<< Our Photo Pages >> Machrie Moor 5 - Stone Circle in Scotland in Isle of Arran
Submitted by Kelpie on Saturday, 16 January 2016 Page Views: 11784
Neolithic and Bronze AgeSite Name: Machrie Moor 5 Alternative Name: Suidhe Coire Fhionn; Machrie Moor 5; Fingal's Cauldron Seat; Tormore StonesCountry: Scotland County: Isle of Arran Type: Stone Circle
Nearest Town: Brodick Nearest Village: Blackwaterfoot
Map Ref: NR90883235 Landranger Map Number: 68
Latitude: 55.539915N Longitude: 5.315877W
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 |
Internal Links:
External Links:
I have visited· I would like to visit
drolaf visited on 10th May 2023 - their rating: Cond: 3 Amb: 5 Access: 3 impressive double ring of granite stones. Like the other Machrie sites 'excavated' by Bryce the 'Destroyer', the centre is lumpy and may not represent original structure.
Catrinm visited on 2nd Sep 2019 Great megalithic landscape
Ogham visited on 20th Jul 2019 - their rating: Cond: 3 Amb: 4 Access: 4
AstroGeologist visited on 9th Aug 2018 - their rating: Cond: 4 Amb: 4 Access: 4 MM5 : This is the FIFTH site you encounter when heading East from the Beach at Machrie. From the car park 'Machrie Moor 5' (Coire Fhionn-Fingals Cauldron) is 1.75km away
A double concentric Stone Circle made from large, radioactive Granite boulders.
The inner circle is roughly 11.5m in diameter and has Eight stones, 60~100cm high.
The outer circle is 18m in diameter consists of Fifteen slightly smaller stones, one of which has a hole in it.
J.M.Arthur excavated this circle in 1858 and removed a lot of small packing stones and boulders, but he didn't reach the original ground level.
A few years later in 1861, J.Bryce found a small Sandstone Cist in the centre of the circles, less than 30cm from the surface. The Cist contained several bone fragments and black earth, and he suggests that the area had been disturbed several times before his excavation.
J.A.Balfour records the remains of this Cist in 1910, but it no longer exists today (perhaps it has been filled in)
During the 1980s Paul Devereux and other members of the Gaia Programme conducted a series of tests, over a 5 year period, to monitor electromagnetic anomalies at many Megalithic Stone Circles across Europe.
MM5 gave a site average, of 33% above background radiation levels.
The tallest, and the most Westerly of the upright stones in the inner ring, is particularly energetic, giving readings 16% above the next most radioactive stone in the double ring.
*Getting There ; Get the '322 bus' to Blackwaterfoot from the Ferry terminal at Brodick. It takes approx 45 minutes.
From Blackwaterfoot you can go directly to the Moor by following the A841 road which is a 5.5km walk (It took me about an hour on the way back)
Or you can take the scenic route which is 8.5km. The long way follow's the beach to Drumadoon Point, and then onto the Doon Hillfort, after exploring the Fort you walk along the beach path to Kings Caves (These part's of the journey are covered in log visits for these sites)
From the Caves you can go along the shore to Machrie Bay (which would have been shorter) but instead l followed the trail path up Torr Righ Mor (137m) and around the Pine forests on Torr Righ Beag (109m) until l reached to visitors car park. From here it's a 15 minute walk to the visitors car park at Machrie Moor.
This is the 5th site you encounter when coming from the car park.
SandyG visited on 22nd Aug 2017 - their rating: Cond: 4 Amb: 5 Access: 3
Andy B visited on 25th Aug 2016 - their rating: Cond: 4 Amb: 5 Access: 2
sirius_b visited on 7th Jul 2016 - their rating: Cond: 3 Amb: 4 Access: 2
jeffrep visited on 2nd Jun 2013 - their rating: Cond: 4 Amb: 5 Access: 2
Richard13 visited on 1st Oct 2005 - their rating: Cond: 4 Amb: 4 Access: 3
BolshieBoris visited on 1st Aug 1996 - their rating: Cond: 5 Amb: 4 Access: 2
bishop_pam visited - their rating: Cond: 5 Amb: 5 Access: 3
Bladup AngieLake maddy kelpie have visited here
Average ratings for this site from all visit loggers: Condition: 3.9 Ambience: 4.5 Access: 2.8
This stone circle is also featured on The Northern Antiquarian (TNA) - see their entry for Fingal’s Cauldron Seat, Machrie Moor, Kilmory, Arran which has directions for finding the circle, an image of the 1864 OS map showing its location, photographs, a plan, a drawing, a detailed archaeology & history and local folklore.
Canmore ID 39705 also has a publication account, commencing: "The area immediately around the abandoned steading at Moss Farm contains Scotland's most remarkable concentration of neolithic and bronze-age monuments. Included within this group are chambered cairns, round cairns, stone circles, standing stones, and hut-circles and field-systems."
Note: Grahame Gardner (Enki) has created a set of panoramic stone circle landscapes for use with the free open-source astronomy program Stellarium. They feature Machrie Moor 5, Callanish, Sighthill and others, More details at the link lower down our page.
You may be viewing yesterday's version of this page. To see the most up to date information please register for a free account.
These are just the first 25 photos of Machrie Moor 5. If you log in with a free user account you will be able to see our entire collection.
Do not use the above information on other web sites or publications without permission of the contributor.
Click here to see more info for this site
Nearby sites
Click here to view sites on an interactive OS mapKey: Red: member's photo, Blue: 3rd party photo, Yellow: other image, Green: no photo - please go there and take one, Grey: site destroyed
Download sites to:
KML (Google Earth)
GPX (GPS waypoints)
CSV (Garmin/Navman)
CSV (Excel)
To unlock full downloads you need to sign up as a Contributory Member. Otherwise downloads are limited to 50 sites.
Turn off the page maps and other distractions
Nearby sites listing. In the following links * = Image available
120m E 82° Machrie Moor 4* Stone Circle (NR91003236)
131m W 276° Moss farm chambered cairn* Chambered Cairn (NR90753237)
164m NE 50° Machrie Moor 3* Stone Circle (NR91013245)
268m ENE 72° Machrie Moor 2* Stone Circle (NR91143242)
300m W 271° Tormore 2* Chambered Cairn (NR90583237)
305m NW 306° Moss Farm Stone* Standing Stone (Menhir) (NR90643254)
323m ENE 78° Machrie Moor 1.* Stone Circle (NR91203240)
323m ENE 78° Machrie Moor 11 Timber Circle (NR912324)
346m ENE 76° Machrie Moor 6* Stone Circle (NR91223242)
870m WNW 287° Machrie Moor 10* Stone Circle (NR90063265)
1.0km ENE 78° Ballymichael Bridge* Stone Circle (NR91913252)
1.4km SSW 201° Tormore 1 Chambered Cairn (NR90313106)
1.4km W 270° Tormore Farm Chambered Cairn (NR89453242)
1.6km E 91° Shiskine* Stone Circle (NR92443225)
1.9km NW 309° Machriewaterfoot Standing Stone* Standing Stone (Menhir) (NR89453363)
2.2km ESE 120° Ballymichael Standing Stones* Standing Stones (NR92723119)
2.2km SE 124° Uaigh Finnach* Standing Stone (Menhir) (NR9261631040)
2.2km N 1° Cnoc Na Ceille* Standing Stone (Menhir) (NR9101034553)
2.8km N 356° Machrie Burn* Stone Circle (NR90843511)
2.8km NW 323° Auchagallon* Stone Circle (NR89293464)
2.8km WSW 237° Kings Cave* Cave or Rock Shelter (NR88443092)
2.9km SSW 205° Torbeg Cursus* Cursus (NR8950329741)
3.7km SW 214° Drumadoon Hillfort* Hillfort
3.8km SSW 213° Drummadoon Standing Stone* Standing Stone (Menhir) (NR8865629273)
3.9km SSW 213° Drumidoon* Stone Circle (NR886292)
View more nearby sites and additional images