Craigh na Dun Modern Stone Circle etc : The Megalithic Portal and Megalith Map:

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Submitted by Andy B on Friday, 07 April 2017 Page Views: 533623

Modern SitesSite Name: Craigh na Dun
Country: Scotland County: Perth and Kinross Type: Modern Stone Circle etc
Nearest Town: Pitlochry Nearest Village: Kinloch Rannoch
Map Ref: NN7105657815
Latitude: 56.694207N Longitude: 4.10711W
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

Destroyed Ambience:

5	Superb
4	Good
3	Ordinary
2	Not Good
1	Awful
0	No data.

5 Access:

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.

4 Accuracy:

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

5

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Klingon saw from a distance on 30th Sep 2017 - their rating: Amb: 4 Access: 4

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Craigh na Dun (or Craig na Dun) is a fictional stone circle said to be near Inverness. It features in the Outlander book and TV series, where a woman uses the stones to pass back through time.

(the first book is known as Cross Stitchin the U.K.) The books are part of the Outlander Series by Diana Gabaldon, a collection of time-travel romances set in eighteenth-century Scotland against the backdrop of the Jacobite Rebellion and now serialised as the Outlander TV series (see the comments below for updates).

The books consist of Outlander (Cross Stitch in the U.K.), Dragonfly in Amber, Voyager, Drums of Autumn, and The Outlandish Companion (Through the Stones in the U.K.), which is a compendium of material related to the series. At the time of writing two more books were planned, namely The Fiery Cross and Sons of Liberty. Several people have asked me about Craigh na Dun, and so far no one we know has been able to find these elusive stones.

At this point I should explain that the words Craigh na Dun are consistently the most-searched for phrase on the Megalithic Portal, and on my previous web site back to antiquity, so this page is to explain what it's all about and where Diana the author might have imagined it the real site to be. We imagine the site from the books to look something like Calanais 4 stone circle.

Martin McCarthy writes:

I've been asked about this a few times. After the first couple of queries I tried to find out where they might be, and came to the conclusion that they were invented (or "adapted" from reality). For one thing, (although I'll be the first to admit that my Gaelic is terrible) I don't think that Craigh is a very well constructed Gaelic word. Craig or Creag would be much more likely. But that proves nothing. However, I came across the following places with similar names:

Creag an Dunain: a very ruined fort on the Isle of Jura, a long way from Inverness and probably of little interest to non-archaeologists (and perhaps little interest to archaeologists)
Craigandun: a deserted settlement on the Isle of Bute - slightly closer to Inverness, but at those distances it doesn't really make any difference :-)
Craigendunton: a cairn in Ayrshire... we're only a couple of hundred miles from Inverness, now! And it's reportedly 17th century
Craigiedun: this might even be a good candidate for "adaption". It's somewhere near Pitlochry and, according to CANMORE, was reported to be the site of a stone circle. In the 1920s it was a ruinous pile of rocks, and in the 1970s the OS surveyor reported that there was no sign of the said stones.

So it's a bit of a mystery but we don't think the real Craigh na Dun exists. At least not the one from the books.

The Craigh na Dun filming location from the Outlander TV series is of course a real place but there are no stones there. We have tracked the location down with the help of our contributors (see the comments below) and have updated this page to show the location where the Craigh na Dun scenes were filmed. We have listed this as a 'modern' site as it's not a genuine stone circle.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The location is on private land at Tullochcroisk Farm and you must ask permission to visit.

Trivia fact: Diana Gabaldon says that Outlander was based on an idea sparked by the character Jamie, the 1960s Doctor Who assistant who was from the Highlands.

Note: Here - at last - the location of the mythical Craigh na Dun - or at least the filming location from the Outlander TV series
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