22nd Sep 2016 - their rating: Cond: 4 Amb: 3 Access: 5
Average ratings for this site from all visit loggers: Condition: 3.5 Ambience: 3.5 Access: 5
This single stone can be found NNE of a property called Stairfield at NX46703980. It is actually in the drystone wall but towers above it to the south of the Whithorn to Isle of Whithorn road. This stone is referred to as Little Balsmith on Canmore ID 63067.
The Canmore entry for both 1911 and 1973 reads: "There is a standing stone on the W side of the Whithorn - Portyerrock road, c. 80' SE of the entrance to Little Balsmith farm. Standing 7'6" high, it is trapezoidal in section, measuring 2'6" on three sides and 3' on the fourth."
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