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.
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